France is no stranger to racial tension--just over two years ago the country was rife with riots as young Arabs and North African Muslims protested the death of two immigrant youths, opening up old wounds of racial, economic, and social discontent. Muslim French women who want to wear the hijab often face bans in schools. This is a country where it seems secularism is prized over religious freedom.
But apparently in France, you can only go so far in voicing racial slurs, as demonstrated by former French film star Brigitte Bardot ongoing trial for inciting "racial hatred" against France's Muslim population. Bardot, 73, has been fined four times for racial slurs, and the latest trial comes on the heels of her comments that French Muslims are "destroying our country and imposing its acts."
Prosecutors are asking for a two-month suspended sentence and a fine of 15,000 euros. Europe's largest Muslim community is in France, home to five million Muslims, making up eight percent of France's population.
It's an interesting situation of you look at it from an American perspective. Here, people have said similar things, and worse, about Muslims and many other minority groups. We have freedom of speech, but we also have freedom of religion, which is threatened in France. Though as a Muslim I'm glad Bardot is getting reprimanded for her comments, I don't see what good it'll do, when the larger picture shows French Muslims and other minority groups still get a mostly unwelcome reception in their own country.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Bridgette tell the world the truth---Muslims should remain in the dessert where they belong -tired of looking at ugly women with tableclothes on their heads!!! Actually they should cover their faces cause they sure are not pretty to look at!!!!
Vive La Brigette!!! It takes a woman to tell the truth!!!!
If you dont listen to bridget bardot now, you may have to think back and remember the speach of Enoch Powel to understand the mess you could very well be finding yourself in.
Kudos to Brigitte Bardot for speaking the truth. Naive Americans who do not live in or near the growing, and literal, stinkholes created in Europe by ignorant, anti-Western, anti-Christian, and anti-Semitic Muslims have neither the realization nor the experience of the dangerous realities surrounding the French and other Europeans who are seeing their traditions and laws increasingly under daily assault. One must also understand that the French and Western Europeans in general are largely responsible for allowing the Third World invasion of Europe. They have instituted grotesquely liberal laws that encourage, and indeed protect, invaders who are indoctrinated by barbarous 7th century Islamic beliefs. Does one seriously think these "immigrants" are interested in assimilating? Do Westerners not understand they are targeted by jihadists?
I foresee, in the near future, an armed struggle breaking out between native Europeans and the unassimilated invaders. It would not be surprising either were Europeans to ask the U.S. and Russia for help in getting rid of the invaders. D-Day revisited...
What is said here is totally racist and stereotyped. My neighbors are Muslims and are very nice, respectable people. It is wrong to reduce an entire race to the action of its extremists. Not all Muslims are Jihadists, or terrorists for that matter. If what Brigitte said was about Jews, the whole world would have caused an uproar. Besides, you forget that Europe colonized countries of the Middle East in the 19th and well into the 20th century, much to the oppression of its peoples. They stunted the growth of these countries by stripping them out of their wealth and intellect. Therefore, the people of these countries are entitled to better homes at the expense of their colonizers because of the damage they inflicted upon them . Furthermore, it is against personal freedom to deny a person the practice of his or her belief, doctrine, or religion. How can the world become a better place if personal freedoms are compromised? We don't need to understand a group of people in order to respect them, but if we don't respect them we need to understand them.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.