Bardot Is Fined for Inciting Race Hatred

A French appeals court fined Brigitte Bardot $1,600 for inciting racial hatred and ordered her to pay a symbolic 20 cents to human rights groups that sued her for criticizing the Muslim slaughter of sheep. The court overturned an earlier ruling in favor of the 63-year-old former screen siren and animal rights campaigner on charges of defaming Muslims. Bardot was sued for her April 1996 commentary in the conservative daily Le Figaro. She had blasted the four-day Eid al-Adha spring festival, when many of France’s 3 million Muslims sacrifice a lamb to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to give up his son to God. Bardot, who is married to a member of France’s anti-immigrant National Front party, complained of “foreign overpopulation,” saying the slaughter was “torture, signs of the most atrocious pagan sacrifices.” Bardot could have been given a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a fine of $60,000.