The body of Theo van Gogh lies alone on an Amsterdam street with 5 page notes written both in Arabic and Dutch.
Posted on 06/27/2005 2:53:40 PM PDT by Cincinna
PARIS, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- A second author Wednesday went to trial in Paris in as many months on charges of inciting racial hatred for a book that has denigrating passages on Islam.
The latest case involves "Rage and Pride," a best-selling novel by Italian writer Oriana Fallaci.
One plaintiff, the anti-racist group MRAP, wants the book banned from France altogether. Two others, including the Human Rights League, simply want disclaimers that its disparaging passages on Islam don't accurately reflect the Muslim religion.
Fallaci, 72, who has cancer, was not present during the opening hearing. But her lawyer, Christophe Bigot, denounced the trial as a campaign for political correctness, to the detriment of free expression.
Fallaci "has been very shocked by recent events, notably Sept. 11," Bigot told France-Info in an interview Wednesday. "She wanted to raise a cry of alarm against fundamentalism."
In her book -- a best-seller in Italy and Spain -- Fallaci characterized Muslims as "vile creatures, who urinate in baptistries" and "multiply like rats."
But Bigot argues Fallaci was targeting extremism, rather than the Muslim religion as a whole.
"She's attacking a certain manner of expressing it," he said.
The anti-racist associations argue otherwise.
"When one finishes reading the book, one recognizes the right to kill any Muslim on the street," argued Hacen Taleb, the lawyer representing MRAP, in a statement to the court.
In June, another French judge refused MRAP's request to ban the book in France.
The Fallaci trial echoes another opened last month against controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq. Like Fallaci, Houllebecq faces charges of "provoking discrimination, hatred or violence" toward a group because of their religion.
But this time, the charges revolve around Houellebecq's anti-Muslim statements during an interview, rather than the passages in his book. A verdict is expected on Oct. 22. Copyright © 2001-2004 United Press International
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20021009-121437-7274r
LOL!
Fallaci is indeed a long time liberal and feminist, albeit something of a maverick on the Left.
All these groups exist specifically to fan the fires of racism. The left typically hides behind names that sound the opposite of what they are. Why the need to lie in everything they do? I don't suppose the The Society for the Advancement of Racism would do very well.
Yeah, I think she's in the Christopher Hitchens real of leftists the left is keeping an eye on.
"Just wait until an iron fist takes over France in response to all of this garbage."
They're teetering. The whole EU thing gives me the creeps, being a fulfillment of sorts for the Reich. Powerful delusion over there, condemning Israelis as Nazis. Putative "pro-Palestinian" morphed into the old anti-semitism rather quickly. Chomsky et al. I understand that Chomsky wrote somthing of an apologetic as intro to a book written by a Neo-Nazi in France some years ago. It's an odd admixture that does not fit the preconceptions of Americans, that's for sure. Doesn't look like a combo of the natives' thinly veiled distaste is going to be mitigated by the presence of so many radical Islamists, does it?
The body of Theo van Gogh lies alone on an Amsterdam street with 5 page notes written both in Arabic and Dutch.
As far as I know, "The Rage and the Pride" is a post-9/11 essay that can be read here:
http://italian.about.com/library/fallaci/blfallaci01.htm
It is a wonderful essay.
I've read the book. She is quite articulate, and utterly unafraid to tell it like it is.
Once a bucket always a bouquet.
Once a bigot always a beego.
It looses something when typed.
The 't' is not pronounced in 'Bigot' when stating his name properly in French.
"The 't' is not pronounced in 'Bigot' when stating his name properly in French."
Oui... Beee-GO, dammit, Beee-GO!!!
Only thousands? I bet it's more than that. And that's not counting members of their own faith killed for religious reasons/justifications. Satan smiles...
France. The nation that made 2 best sellers out of conspiracy books that the US launched a missile painted to resemble a plane into the Pentagon on 9/11.
"That's it, sort of like when at a picnic and yellow jackets invade, 'Bee Go!"
Or, in Carolina Low Country ("Geech") it's sort of like "Be Go, fo' somebody drop da house on you!" Oh, wait a minute, that would be "Be gwine." Never mind, LOL.
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