IN THE AFTERMATH of the London bombings perpetrated by homegrown jihadists, Europeans are rethinking their approach to multiculturalism in general and their tolerance for hate speech--especially the sermons of radical imams--in particular. In France, which has long had hate-speech laws, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy moved swiftly in July to announce the expulsion of a dozen radical imams, though only two have actually been deported. But even as public alarm grows about radical sermons another form of incitement common in France has gone largely unnoticed--namely, anti-French rap music.

During the mid-1990s, rap entered the mainstream of French popular culture. Since then, some of the most successful groups in French pop music have been rap bands made up mostly of French citizens of Arab or African descent. Among the most popular is NTM (which stands for Nique ta mère, "F--your mother"), a Sony Records group. NTM is famous for lyrics which attack France and especially the police. During a concert in 1995, NTM sang: "I f--the police, I sodomize and pee on the law! Our enemies are the men in blue" (French cops wear blue uniforms). This outburst earned NTM members a three-month prison sentence, later commuted to a fine (though NTM member Joey Starr has been in and out of prison for 15 years for drugs, assault, weapons charges, domestic-abuse, and for spitting on police).

By contrast, the popular rap band Sniper was recently handed a victory in a legal action brought against them in 2004 by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy over incitement to violence and hatred in their song "La France." They sing: "We're all hot for a mission to exterminate the government and the fascists. . . . France is a bitch and we've been betrayed. . . . We f--France, we don't care about the Republic and freedom of speech. We should change the laws so we can see Arabs and Blacks in power in the Elysée Palace. Things have to explode."

But the kingpin of rapping French Francophobes is Mr. R. In his latest single--entitled "FranSSe," from the March 2005 album "PolitiKment IncorreKt"--he likens France to the Third Reich, singing: "France is a bitch, don't forget to f--her to exhaustion. You have to treat her like a whore, man! . . . France is one of the bitches who gave birth to you. . . . I am not at home and I don't give a damn, and besides the state can go f--itself. . . . I pee on Napoleon and General De Gaulle. . . . My niggers and my Arabs, our playground is the street with the most guns. . . . F--ing cops, sons of whores. . . . France is a lousy mother who abandoned her sons on the sidewalk. . . . My Muslim brothers are hated like my Jewish brothers were during the Reich"--at which point Mr. R's video shows footage of Hitler and of Nazi concentration camps.

The video borders on pornography. It shows violent acts supposedly committed by the French Army. France is represented by two naked white women called "Gauloises" (a reference to the ancient inhabitants of France) who perform lewd acts with the French flag while a group of blacks make an obscene gesture. As a disclaimer Mr. R says, "When I speak of France, I don't mean the French people but their leaders. They've been exploiting us for a long time, from slavery to colonization, and they're still jerking us around." Tellingly, in the last words of the song, "France" is replaced by "Europe": "Europe is a bitch, don't forget to f--her to exhaustion. You have to treat her like a whore, man!"--which suggests that the rapper's grievances extend past France to include much of the West.