Paris, May 10 (Reuters): Brigitte Bardot, French former film goddess turned animal rights activist, was quoted today as criticising the “Islamisation of France” in her latest book.

The tabloid France Soir newspaper said Bardot, who has been fined twice for inciting racial hatred, made the comments in her book A Scream in the Silence.

“I am against the Islamisation of France... For centuries our forefathers, the ancients, our grandfathers, our fathers gave their lives to chase all successive invaders from France,” the paper quoted her book as saying.

The comments are likely to create a stir in France, home to five million Muslims, where the rise of radical Islam in schools has already sparked a heated debate over the wearing of the traditional Muslim headscarf in the country’s secular schools.

Defending her comments in an interview with France Soir, Bardot, 68, denied she was a scandalmonger: “I am a brave woman who says what she thinks. They’re not going to put me in prison, I hope.” In her heydays, Bardot was the epitome of French feminine beauty.