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.
