First published for Press TV, Paris
France's most notorious far-right thinker, Eric Zemmour, has finally been convicted of Islamophobic speech.
He was convicted for saying that France has been "colonized" by Muslims, even though colonization is done by a group with power, whereas France's Muslims are on the bottom of the nation's social ladder.
Zemmour said that a young woman wearing a hijab was equal to a violent act of war, which gave far-right sympathizers more cover to attack Muslim women. Zemmour apparently does not believe in France's tradition of personal liberty, because he said Muslims must choose between Islam and France.
Zemmour has already been convicted of publicly promoting job discrimination against Arabs and Blacks in 2011. One month later he was invited to speak in French Parliament and received an ovation from the conservative party.
France's laws against hate speech are incredibly weak, which only encourages more hate speech - Zemmour will only be forced to pay a fine of just 3,000 euros. Despite his most recent conviction, there is no indication that French news outlets like Le Figaro, BFM TV and countless other top media will stop regularly interviewing Zemmour.
The sad irony is that Eric Zemmour is Jewish, and yet he uses the same racist rhetoric that the French used against Jews at the turn of the 20th century and in Nazi-occupied France.
