Brigitte Bardot now: Accusations of ‘racism’ as anti-Muslim letter leads to lawsuit
Next round of movie icon Brigitte Bardot vs. Muslims. No, Bardot’s animosity has nothing to do with a planned Algerian-made sex melodrama called And Allah Created Woman. Bardot, like millions of others in France and elsewhere, apparently just doesn’t like Muslims, period.
The star of Roger Vadim’s …And God Created Woman and Louis Malle’s Contempt is currently on trial for the fifth time since the mid-1990s for “inciting racial hatred” due to recent controversial remarks she made about Islam and its adherents, five million of whom live in France. (Free speech laws in France are clearly less encompassing than in some other countries.) French anti-racist groups filed a complaint following comments Brigitte Bardot made in a letter to right-wing French president Nicolas Sarkozy about the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, in which a sheep or some other domestic animal is usually sacrificed. (Sounds like the American Thanksgiving turkey slaughter ritual.)
Brigitte Bardot ‘racist’ letter: Anti-Muslim sentiment
In reference to Muslims, Bardot wrote that she was “fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts.” The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, whose stated aim is the protection of animal rights, later made the letter public.
Prosecutors have asked that the Paris court hand the 73-year-old actress a two-month suspended prison sentence and fine her 15,000 euros (approx. US$23,000).
Bardot did not attend the trial claiming illness. A verdict is expected within the next several weeks.
Brigitte Bardot, by the way, may not be just an anti-Muslim bigot. She has also attacked gays, immigrants, and the unemployed. But not all is lost. She is an avowed lover of animals.
Brigitte Bardot movies
Besides the aforementioned …And God Created Woman (1956), with Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Contempt (1963), with Jack Palance, among the most notable Brigitte Bardot movies are Claude Autant-Lara’s Love Is My Profession / En cas de malheur (1958), with Jean Gabin and Edwige Feuillère; Babette Goes to War / Babette s’en va-t-en guerre (1959), with Jacques Charrier and Ronald Howard; and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nominee The Truth / La vérité (1960), with Paul Meurisse and Charles Vanel.
4 comments
The Government of France is anti-free speech. Ms. Bardot has the right to her opinion, and she has the right to that opinion whether it’s offensive or not. The practice of cruelly slaughtering an animal should not be shielded from criticism just because it’s part of some religion. Bardot has every right to protest against that. She should be allowed to do so using any language she chooses. Whether or not the words she expresses herself with are hateful or not is irrelevant. She should have the right to use those words, whatever they are, and whether or not they hurt someone’s feelings. No one should have the right to be protected against having their feelings hurt. If Bardot said something bigoted, the correct antidote is for other people to use their free speech to point that out and to rebut her. Legally compelling people to shut up is never the answer.
And to the person below who claimed, “Free speech does not mean free insults,” actually it does. Any country that guarantees free speech must guarantee that speech whether it’s nice or whether it’s mean, whether it’s loving, or whether it’s hateful. We don’t get to choose who gets free speech or what they get to say. If we do, it’s not free speech by definition. “Insult” is a very subjective term. You could twist almost anything into an insult. The fact that France has banned insults makes it a country without free speech. Free speech is for the entire population, not just for those we approve of or those who keep their language nice. It’s appalling that a country that has pushed the sexual barriers in film for years would block the free speech of one of the very actresses who participated in that sexual liberation.
France is an anti-free speech country. It should legalize free speech.
The comment you made that sheep slaughtered in the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice are much like turkeys before Thanksgiving shows your lack of knowledge on this topic. I suggest you and your readers Google – “Animal cruelty in Gaza, Festival of Sacrifice” and you will see the difference between the two.
May we also suggest doing an online search for “turkey slaughter thanksgiving cruelty” (without the quotes).
Interesting how this article is soooo not biased against muslims. Funny how th eauthor had to add in ‘millions of others’ also dislike muslims. On whose statistics?
Could it be that they are Jewish/Christian, that they may not like muslims…at the end of the day who cares? 60 million Germans didn’t like Jews in WW2, probably still don’t….
Like the dig at French fee speech laws not protecting Bardot….
Its been said before so I’ll say it again:
FREE SPEECH DOES NOT MEAN FREE INSULTS!
Rubbish article, its neautrality must be questioned.