Since the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo three years ago, the debate about censorship and the limits of freedom of speech has rumbled on in France. It took a new turn this week with the revelation that the controversial rapper Médine will perform two shows in October at the Bataclan concert hall, where gunmen killed 90 people on 13 November 2015.

The 35-year French-Algerian Muslim, who describes himself as an “Islamo-racaille” (which can be loosely translated as “Islamo-hooligan”), is known for his provocative songs about Islam and France’s brand of secularism (laïcité). The controversy stems from his 2005 album Jihad, the Greatest Battle Is Against Oneself, which includes calls to “crucify secularists like in Golgotha” and statements such as: “I launch fatwas on the heads of idiots”.

What the Bataclan was thinking when it took the decision to allow him to perform at the venue is open to question. From a PR perspective, it is an astonishingly foolish move. It has already angered the families of several of the victims, with two lawyers representing them threatening to take legal action to get the shows cancelled.

More fundamentally, the controversy is a gift to France’s far-right. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the newly rebranded far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) party tweeted: “No French person can accept that this bloke pours out his filth at the scene of the Bataclan massacre.” Meanwhile, the hashtag #PasDeMédineAuBataclan (#NoToMédineAtTheBataclan) has been gathering support on Twitter.

Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) Aucun Français ne peut accepter que ce type aille déverser ses saloperies sur le lieu même du carnage du #Bataclan.

La complaisance ou pire, l’incitation au fondamentalisme islamiste, ça suffit ! MLP #PasDeMédineAuBataclan pic.twitter.com/Xqu4JLwz6t

On Saturday, one National Rally member launched a petition saying it would be “the height of indecency” for Médine to perform; it has gathered more than 21,000 signatures in a matter of days. Meanwhile, fringe groups are whipping up righteous anger on social media. Other parties’ slower reaction to the affair means that the extremists have already hijacked the story.

The controversy highlights how difficult it has been to pin down Médine on his true beliefs. France has a legal arsenal at its disposal to deal with hate speech, which was first banned in the country as long ago as 1881. Laws to curb incitement of racial hatred and violence, Holocaust denial and “direct provocation of acts of terrorism” have all followed. Together, these laws have sealed the fate of many self-styled polemicists, not least the now disgraced standup comedian Dieudonné, who saw most of his shows cancelled in France in 2014 on the grounds that they promoted racial hatred.

As the inventor of the “quenelle”, an inverted Nazi-like salute, Dieudonné has faced countless court cases for antisemitism in France and abroad; a French court gave him a two-month prison sentence in 2015 for glorifying terrorism after he claimed: “I feel like Charlie Coulibaly” (a play on words referring both to the Charlie Hebdo attack and to the gunman Amédy Coulibaly, who carried out a linked attack). Now persona non grata in France, Dieudonné has also been banned from entering the UK.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Controversial rapper Médine will perform two shows in October at the Bataclan concert hall, where gunmen killed 90 people on 13 November 2015.’ Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images

The problem is that while Dieudonné’s antisemitism was plain to see in his actions – from his invitation of Holocaust deniers on stage to his belief that France is ruled by Jewish “slave drivers” – Médine’s actions are less clear cut.

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His first two albums (Jihad and 11 Septembre) and their lyrics have created controversy, but the artist has avoided condemnation in the courts. Médine, who cultivates a self-image of agent provocateur, likes to portray himself as a critic of the excesses of French secularism and previously identified to the “French tradition of caricature”. Since 2015, he has publicly condemned the Charlie Hebdo attack, also calling on the public to consider his songs as “a piece of rap, not an Islamist pamphlet”.

Médine’s careful handling of public opinion may have allowed him to avoid lawsuits and be invited to give talks at prestigious French universities, but his record is far from spotless. In 2014, the rapper expressed his support for Dieudonné by replicating his Nazi salute in the recording studio of the radio station Skyrock, and many see his apologies as merely paying lip service to the victims of terrorism.

Whether Médine’s lyrics represent an incitement to racial hatred might well end up being decided in the courts. But the reality is that for more than 10 years, the rapper has been playing within the limits of what is acceptable. All legal questions aside, the Bataclan has no obligation to host Médine. Its management previously turned away Eagles of the Death Metal – the band playing on the night of the 2015 attack – from its reopening concert, after lead singer Jesse Hughes suggested the venue’s Muslim staff were involved in the massacre. It can now call time on Médine’s provocations and deny the far-right further opportunities to whip up outrage.

• Cécile Guerin is a freelance French journalist