PARIS - The comments were certainly inflammatory: A best-selling French novelist, discussing his spiritual beliefs in a magazine interview, declared Islam "the most stupid religion."
The statement got writer Michel Houellebecq more than just bad press — he ended up in court.
It's a scenario being played out more often in France these days, as society struggles to balance rising worries about racism, crime and social decay with the long-standing principle of freedom of expression.
In addition to the Houellebecq case, in just the past few months several groups have sued to ban a novel — "Rose Bonbon" — that featured a pedophile character, and the government has outlawed an anti-Semitic extremist group.
The suit against Houellebecq was dismissed on Tuesday, and the government recently refused to limit sales of "Rose Bonbon." Still, free speech advocates say such cases are on the rise in France.
"It's an attempt by some people who have moral convictions to force all of society to follow their convictions," Agnes Tricoire, an anti-censorship lawyer with the French League of Human Rights, said of the court cases.
A mix of forces is encouraging the trend.
Many in France are worried about young people and argue that television and book content should be more tightly controlled. The government, for example, has mounted a campaign against pornography on television.
At the same time, the strength of the far-right in recent presidential elections, a string of anti-Semitic attacks earlier this year and the sensitivities of France's large Muslim community have combined to put officials and minorities on higher guard against racism.
One case in point is the outcry against Houellebecq, who shot to international fame with the 1998 shock novel published in Britain as "Atomised."
In a September 2001 interview in the literary magazine Lire, Houellebecq was quoted as saying he rejected all monotheistic religions, but he singled out Islam for special criticism.
"The most stupid religion is Islam," he was quoted as saying.
The statement prompted an uproar among Muslims and drew criticism from abroad, particularly in Morocco, which has a large immigrant population here. Four Muslim associations sued him for inciting racial hatred, a crime in France.
At the court session in mid-September, the writer, whose most recent novel is the best-selling "Platform," remained defiant.
"I have never expressed the least contempt for Muslims, but I have as much contempt as ever for Islam," Houellebecq testified, adding that the writing style of the Koran was "mediocre."
When the court dismissed the case Tuesday, it said that Houellebecq's comments against Islam could not be construed as general contempt for Muslims or a call for acts against them.
The plaintiffs were angered, saying that an affront to Islam was an affront to all Muslims. They promised to appeal.
"Muslims weren't pleased. He shouldn't have said all that he did," said Cherif Benameir, the president of the French National Federation of Muslims. "Muslims don't tell Christians they have a God who isn't good."
In the outcry against "Rose Bonbon," by Nicolas Jones-Gorlin, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy ruled on Oct. 11 that he would not try to limit sales of the book because it was unlikely to be read by minors.
Sarkozy, who is also leading a highly publicized campaign against prostitution, urged bookstores not to display the book prominently, however, saying some of the scenes could be troubling to children.
The trend has extended into politics as well.
In August, the government banned a right-wing extremist group a few weeks after one of its members, Maxime Brunerie, was accused of firing a rifle at President Jacques Chirac at a military parade. Chirac was unhurt.
The group denied any involvement in the attack, but the government argued it should be outlawed because it encouraged racism and hatred. A court also closed down the group's Web site.
The move illustrated the greater power French officials have against extremist groups compared to the government in the United States, where free speech guarantees are more broadly interpreted.
Even French anti-censorship activists say some limits on expression are healthy.
Tricoire, the human rights lawyer, said she was initially sympathetic to the case against Houellebecq, and her group joined in the complaint against him because of the racist tone of his remarks.
But Tricoire changed her mind when the plaintiffs criticized anti-Muslim comments in his fiction — which she said should be fully protected.
"Nobody can feel attacked personally by a character because he's fictional, he's not real," she said. "It's very important that art be able to talk about what happens in society."