Bob Dylan investigated for racism

American singer Bob Dylan is being investigated in France after a Croatian community organisation alleged that comments he made to Rolling Stone magazine last year amounted to incitement to racial hatred,Paris prosecutors said on Monday. In the interview,published in the magazines September 27,2012 edition,the singer said racism was holding America back.

If you got a slave master or Ku Klux Klan in your blood,blacks can sense that, he was quoted as saying. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood.

The formal investigation followed a legal complaint from the organisation,CRICCF,which is based in France,alleging that the comments as carried in the French version of the magazine violated French racial hatred laws. In France,racism complaints automatically trigger formal investigations,irrespective of the merits of the case.

Dylan was awarded Frances prestigious Legion dHonneur award last month in Paris.

CRICCF and Dylans manager were unavailable for comment. Rolling Stone magazine said it had no comment.