Controversial French comic Dieudonne investigated for inciting racial hatred

People gather in front of controversial French comic Dieudonne’s theatre in Paris, to protest against the French interior minister who called for Dieudonne’s new tour performances to be banned. During the gathering, some protesters performed the ‘quenelle’ gesture popularised by Dieudonne, who has been condemned in France on several occasions for anti-Semitism.

AFP/Paris

Prosecutors in Paris have launched a probe into whether a French comedian was guilty of inciting racial hatred by joking about “gas chambers” while talking about a Jewish journalist.

Dieudonne, who has drawn controversy over an increasingly copied trademark gesture that many view as a Nazi-style salute, is already facing a possible ban on public performances over anti-Semitic remarks.

The comedian maintains he is not anti-Jewish, and says the “quenelle”, his provocative downward version of a Nazi salute, merely reflects his anti-establishment views.

Judicial sources said the probe would centre around a December 19 performance by 47-year-old Dieudonne at a Paris theatre where he mocked radio journalist Patrick Cohen, who is Jewish: “When I hear Patrick Cohen speak, I tell myself, you know, the gas chambers ... shame.”

The comedian has been in the eye of several controversies recently.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls is considering whether to ban all public appearances by Dieudonne, saying that he is “no longer a comedian” but rather an “anti-Semite and racist” who fell afoul of national laws against incitement to racial hatred.

The comedian, whose full name is Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, has been fined seven times for defamation, insult, hate speech and for racial discrimination.

He has described Holocaust celebrations as “memorial pornography”, made “Heil”-like signs on television as part of a sketch and befriended far-right leaders such as Jean-Marie Le Pen.