Paris, June 10 (Reuters): French actress turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot was convicted today of inciting racial hatred and ordered to pay 5,000 euros ($6,000) — the fourth such fine for the former sex symbol since 1997.

The Paris court sentenced Bardot, 69, for remarks made in her book A Scream in the Silence, an outspoken attack on gays, immigrants and the jobless which shocked France last year.

In the book, she laments the “Islamisation of France” and the “underground and dangerous infiltration of Islam”.

“Mademoiselle Bardot presents Muslims as barbaric and cruel invaders, responsible for terrorist acts and eager to dominate the French to the extent of wanting to exterminate them,” the court said. France’s five million-strong Muslim community is the largest in Europe.

Bardot, who was not present at the verdict, denied the charges in a tearful court appearance last month, saying her book did not target Islam.

She told the court that France was going through a period of decadence and said she opposed inter-racial marriage. “I was born in 1934, at that time inter-racial marriage wasn’t approved of,” she said. “There are many new languages in the new Europe. Mediocrity is taking over from beauty and splendour.”