PARIS,
August 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A French novelist, renown
for his anti-Muslim attitudes, is being sued by four Muslim organization
in Paris after making insulting remarks about Islam in an interview on
his latest book, news agencies reported.
The
action against Houellebecq, 44, is being launched on 17 September by
plaintiffs including Saudi Arabia's World Islamic League and the Mosque
of Paris, reported BBC’s online news service.
Dalil
Boubakeur, imam of the Paris mosque, said Muslims felt insulted by
comments in the novel Plateforme, in which a character admits to a
"quiver of glee" every time a "Palestinian
terrorist" is killed, reported the BBC.
Last
December, Chems Hafiz, an attorney acting for Muslim authorities in
Paris said that Houellebecq was to appear in court to face charges of
inciting religious hatred, news agencies reported.
Hafiz
said a Paris court was due to hear the complaint filed by officials from
the main mosques in Paris and Lyon on February 5. The literary magazine
Lire (Reading), which published Michel Houellebecq's remarks, is also
cited as a defendant.
The
writer, who is sometimes accused of being ready to say just about
anything to interviewers if it will bring him more media coverage, made
the comments after the launch of his latest best-seller,
"Plateforme," in August 2001, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
His
novel, which partly deals with the sexual tourism industry, has also
raised eyebrows due to some passages concerning its main character, who
despises Arabs.
In
one chapter, the protagonist says, "Every time I heard of a
Palestinian terrorist, a Palestinian child or a pregnant Palestinian
woman being shot in the Gaza Strip, I felt a rush of enthusiasm."
In
an interview with Lire, Houellebecq, the author, said: "The dumbest
religion, after all, is Islam."
"When
you read the Qur'an, you're shattered," he added, referring to
Islam's holy book, adding, "the Bible at least is beautifully
written because the Jews have a heck of a literary talent."
Houellebecq
also told the interviewer that he felt Islam was "a dangerous
religion right from the start."In September 2001, the Arab League's
representative in France
hit
out at Houellebecq's anti-Muslim bias, and questioned the lack of
outrage sparked by the remarks, news agencies reported.
"Houellebecq's
despicable comments on Islam, the Arabs and the Palestinians have given
rise to legitimate outrage among the Muslim leadership in France,"
Nassif Hitti said, AFP reported.
The
Palestinian Agency's Quds Press attributed the author's hatred of Islam
to the fact that his mother converted to Islam a few years back, causing
him anger.
In
Plateforme, Houellebecq's thoughts were evident as he sympathized with
the Israeli occupation of Palestine and policies adopted by Israel, and
his views of Arabs as "terrorists".
Top
Islamic organizations in France such as the Union of Islamic
organizations, the Paris Mosque and the General Federation for French
Muslims, also showed their dismay at Houellebecq's remarks and viewed
them as a serious provocation.
Also
in September 2001, the general director of the Islamic Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), based in Rabat, Morocco,
Abdel Aziz bin Othman Al Tuwaijri, sent a letter to Matsuura Koichiro,
Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), asking him to condemn Houellebecq's
attacks on Islam.
In
the letter, Al Tuwaijri asked his UNESCO counterpart to take appropriate
actions against Houellebecq's remarks, which go against UNESCO's mission
and opposes international law.
"What
Houellebecq wrote is extremely insulting to Muslims all over the world
and is a direct attack on the Muslim [f]aith to which more than 1.25
billion people around the world ascribe to," he said in his letter.
The
author's lawyer, Emmanuel Pierrat, said the case is "very
similar" to that of British novelist Salman Rushdie - and has said
that Houellebecq could be assassinated, reported the BBC.
"He
is deliberately insulting, he uses obscene words which are intolerable.
Let him take full responsibility for them." said Boubakeur, adding
that such comments flouted laws on religious tolerance and provoked
racial hatred, said the BBC.
Houellebecq's
publisher Flammarion has distanced itself from the author and wrote to
the Paris mosque apologizing for the novelist's words, the BBC reported
adding that Houellebecq, who is regarded as one of France's brightest
literary talents, faces a year in jail or a 52,000 euros (£33,000) fine
if he loses the case
