He hasn't caused this much controversy since he went acoustic: legendary rocker Bob Dylan has formally been charged with racism and inciting hate in France! 

According to TheStar.com, the Paris prosecutor's office has released an official statement that the 72-year-old has been charged with the crime of "public insult and inciting hate." The charges stem from an interview that Dylan did back in 2012 with Rolling Stone magazine -- specifically, the following quote: "If you got a slave master or (Ku Klux) Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood." 

It wasn't the comments against blacks or Jews that got Dylan charged...it was the comments against Croatians that got the French-Croatian community up in arms. A lawyer for the Croatian group, Ivan Jurasinovic, told The Associated Press CRICCF is not seeking monetary damages but wants Dylan, "a singer who is liked and respected in Croatia, to present an apology to the Croatian people." 

While slander, hate speech, and other like-wise speech charges in America are, at best, a civil crime, French law approaches the subject very differently. According to Al-Jazeera, France has strict laws punishing hate speech and racist remarks. Racism complaints automatically trigger formal investigations, irrespective of the merits of the case. In response to Dylan's comments, some radio stations in France -- which is home to over 30,000 Croatians -- have stopped playing Dylan's songs. 

Interestingly enough, the charges were initially filed in mid-November, just two days before Dylan received France's prestigious Legion d'Honneur award in Paris. At the time, Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti said then that, for French people, Dylan embodied a "subversive cultural force that can change people and the world." 

Neither Dylan's attorney, nor Rolling Stone, released any sort of comment about the matter.