Paris
Actress Brigitte Bardot was convicted last week of “inciting racial hatred” because of the negative portrayal of Muslims in her book A Cry in the Silence. The book argues that extremists have taken over French mosques and are promoting the creeping “Islamization of France.” The court ruled that the book portrayed Muslims in general as “barbaric and cruel, responsible for terrorist acts, wishing to subdue the French people to the point of extermination.” The former movie star and her publisher were each fined about $6,000, to be paid to the two anti-racism groups that brought the legal action. France, once overwhelmingly Catholic, is now about 10 percent Muslim, largely because of immigration from North Africa.
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