GENEVA,
June 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Geneva's top Islamic
center said Thursday, June 20, it had filed a suit under Swiss
anti-racism laws against Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, including
a call for her book "Rage and Pride" to be banned.
"Mrs
Fallaci is insulting the Muslim community as a whole with her shameful
words," the head of the Islamic Center, Hani Ramadan, said in a
statement carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Ramadan
said the Center wanted Geneva's prosecutor to order the book withdrawn
and banned from shops, and called for action against those involved in
its distribution.
He
said the "racist terms" in the book violated Swiss law.
The
journalist claims in the book that there is an unbridgeable gap
between the Muslim and Christian worlds, and makes insulting comments
about Muslim society.
She
also warns of a "Pearl Harbor" against the West.
An
anti-racist group had also filed a suit in France to have Fallaci’s
insulting book banned. A French judge said Tuesday, June 18, he would
rule Friday, June 21, on the request.
 |
| Fallaci's
"Anger and Pride" is an "incendiary tract of
Islamophobia," said MRAP in its plea. |
The
Movement Against Racism And For Friendship Between Peoples (MRAP) said
in its plea that Fallaci's "Anger and Pride," published in
France last month, was an "incendiary tract of
Islamophobia."
"Freedom
of expression is and will remain a fundamental right... but when this
great writer resorts to outrageous stigmatization of Islam, the limits
of what is tolerable are breached," MRAP said, AFP reported.
A
representative from the state prosecutor's office, Pierre Dillange,
said an emergency ban on the book made no sense, even though he said
it contained "an unacceptable mixture of ideas".
Fallaci,
72, is one of Italy's best-known journalists and now lives in New
York, where she witnessed the September 11 attacks.
Fallaci's
book, strongly in favor of the United States, was published two weeks
after the September 11 attacks and has topped the bestseller lists in
Italy since.
Her
book, in which she accuses Europe of being blind to the growing
problems of Islamic immigration and so-called terrorism, has already
aroused hot debate in Italy.
An
article Fallaci wrote denouncing anti-Semitism stirred controversy in
June after she pointed the finger at the Roman Catholic church and the
political left over the current Mideast crisis.
