French Court Hears Call for Ban on Anti-Muslim Book
Fallaci’s book "constitutes permanent incitement to racist violence" and "concentrates hate against Muslims"
PARIS, October 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Paris court began Wednesday, October 9, hearing a case brought by French human rights groups against a new book by an Italian journalist that incites racial hatred by slandering Muslims and Islam.
Anti-racist group, MRAP, called for a ban on the book, "The Rage and The Pride" by Oriana Fallaci. Two other rights groups, the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) and the League for Human Rights, demanded a public warning against the work and that the court's verdict be widely published, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Fallaci, 72, was not present in court.
She wrote the controversial book following the 9-11 attacks in the United States, calling it a sort of "sermon" to Europeans. Her critics have rated it a xenophobic rant.
In it, she claims that Islam is a religion against freedom, justice and democracy and describes Muslims as "secretly jealous of us [in the West]".
The journalist speaks of a so-called unbridgeable gap between the Muslim and Christian worlds, and makes insulting comments about Muslim society.
She also writes that Muslims "multiply like rats".
In Italy, where it was first made available, the book has sold a million copies. In Germany, too, it has become a bestseller. The initial print run in France, which started selling May 23, was 45,000 copies.
The head of the MRAP, Mouloud Aounit, said "the book constitutes permanent incitement to racist violence".
MRAP's lawyer, Hacen Taleb, added: "When you finish the book, you feel like you have the right to kill any Muslim in the street".
"It is a work that concentrates hate against Muslims," said Patrick Baudouin, the lawyer for the League for Human Rights.
But Fallaci's lawyer intends to defend the book on the grounds that the complaints are based on taking the Italian writer's words out of context. "We are jumping straight to a few passages that don't represent the whole book," the lawyer, Christophe Bigot, said.
"The Rage and The Pride" represents an attack on the Islamic clergy and not a people, he argued.
The case being heard Wednesday follows a defeat for MRAP in June to have a lower court ban the book.
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