Fear of ideas

One of the greatest blessings of living in America is our First Amendment, which protects the right of all of us to speak out without facing government persecution. People in other countries, even strong Western democracies, are not as fortunate.

The French government, for instance, is prosecuting 73-year-old former film goddess Bridget Bardot for criticizing the ritual slaughter of sheep in a 2004 letter to Nicholas Sarkozy, now France’s president.

Ms. Bardot, an animal-rights activist, complained about the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, alluding to those running it as “this population that leads us around by the nose, [and] which destroys our country.” In the Orwellian eyes of French prosecutors, that qualified as “inciting racial hatred,” and they are seeking to punish her with a $22,000 fine and two months in jail...

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