The owners of the store - which is affiliated to Franprix, a leading French chain - say they have to cater for their Muslim clientele.

Mohamed and Abdel Djaiziri, who bought the store in October, insist their decision was dictated by business, rather than religious considerations.

"We have studied our market," Mohamed Djaiziri told BBC News Online. "There are only Muslims in the neighbourhood."

He insists he is being picked on by the city authorities.

"They send health inspectors several times a week. We can no longer work," he said.

Going bad

Mr Djaiziri says that last week, when his refrigerated window display broke down overnight, health inspectors were on the premises the next morning - a prompt intervention he finds suspicious.

"Either they were tapping my phone or they acted on a tip-off," Mr Djaiziri says.

But his troubles did not end there.

"I had to throw away 500 kilogrammes of food," Mr Djaiziri goes on. "But when the rubbish collectors came they took a pallet of goods that had just been delivered - not the food to be thrown away."

Last month the Djaiziri brothers received a letter from Evry Mayor Manuel Valls protesting about the unavailability of alcohol and pork in the store.

"This situation is intolerable," Mr Valls wrote, adding that the needs of many local consumers were being ignored.

The mayor warned that if "normal operations" were not promptly restored, he would use "all police means" at his disposal.

Mr Valls denies that he is being anti-Muslim.

"I am very attached to the cultural and religious diversity of my town," he recently told Le Monde newspaper.

But the mayor warned that he would not back down.

"Local people are behind me," he said. "If they [the Dzaijiris] do not obey, I will continue my campaign."

Unfair dismissal?

Meanwhile, the two brothers are also being threatened with legal action by former employees of the store, who were made redundant by the old management.

They claim they were sacked ahead of the sale for religious reasons - so that the prospective buyers could then hire an all-Muslim staff.

This is strongly denied by Mohamed Djaiziri.

He says he wanted to hire people under a new government scheme involving lower employers' charges.

"It had nothing to do with religion," Mr Djaiziri says - pointing out that his new team includes a non-Muslim.

by Elaine Ganley, (AP, December 18, 2002)

Abdelhakim Sefrioui says his evening prayers in a cellar.

He is not alone. Thousands of Muslims around France practice their faith in makeshift underground prayer rooms simply because there aren't enough mosques.

Now France is trying to bring Islam aboveground. The government and Muslim leaders are holding a two-day conference this week to appoint an official body to represent Islam's diverse factions and serve as a link to French officialdom.

The conference, which starts Thursday, is a vital step in the government's efforts to satisfy the needs of Europe's largest Muslim community, address its grievances and thwart the growth of Islamic fundamentalism.

For Sefrioui, the move is long overdue.  "Muslims shouldn't have to pray in cellars," said Sefrioui, who manages an Islamic bookstore in eastern Paris. "They should have the right to pray in a dignified place."

But no one is placing bets on whether the effort, initiated by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, will succeed.

The grand mufti of Marseille, Soheib Bencheikh, for example, claimed Sarkozy was putting security concerns over religion. Some others denounced secret negotiations among three main Muslim groups chosen to form the backbone of the representative council.

The infighting underscores the complex reality of Islam in France which, unlike Roman Catholicism or Judaism, has no hierarchical structure and therefore no single representative.

Instead, there are numerous squabbling groups, associations and federations backed variously by Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia — former French colonies — or even Pakistan.

Those appointed to lead the body are the Union of French Islamic Organizations, said by some to be inspired by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, seen as a source of fundamentalism today; a Moroccan-backed Muslim federation; and the Algerian-backed Mosque of Paris.

"For what are undoubtedly security concerns, (Sarkozy) wanted to put fundamentalists inside rather than outside," said Bencheikh, a top representative of moderate Muslims. "Where is the Islam of France?"

Among proponents is 43-year-old Sefrioui. He hopes Islam will finally have a spokesperson, if only because building mosques, a costly and often controversial enterprise, would be made easier.

Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Mosque of Paris and the man expected to become president of the new council, said that France has been ignoring Islam for too long, creating a backlash that feeds extremism.

"Fundamentalism hasn't stopped increasing in France because of all this humiliation, misery of the Muslim religion," Boubakeur said. "The social fracture is hitting Islam in the face ... Human suffering has always put forth poison fruit."

The effort is nothing new. Since 1989, successive governments have tried to anoint an official body to represent France's estimated 5 million Muslims.

Consultations with more than a dozen groups were continuing when Sarkozy surprised everyone with the announcement that an accord had been signed.

Most Muslim groups see benefits to having an official representative, even though it is a government idea.

A representative body "will make Islam visible and get Muslims away from praying in cellars where they feel frustrated and victimized," said Antoine Sfeir, an author and expert on Islam.

Boubakeur says a representative body can only benefit Muslims, and might serve as an example for other European nations.

"There is an Islamic awakening among youths, an activism, while the majority (of Muslims) remain silent," he said. "We need to know what is this Islam in Europe."

Concretely, an official representative could regulate the multimillion dollar market of "halal" meat and other administrative issues, and give Islam respectability and a face.

The state is forbidden from financing mosques, but Boubakeur said he envisions seeking government funds in the same way the state subsidizes Catholic schools.

Jocelyne Cesari, an expert on Muslims in France, says Muslims have been "handicapped on a daily basis" in managing their affairs, a problem a representative would solve.

"But there is clearly a political interest here: knowing the French Muslim landscape — who is doing what, where," added Cesari, visiting professor at Harvard University's Center for Middle East Studies. "To guarantee a certain peace ... that's the deal."

Freedom of religion and religious minorities in France

("Council of Europe Resolution," November 18, 2002)

1. On 30 May 2000 a private member’s bill to counter more effectively and tighten legislation against sect-like groups was tabled in the French parliament. Act No 2001-504 to reinforce the prevention and suppression of sects which infringe human rights and fundamental freedoms became law on 12 June 2001.

2. The Assembly recalls its Recommendation 1412 (1999) on the illegal activities of sects, in which it concluded that it was unnecessary to define what constituted a sect, but that it was essential to ensure that the activities of groups, whatever religious, esoteric or spiritual description they adopted, were in keeping with the principles of democratic societies and, in particular, the provisions of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

3. In this text the Assembly also called on the governments of member states “to use the normal procedures of criminal and civil law against illegal practices carried out in the name of groups of a religious, esoteric or spiritual nature”.

4. Although a member state is perfectly at liberty to take any measures it deems necessary to protect its public order, the authorised restrictions on the freedoms guaranteed by Articles 9 to 11 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association) of the ECHR are subject to specific conditions.

5. The Assembly cannot but conclude that ultimately, should the case arise, it will be for the European Court of Human Rights, and it alone, to say whether or not the French law is compatible with the ECHR.

6. The Assembly invites the French government to reconsider this law and to clarify the definition of the terms "offence" and "offender".

Buddhism in France is booming

by Joseph Coleman (AP, October 23, 2002)

PARIS - The comments were certainly inflammatory: A best-selling French novelist, discussing his spiritual beliefs in a magazine interview, declared Islam "the most stupid religion."

The statement got writer Michel Houellebecq more than just bad press — he ended up in court.

It's a scenario being played out more often in France these days, as society struggles to balance rising worries about racism, crime and social decay with the long-standing principle of freedom of expression.

In addition to the Houellebecq case, in just the past few months several groups have sued to ban a novel — "Rose Bonbon" — that featured a pedophile character, and the government has outlawed an anti-Semitic extremist group.

The suit against Houellebecq was dismissed on Tuesday, and the government recently refused to limit sales of "Rose Bonbon." Still, free speech advocates say such cases are on the rise in France.

"It's an attempt by some people who have moral convictions to force all of society to follow their convictions," Agnes Tricoire, an anti-censorship lawyer with the French League of Human Rights, said of the court cases.

A mix of forces is encouraging the trend.

Many in France are worried about young people and argue that television and book content should be more tightly controlled. The government, for example, has mounted a campaign against pornography on television.

At the same time, the strength of the far-right in recent presidential elections, a string of anti-Semitic attacks earlier this year and the sensitivities of France's large Muslim community have combined to put officials and minorities on higher guard against racism.

One case in point is the outcry against Houellebecq, who shot to international fame with the 1998 shock novel published in Britain as "Atomised."

In a September 2001 interview in the literary magazine Lire, Houellebecq was quoted as saying he rejected all monotheistic religions, but he singled out Islam for special criticism.

"The most stupid religion is Islam," he was quoted as saying.

The statement prompted an uproar among Muslims and drew criticism from abroad, particularly in Morocco, which has a large immigrant population here. Four Muslim associations sued him for inciting racial hatred, a crime in France.

At the court session in mid-September, the writer, whose most recent novel is the best-selling "Platform," remained defiant.

"I have never expressed the least contempt for Muslims, but I have as much contempt as ever for Islam," Houellebecq testified, adding that the writing style of the Koran was "mediocre."

When the court dismissed the case Tuesday, it said that Houellebecq's comments against Islam could not be construed as general contempt for Muslims or a call for acts against them.

The plaintiffs were angered, saying that an affront to Islam was an affront to all Muslims. They promised to appeal.

"Muslims weren't pleased. He shouldn't have said all that he did," said Cherif Benameir, the president of the French National Federation of Muslims. "Muslims don't tell Christians they have a God who isn't good."

In the outcry against "Rose Bonbon," by Nicolas Jones-Gorlin, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy ruled on Oct. 11 that he would not try to limit sales of the book because it was unlikely to be read by minors.

Sarkozy, who is also leading a highly publicized campaign against prostitution, urged bookstores not to display the book prominently, however, saying some of the scenes could be troubling to children.

The trend has extended into politics as well.

In August, the government banned a right-wing extremist group a few weeks after one of its members, Maxime Brunerie, was accused of firing a rifle at President Jacques Chirac at a military parade. Chirac was unhurt.

The group denied any involvement in the attack, but the government argued it should be outlawed because it encouraged racism and hatred. A court also closed down the group's Web site.

The move illustrated the greater power French officials have against extremist groups compared to the government in the United States, where free speech guarantees are more broadly interpreted.

Even French anti-censorship activists say some limits on expression are healthy.

Tricoire, the human rights lawyer, said she was initially sympathetic to the case against Houellebecq, and her group joined in the complaint against him because of the racist tone of his remarks.

But Tricoire changed her mind when the plaintiffs criticized anti-Muslim comments in his fiction — which she said should be fully protected.

"Nobody can feel attacked personally by a character because he's fictional, he's not real," she said. "It's very important that art be able to talk about what happens in society."

French Cult Predicts Doomsday by Christmas

by Lisa Bryant ("UTC," October 20, 2002)

 

Mankind has been granted a reprieve, you will be relieved to hear. A tiny French cult had predicted the end of the world would occur on October 24. But now, the sect says, doomsday will fall later, sometime before Christmas

As for Mr. Mussy, he says if his latest doomsday prediction is wrong, he may have to return to his old job as a sales agent for the French telecommunications company, France-Telecom.

Iraq war could fan radical Islam - French church

(Reuters, October 15, 2002)

 

France's Roman Catholic bishops warned Washington on Tuesday against attacking Iraq, saying an attack by the United States on the Arab country now would be illegal and would fan the flames of Islamic radicalism

The French Bishops Conference issued a statement questioning whether Iraq really presented an urgent military threat, as Washington has argued, and said all peaceful means to resolve the current crisis should be tried before any recourse to war.
       ''A clash between an Arab country and the United states would reinforce the arguments of the ideologues of Islamic radicalism to stir up the hostility of crowds that are lost and disinformed about the West (abusively identified with the United States) and its values of democracy and tolerance,'' it said.
       ''A war would widen the gulf that has already opened up between our people and those of that region...a gulf that strengthens the feeling that the big powers use a double standard to implement United Nations resolutions in the area.''
       Traditionally Catholic France is home to Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish communities, and tensions between them often grow in proportion to tensions in the Middle East.
       A wave of anti-Semitic attacks in France followed the tension caused by Israel's military offensive in the West Bank earlier this year.
       While advising caution, the bishops' statement noted Iraq had violated human rights at home and international law abroad but said a resort to arms could not be justified unless it qualified as a legitimate defence of the countries being attacked.
       ''Up until today, the information available does not allow us to say these conditions...have been met,'' it said.
       France has been trying to put a brake on the movement to war in Iraq by insisting the U.N. Security Council call two votes on disarming Baghdad before any attack can be launched, instead of the single resolution authorising military action that Washington has been campaigning for. 

       The statement was signed by the 12 bishops of the conference's permanent council, including France's leading Catholic clergyman, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris

 

'Cult' Report Legally Worthless
Courts cannot use the 1996 document in decisions
by Jonathan Hanley ("Christianity Today," September 26, 2002)

Four French administrative courts have turned back local attempts this year to deny the legal rights of Jehovah's Witnesses. The prosecutors in all four cases relied on the 1996 Parliamentary Report on Cults, but the courts said the report has no legal status and officials cannot use the report for making decisions.

In the latest development, the Administrative Court of Poitiers on May 30 revoked the city of La Rochelle's refusal to rent a public hall to the group.

The parliamentary report names several evangelical groups among 173 so-called cults (CT, July 9, 2001, p. 24). Protestants have not faced any legal proceedings because of the report.

Stéphane Lauzet, general secretary of the French Evangelical Alliance, says the rulings bode well for all religious minorities. "This situation sets a legal precedent and demonstrates the wisdom of the French legal establishment," Lauzet told Christianity Today.

The president of the French Protestant Federation, Jean-Arnold de Clermont, and some Catholic leaders have discussed the issue with the minister of the interior, Nicolas Sarkozy.

De Clermont says most religious leaders want the government to create an "Observatory of Religious Movements." They say it will help bridge the gap between suspicious political authorities and small religious groups.

PARIS, Sept 17 (AFP) - Prosecutors Tuesday urged a judge to throw out a case against Michel Houellebecq, the French bad boy of literature, who is being sued by Muslim groups for allegedly inciting religious hatred.

"We cannot say that when we express an opinion on Islam it implies that we are attacking the Muslim community," prosecutor Beatrice Angelleli told the court.

The outspoken author, who has provoked readers with his books on sex tourism and moral decay in society, is defending himself against four French Muslim organisations who sued him over an interview last year with the literary magazine Lire.

Houellebecq told the magazine: "The dumbest religion, after all, is Islam. When you read the Koran, you're shattered. The bible at least is beautifully written because the Jews have a heck of a literary talent."

The case and its implications for freedom of speech has evoked memories of the Salman Rushdie case, where the late religious leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, pronounced a death sentence on the British author for defaming Islam in his novel "The Satanic Verses."

Prosecutor Angelleli told the judge late Tuesday: "We cannot say that (Houellebecq's remarks) are biting opinions. Perhaps he is a troublemaker. But we are not here to be moral but to punish crimes."

She then called on the judge to throw out the case. The judge is to make ruling on October 22.

Jean-Marc Varaut, a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs, the Paris mosque, expressed atonishment at the prosecutors' request.

"I do not understand the position of the prosecutors, which is less than the protection that other communities have received," he said. "To call Islam 'the dumbest religion' as (Houellebecq) has done, is a provocation."

Houellebecg told the Paris court earlier Tuesday that he despised Islam -- though not its practitioners.

"I have never displayed the least contempt for Muslims, but I have as much contempt as ever for Islam," the 43-year-old writer of the international bestseller "Atomised" told the courtroom.

"There is a conventional wisdom that says that the founding texts (of the monothestic religions) preach only peace. But in reality the monotheistic texts preach neither peace nor love, nor tolerance. These are texts of hate," he said.

Houellebecq's comments to Lire were made in a promotion for his latest novel "Platform," and came just before the September 11 attacks, in which relations between Islam and the West came under some strain.

He told the court that he had never hated Islam -- "The whole tone of the interview was one of contempt, not hate" -- and he said that anyone who knew him "knows that to get a general opinion out of me is almost absurd. I am always changing my point of view."

His lawyer Emmanuel Perrat said Houellebecq's comments should enjoy the privilege of artistic licence, and that it was a valued part of France's secular tradition that there is no recognised crime of blasphemy.

However Chemseddine Hafiz and Gilles Devers, lawyers for the Paris and Lyon mosques, said in a written submission: "The fact that a famous author can be allowed to proclaim clearly his hatred for Islam in a magazine like Lire constitutes incitement to religious hatred."

Houellebecq's critics say his feelings are borne out in the novel "Platform, " whose main character has an ingrained hatred of Arabs and Muslims after his girlfriend is killed by terrorists.

During the controversy that followed the interview's publication last year, the author responded unapologetically to his accusers.

"It has brought me little but problems, but it just is this way: I attack, I insult," he said.

Several French writers have signed a petition in defence of Houellebecq, who travelled from his home in Ireland to attend Tuesday's hearing.

Next month, a similar case is being brought by French Muslim groups against prize-winning Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci for outspoken attacks on Islam contained in her post-September 11 book "Anger and Pride."

French Writer Denies He's Anti - Islam, Slights Koran

(Reuters, September 17, 2002)

PARIS (Reuters) - A provocative French writer on trial for calling Islam ``the stupidest religion'' denied charges of inciting racism on Tuesday but argued the Koran was inferior to the Bible as a literary work.

Michel Houellebecq, who was sued by four Muslim groups after his comments appeared in a magazine interview, told a packed Paris court he had the right as a writer to criticize religions.

He rejected the label ``anti-Muslim racist,'' saying the term did not make sense, and accused the editor of the literary monthly Lire of twisting his words in the interview last year which was shortened from a six-hour conversation.

``He got it into his head that I was obsessed with Islam,'' said Houellebecq, 45, who looked shy and unsure in the dock. ``The way it (the interview) came out was crooked.''

The Muslim groups, which include the Mecca-based World Islamic League and the Paris Mosque, accused the writer of insulting Islam in an interview with Lire during last year's launch of his novel ``Plateforme.''

The case has become a cause celebre reminiscent of the Salman Rushdie affair, pitting free speech against religious sensitivities at a time when public concern about Islam has grown due to the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Shortly after the trial started, 11 people in the courtroom stood up in T-shirts saying ``No to the censure of the imams'' and ``Marianne veiled, Marianne raped'' -- a reference to the female symbol of the French republic. They were led out of the room.

Lire is also on trial over the remarks, which the Muslim groups say insults the Muslim community as a whole.

SEES ALL SCRIPTURES AS HATE TEXTS

Houellebecq, who lives outside Cork in Ireland, said he had read three translations of the Koran and several books about it.

``In literary terms, the Bible has several authors, some good and some as bad as crap,'' he said. ``The Koran has only one author and its overall style is mediocre.''

He rejected statements by the Muslim groups that theirs was a religion of peace, saying the holy scriptures of all three great monotheistic religions -- Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- were all ``texts of hate.''

But he added that criticizing a religion did not amount to slandering its adherents: ``I do not see how criticizing a religion in an acerbic manner involves them as people.''

Houellebecq, 45, the bete noire of contemporary French literature, is no stranger to controversy. He offended conservatives and the politically correct left with his 1998 novel ``Les Particules Elementaires'' (''Atomised'' in English).

Paris Mosque rector Dalil Boubakeur says Muslims have been insulted once before by Houellebecq, who had the main character in Plateforme admit he felt ``a quiver of glee'' every time a ``Palestinian terrorist'' was killed.

Women's groups were also outraged by the main character in Plateforme because he supported sex tourism in Southeast Asia.

The World Islamic League, the Lyon Mosque and the National Federation of Muslims in France have joined the Paris Mosque in bringing Houellebecq to trial.

ISLAMOPHOBIA

France's Human Rights League joined them as a civil party, saying Houellebecq's comments amounted to ``Islamophobia'' and deserved to be sanctioned as part of the league's struggle against discrimination and racism.

Houellebecq's publisher Flammarion has distanced itself from the author, whose comments some say may have cost him France's prestigious Goncourt prize -- for which he had been a contender.

The novelist writes in a detached style about a bleak world in which people have forgotten how to love.

Translated into 25 languages, ``Atomised'' incensed France's 1968 generation with its scathing descriptions of the hippie era but won him France's November prize in 1998 and the Impac award, one of the world's biggest fiction prizes.

Losing his case may mean a year in jail or a $51,000 fine.

The hearing was due to wind up late on Tuesday and the judge would take about a month before announcing the verdict.

(Reuters, September 04, 2002)

NANTES, France (Reuters) - The guru of a tiny French doomsday sect under police suicide watch says his group looks forward to voyagers from Venus collecting them before the world ends on October 24.

Arnaud Mussy, 36, on Wednesday denied any plans for a mass suicide, dismissing parallels that police and the press have made between his New Lighthouse sect and the Order of the Solar Temple cult.

That group was active in France, Canada and Switzerland and saw 64 members die in two collective suicides in 1994 and 1995.

Police in the Atlantic port city of Nantes have kept the six-member New Lighthouse sect under surveillance since one member committed suicide and two others attempted to after an earlier deadline for the world's end passed on July 11.

"We're not suicidal at all," Mussy, standing at the door of the sect's tightly shuttered house, told Europe 1 radio in his first interview after days of rising media interest.

Asked if they were really waiting for extraterrestrials to sweep them off to Venus next month, he replied: "Sure.

"It will be just like going to Angers or Lyon," he said, referring to two French cities. "It's an exchange. They come to us, so we should go to them. That's all."

Mussy, a public relations specialist who says he will be Christ and his twin brother the pope in the new life they expect to lead on Venus, denied pressuring the man who killed himself in July and blamed the other death bids on a "chain reaction".

Europe 1 described Mussy as casual, suntanned and charming.

Police and justice authorities in Nantes say they cannot ban the sect or break it up because it has done nothing wrong.

At least 30 tiny apocalyptic sects are active in France. Anti-sect groups have kept up calls for official action before any further New Lighthouse members attempt suicide.

"I'm afraid that these people are so weak that they could be pushed to the same extremes as in July, especially when the non-event of October 24 passes," said Dominique Hubert of the anti-sect group ADFI.

"I think we should act now before there are other catastrophes. This is a case of failing to help people who are in danger."

Mussy's mother made a desperate appeal to her son on French television on Monday. "I ask them to stop all this," the mother, who was not identified, said. "These things have gone too far. They could endanger other people's lives."

Police said they were alerted to the sect this year when neighbours noted strange behaviour on a farm commune of 21 people. "At their meetings, they wore capes and held spiritual seances," one officer said.

The sect lost many members when the world did not end in July as Mussy had predicted. The remaining faithful later moved into their current two-storey residence near Nantes university.

French police fear collective suicide by sect members

by Rodolphe Landais (Reuters, September 01, 2002)

NANTES, France (Reuters) - A tiny sect convinced the world will end next month is under close police surveillance amid fears its members may commit collective suicide, officials in the western French city of Nantes said on Tuesday.

The apocalyptic New Lighthouse sect -- six members waiting to be swept off by spacemen to Venus before the world ends on October 24 -- has been under observation since a member killed himself and two others attempted suicide in July, they said.

A local pro-family association demanded a ban on the group, holed up in a two-storey house, but police said they had no grounds to outlaw it.

"We have held an inquiry and it did not implicate the sect in any wrongdoing," an official in the prosecutor's office said. "So we have not taken any legal steps against it."

The mother of sect leader Arnaud M., 36, who expects to become a new Christ on Venus and has appointed his twin brother pope in the new life they expect there, made a desperate appeal to them on French television on Monday.

"I ask them to stop all this," said the mother, who was not identified. "These things have gone too far. They could endanger other people's lives."

Sect members have been seen entering and leaving the house, where all the shutters have been kept closed, and buying large quantities of food. They refuse to talk to neighbours or the growing crowd of waiting journalists.

Police said they were alerted to the sect this year when neighbours noted strange behaviour on a farm commune of 21 people preparing for extraterrestrial beings to come and fetch them before the end of the world, which they expected on July 11.

"At their meetings, they wore capes and held spiritual seances," one officer said.

New Lighthouse lost some followers when July 12 arrived safely. But two days later, one member threw himself under a car and died. Two others leaped from a window at a nearby castle. They survived, but their acts prompted police to suspect the rest of the sect could try collective suicide next month, an officer said.

"They have gone so far in their delirium that they might not be able to get their feet back on the ground," Marie-Claire Moisel, a police official in charge of observing sects, told the daily France-Soir.

Officials say dozens of small sects exist in France. Some 48 members of the Order of the Solar Temple cult committed mass suicide in 1994 and a further 16 did the same the following year to start what they called "death voyages" to the star Sirius.

by Pierre-Antoine Souchard (AP, July 30, 2002)

PARIS - A Paris judge has ruled that a case against the Church of Scientology alleging fraud and illegal practice of medicine cannot go to trial due to lack of progress in the 13-year investigation, judicial officials said Tuesday.

Judge Colette Bismuth-Sauron ruled Friday that a statute of limitations had expired in the case, the officials said, speaking on condition their names not be used.

An investigation against 16 leaders of the church was opened in 1989 stemming from a complaint filed by a former Scientologist, Juan Esteban Cordero.

He accused the group of "progressive mental conditioning" that led him to spend more than 1.12 million francs (170,000 euros, dlrs 167,000) on Scientology-related courses.

However, in 1998, hundreds of documents that were to be used as evidence in the case went missing from the Justice Ministry, sending shock waves through French legal circles.

The judge handling the case at that time, Marie-Paule Moracchini, was taken off the inquiry after the documents were never found. An investigation into her role failed to shed any light on what happened to the files, but further stalled the case.

Government prosecutors had argued in favor of the case going to trial.

A lawyer for the civil parties to the case, Olivier Morice, said he would appeal Friday's decision.

A spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology, Agnes Bron, said the church was "overjoyed by this victory after so many years."

The church "believes it is now time to end this witch hunt," she said.

France has long had a contentious relationship with the Church of Scientology, which is seeking recognition as a legitimate religion in Europe. In France, it figures on a list of nearly 200 groups to be tracked to prevent cult activities.

In May, a French court fined the church for a data protection violation. The court ruled that it was not guilty of allegations of attempted fraud and false advertising in connection with its efforts to recruit and keep members.

Scientologists likened the trial to a witch hunt and say their faith is a religion like any other.

The Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology, which counts actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its members, was founded in 1954 by L. Ron Hubbard. It teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve problems. It claims to have 40,000 members in France.

France Says Integrating Muslims Is High Priority

(Reuters, July 10, 2002)

PARIS (Reuters) - Integrating France's Muslims, the largest Islamic community in Europe, into secular French society is a top priority for the new center-right government, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview Wednesday.

Sarkozy told the newspaper Le Figaro he wanted to bring Islam into the mainstream of French society by fostering a "French Islam" combining Islam's moral values with respect for France's civic traditions.

"The question of integrating a French Islam into our republic is crucial," the minister, who took office last month, said in a review of his policy priorities. "But we will never invite (Islamic) fundamentalism to be a part of our republic."

France, a strictly secular state, is home to about five million Muslims, mostly of North African origin. Many live in poorer suburbs and complain they suffer discrimination, even if they are French-born with full citizenship rights.

Ethnic and religious splits among them have deadlocked attempts to organize all Muslims into a national organization to negotiate with the state on issues like Islamic schooling, charity organizations or permits for building mosques.

France's Catholics, Protestants and Jews all have such groups but the Muslim community has no comparable hierarchy that would fit into this pattern.

Elections for an umbrella body for French Muslims have been postponed several times amid fears that extremist minorities planned to grab power and threaten the state. The vote is now due to take place in September or October.

"Orthodox religious practice is not necessarily against our civic values," said Sarkozy, who has made the fight against crime and delinquency his highest priority.

"This religion can help us because it has its own values. It could especially help us to provide a response to the total loss of orientation seen among some delinquent youths."

Effort to ban anti-Islam book fails in France

("Washington Times," June 22, 2002)     

     PARIS — A French judge yesterday refused an "anti-racism" group's request for an immediate ban on Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci's new book, which argues that the September 11 attacks shows the true face of Islam.
     The Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples, also known as MRAP, had asked Judge Herve Stephan to ban the book, "Rage and Pride," saying its contents are an incitement to racial hatred.
     Judge Stephan said he saw no point in an urgent ban, because the book had already sold 45,000 copies in France since its publication last month and nearly a million copies in Italy. He referred the case to another court, which is scheduled to hear it July 10.
     MRAP, which was founded in 1949 and calls itself a democratic organization, also named French publisher Editions Plon in its complaint. Its leader, Mouloud Aounit, insists that the group believes in freedom of expression. He argues that the book is "racist delirium" that "incites racial violence."
     Miss Fallaci, 72, a former war correspondent who is known for candid interviews with world leaders, ended a decade-long, self-imposed silence after September 11 with the book, written in reaction to the terrorist attacks in New York, where she lives.
     The book, due out in the United States in the fall, contains such provocative statements as assertions that Western civilization is superior to Islam and that Muslim immigrants in the West, who "multiply like rats," are to blame for the rise in crime and prostitution.
     "The children of Allah," she writes, "spend their time with their bottoms in the air, praying five times a day."
     Earlier this month, Miss Fallaci rejected the accusations against her and denounced recent anti-Jewish violence in France, linked to a spillover of Middle East tensions into the country's Muslim and Jewish populations. "I find it shameful that in France — the France of liberty, equality and fraternity — synagogues are burned, Jews are terrorized and their cemeteries are profaned," she wrote in a column in the prominent daily newspaper Le Figaro.
     Muslim immigrants in France and elsewhere in Western Europe have been blamed for rising crime and anti-Semitic attacks, a development that has fueled recent gains by anti-immigration political parties throughout the continent. Miss Fallaci said she reserves the right to sue MRAP for branding her book "racist." She said she has been receiving death threats.
     In addition to MRAP, two other anti-racism groups have complained about the book and asked that a disclaimer be included in every French copy instead of a ban.
     The judge refused this plea as well.
     Miss Fallaci has interviewed such political figures as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former German Chancellor Willy Brandt, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late Iranian supreme leader, as well as Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner, Italian film director Federico Fellini and actor Sean Connery.
     Mr. Kissinger, who called his Fallaci interview "the most disastrous conversation I ever had with any member of the press," offered the first glimpse into the Austrian-born diplomat's private life.

 

Institute Celebrates Vivien Resignation, Calls on Prime Minister to Dismantle French "Anti-Cult" Ministry

("IRPP Press Release," June 18, 2002)

 

Washington, D.C. – The Institute on Religion and Public Policy heartily celebrates and welcomes the resignation of French "anti-cult" minister Alain Vivien. Vivien, 63, presided over the Interministerial Commission to Battle Sects and Cults (MILS) since its creation in 1998. His resignation was made public two days after the victory of the right at the legislative elections.

"Alain Vivien has used his position to export a vicious anti-religiosity throughout Europe and the rest of the world," announced Institute President Joseph K. Grieboski "We have long worked to eradicate the disinformation and negative attitudes promulgated by Vivien. His resignation is a great vindication for us. However, this is only the beginning. I have sent a letter to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin asking him to serve on the right side of history by not appointing a successor to Vivien and dismantling the MILS organization, thus demonstrating France’s commitment to liberty, equality, and fraternity by standing for freedom of conscience."

The MILS was created by a decree signed by Lionel Jospin and Jacques Chirac, following an observatory that had been created in 1996 after a parliamentary report warned of "cult" activities in France. Although there is no definition of the word "cult" or "sect" in French law, over 170 groups were added to a discriminatory list – including several mainline churches and religious groups in the United States.

In an Agence France Presse article, Vivien congratulates himself on the role played by MILS in the adoption of two laws – voted almost unanimously by Members of Parliament – one permitting greater oversight of private schools, and the other aimed at more effective suppression of the illegal activities of cults. "The laws Vivien pushed have been used by totalitarian dictatorships globally to persecute religious minorities," Mr. Grieboski continued. "Vivien should be very proud of himself that the Chinese have used the laws as a basis to persecute Christians and Falun Gong. That is a true badge of honor."