FRANCE'S 1960s screen icon Brigitte Bardot has received a 15,000 euros ($24,440) fine today for inciting hatred against Muslims. In December 2006, the film star-turned-animal rights activist wrote a letter to France's then interior minister, current President Nicolas Sarkozy, arguing that Muslims should stun animals before slaughtering them during the Aid al-Kabir holiday.
She outraged anti-racist groups by saying: "I've had enough of being led by the nose by this whole population which is destroying us, (and) destroying our country by imposing their ways.''
Ms Bardot, now 73 and suffering from arthritis, was absent from today's court hearing in Paris. She wrote to the court saying: "I'm sickened by how (these organisations) are harassing me.''
"I will not shut up until stunning is carried out on animals before their ritual slaughter."
Ms Bardot already has four convictions on similar charges. In 2004 she was fined 5,000 euros ($8,145) for inciting racial hatred in her book Un Cri Dans le Silence (A Cry in the Silence).
France is home to Europe's largest Muslim community, estimated at five million people. |