France is considering banning performances by a comedian for insulting the memory of Holocaust victims and whose shows could threaten public order, the interior minister, Manuel Valls, has said.

The interior ministry is exploring legal ways to ban Dieudonne' M'bala M'bala, who has been fined repeatedly for hate speech.

Jewish groups have complained to the president, Francois Hollande, about Dieudonne's trademark straight-arm gesture, which they call a Nazi salute in reverse and a claimed link to a growing frequency of  anti-jewish remarks and acts in France.

Update: Salutations

2nd January 2013. See  article from  theguardian.com

The San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker has apologised after being photographed giving a salute considered to be antisemitic. In his apology, he said the photograph had been taken three years ago, and added that he had not known at the time that the gesture could be in any way offensive or harmful .

The French NBA star was pictured giving the quenelle , which has been described as a reverse Nazi salute , with its originator, the French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala. Dieudonne, a controversial figure whose film The Anti-Semite was banned from the 2012 Cannes festival, maintains that it is intended as an anti-establishment gesture.

Update: Calling for a ban

6th January 2013. See  article from  skynews.com.au

The mayor of Paris has joined France's interior minister in calling for comedian Dieudonne, whose vitriolic brand of humour has outraged jews, to be banned from the stage.

Speaking on Europe 1 radio, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe, a socialist, on Sunday likened Dieudonne to a criminal who defends crimes against humanity . We must ban the performances (of Dieudonne), he said, echoing recent comments made by Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

Outraged by Dieudonne's latest jibe against Jewish radio presenter Patrick Cohen, Valls said he was examining options to ban performances by a man he brands as a little trader of hate .

Officials in several cities where Dieudonne is set to perform during a nationwide tour this month have also said they are trying to ban his show.

French soccer star Nicolas Anelka, a friend of Dieudonne, provoked a furious reaction in France after he used the quenelle gesture in a Premier League match on Saturday.
 

Update: Fined and Suspended

28th February 2013. See article from telegraph.co.uk

Nicolas Anelka has been suspended for five matches, fined £ 80,000 and ordered to complete a compulsory education course, despite a three-man panel of consisting of a QC, an FA official and a former player or manager clearing him of any anti-Semitic intent.

The commission said the FA had proven Anelka's conduct was:

Abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper and included a reference to ethnic origin and/or race and/or religion or belief.

We did not find that Nicolas Anelka is an anti-Semite or that he intended to express or promote anti-Semitism by his use of the quenelle.

A top court in France has upheld the ban on a performance by the controversial comic Dieudonne M'bala M'bala.

The decision comes less than two hours before the comedian was due to give the opening performance of his national tour in the city of Nantes, despite his lawyers claiming a breach of his freedom of expression.

The ban had just been lifted by local judge Jean-Francois Molla who said that a perceived risk to public order could not be used to justify as radical measure as banning the show . However, France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, ruled that the show should not be allowed to go ahead.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who has led the campaign to ban the comedian's performances, said:

We cannot tolerate hatred of others, racism, anti-Semitism or holocaust denial. That is not France. This is a victory for the Republic.

The decision marks a landmark break with legal precedent in France, where previous attempts to ban Dieudonne from performing foundered against constitutional provisions on free speech.

The government has accused the comedian of insulting the memory of Holocaust victims, and his show has widely been condemned as anti-Semitic. However newspaper reports have not provided any details of his material, perhaps suggesting a weak case.

The ruling today leaves the rest of his tour uncertain.

Update: Appeal

11th January 2013. See  article from  bbc.co.uk

The French comic Dieudonne M'bala M'bala has appealed against a ban on his show. He lodged the appeal with the country's highest court, the Council of State, after it overruled a provincial judge on Thursday and reinstated the ban.

The ban took effect as fans gathered for the first show of a tour, in the western city of Nantes on Thursday. Authorities in other cities on the tour have also banned the performance.

Legal analysts say that while the Council of State decision applied specifically to Nantes, judges in other cities will have to take it into account and a flurry of further bans is likely.

Supporters of the comic and critics of the bans accuse the authorities of denying Dieudonne freedom of speech.

Shocked fans booed outside the concert hall in Nantes, where more than 5,000 people had been due to see the show. Some gave Dieudonne's trademark quenelle gesture, which is regarded by many as an inverted Nazi salute, while some brandished pineapples. One of the comic's most notorious songs, Shoananas, roughly translates as Pineapple-Holocaust.

Update: Walled Off

12th January 2013. See  article from  bbc.co.uk

The French comic Dieudonne M'bala M'bala has dropped a controversial show after it was banned by the authorities. He told reporters in Paris he would no longer perform The Wall , after France's highest court upheld a ban on the opening night of his tour on Thursday.

Citing blatant political interference , he said he wanted to perform a new show devoted to Africa. Dieudonne said in a statement on French TV:

The Dieudonne controversy and the Le Mur show are over.  Now, I think we will get a chance to laugh more intensely with my new show.

We live in a democratic country and I have to comply with the laws, despite the blatant political interference.

Offsite Comment: Was Francois Hollande right to support a ban?

12th January 2013.  See  article from  theguardian.com

Should controversial comedian Dieudonne' M'bala M'bala, the man behind the quenelle gesture, be silenced by the law -- or by sharper arguments? Andrew Hussey and Padraig Reidy debate France's thorniest issue.

...Read the full article

The French comedian at the centre of the quenelle iracism row has been banned from entering the UK, the Home Office has said.

Dieudonne M'bala M'bala had said he would visit the West Bromwich Albion striker, who faces a ban for performing the comic's quenelle gesture. The quenelle involves touching or gripping your shoulder with one hand while holding the palm of your other hand outstretched and pointing to the ground. Some describe it as a combination of the bras d'honneur with a bent arm (which means up yours ) and the Nazi salute.

Dieudonne has been convicted six times of hate speech against Jews.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said:

We can confirm that Mr Dieudonne is subject to an exclusion order.

The Home Secretary will seek to exclude an individual from the UK if she considers that there are public policy or public security reasons to do so. 'Indecent'

The controversial French comedian, Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, has been sentenced to two months in jail by a Belgian court for incitement to hatred over racist and antisemitic comments he made during a show. Dieudonné, who has faced similar cases in France, was also fined ?9,000 (£6,300) by the court in Liège.  The charges related to a show in Liège in 2012.

Earlier this month, the European court of human rights in Strasbourg ruled against Dieudonné in a separate case, deciding that freedom of speech did not protect racist and antisemitic performances.

In March, a French court handed Dieudonné a two-month suspended prison sentence and fined him heavily after he caused uproar by suggesting he sympathised with the attacks against the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, and a Jewish supermarket in Paris. I feel like Charlie Coulibaly , he wrote on Facebook, a reference to Amédy Coulibaly, one of the attackers.