The latest book by Roger Garaudy, a French former Communist and now muslim philosopher, is just out. It is a lashing against Islamic fundamentalism, published in Paris by a Muslim publisher, Alafabeta. Meanwhile his <The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics> is a stunning success in spite of the near general media campaign against it. He received the support of the Abbe Pierre, a French priest with an enormous charisma, the book has already sold 17.000 copies (according to "Faits et Dcouments, nr 9, just published). The book isavailable ismany bookshop throughout the country and is distributed by the Romanian "Librairie du Savoir", 5 rue Malebranche in Paris 5.
Although they announced they would sue the author, the two main French antiracist organizations , LICRA and MRAP, have failed so far to act in accordance with their words. A trial, instigated by two obscure former camps inmates association is supposed to take place later this year. Many intellectuals have criticized the Gayssot Act which allows to condemn revisionist views expressed in public.
Meanwhile, La Vieille Taupe, the original publisher of Garaudy's controversial book, just published, as issue nr 3, a French translation of Dr. Israel Shahak's <Jewish History, Jewish Religion>, a book which also raises a vivid controversy by one of the oldest militants for Human Rights in Israel.
Garaudy's book is published already in Italian and soon in German. An English translation is available on Internet. Only part II will be made available in a matter of days. It can be seen on
A chronicle of the Garaudy affair is written by a collective of authors under the name "Un pieton de Paris" (a Paris boulevardier). The first two parts (together around 250 K) are available at the followings URLs:
They developped a new discussion method: controversial articles or extracts are reproduced with intersped commentaries located right at the spot where assertion demand a response.
Never since the war has the gap between the small world of the press, sick with its obsessions with power and correctness, and the general feeling of the ordinary people been so wide. The campaign to demonize the abbe Pierre and Garaudy is a total failure. This will have long-term consequences in the French society.
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Nous nous plaçons sous
la protection de l'article 19 de la Déclaration des Droits
de l'homme, qui stipule:
ARTICLE 19
<Tout individu a droit à la liberté d'opinion
et d'expression, ce qui implique le droit de ne pas être
inquiété pour ses opinions et celui de chercher,
de recevoir et de répandre, sans considération de
frontière, les informations et les idées par quelque
moyen d'expression que ce soit>
Déclaration internationale des droits de l'homme,
adoptée par l'Assemblée générale de
l'ONU à Paris, le 10 décembre 1948.