From fork-admin@xent.com Wed Sep 18 11:52:29 2002 Return-Path: Delivered-To: yyyy@localhost.example.com Received: from localhost (jalapeno [127.0.0.1]) by jmason.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5CDB816F03 for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 11:52:28 +0100 (IST) Received: from jalapeno [127.0.0.1] by localhost with IMAP (fetchmail-5.9.0) for jm@localhost (single-drop); Wed, 18 Sep 2002 11:52:28 +0100 (IST) Received: from xent.com ([64.161.22.236]) by dogma.slashnull.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g8I7UpC19432 for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 08:30:54 +0100 Received: from lair.xent.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id CFB012940CB; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 00:27:05 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: fork@example.com Received: from relay.pair.com (relay1.pair.com [209.68.1.20]) by xent.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 1207F29409F for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 00:26:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 17500 invoked from network); 18 Sep 2002 07:29:22 -0000 Received: from adsl-66-124-227-84.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (HELO golden) (66.124.227.84) by relay1.pair.com with SMTP; 18 Sep 2002 07:29:22 -0000 X-Pair-Authenticated: 66.124.227.84 Message-Id: <008201c25ee5$1285de40$640a000a@golden> From: "Gordon Mohr" To: References: <20020917172627.A1DBDC44D@argote.ch> Subject: Defending Unliked Speech Re: Hanson's Sept 11 message in the National Review MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 X-Msmail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Sender: fork-admin@xent.com Errors-To: fork-admin@xent.com X-Beenthere: fork@example.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Friends of Rohit Khare List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 00:29:01 -0700 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-3.3 required=7.0 tests=EMAIL_ATTRIBUTION,KNOWN_MAILING_LIST,QUOTED_EMAIL_TEXT, REFERENCES version=2.50-cvs X-Spam-Level: Robert Harley writes: > Chuck Murcko wrote: > > But I must feel obligated to defend to the death your right to do so. > > «Je désapprouve ce que vous dites, mais je défendrai jusqu'à ma mort votre > droit de le dire» > - Arouet Le Jeune, dit «Voltaire» (1694-1778). Here's hoping that tradition perseveres for the novelist currently on trial in Paris for calling Islam "the stupidest religion"... http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020917/5/ozxa.html # Tuesday September 17 11:07 AM EST # # French Writer Tried As Anti-Islam, Protest Erupts # By Caroline Brothers # # PARIS (Reuters) - Provocative French novelist Michel Houellebecq # faced a Paris court on Tuesday for allegedly inciting racial hatred # by calling Islam "the stupidest religion" and its holy book the # Koran a depressing read. # # The case, brought against him by four Muslim groups, is a cause # celebre reminiscent of the Salman Rushdie affair, pitting freedom of # expression against religious sensitivities. # # The Muslim groups, which include the Mecca-based World Islamic # League and the Paris Mosque, accuse the writer of insulting Islam in # an interview with the literary magazine "Lire" during last year's # launch of his novel "Plateforme." # # Lire is also on trial over the remarks, which have taken on an added # significance in France in the atmosphere of heightened sensitivity # and concern about Islam following the September 11 attacks by Muslim # radicals in the United States. # # Shortly after the trial started, 11 people in the courtroom stripped # off their shirts to reveal 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. # # "Freedom of expression! freedom of expression!" they and other # Houellebecq supporters chanted after they were thrown out of the # courtroom at the main law courts in central Paris. # # While intellectuals argued before the trial that Houellebecq should # be free to write what he wants, Lyon Mosque rector Kamel Kabtan # retorted: "We are for freedom of expression, but not for insulting # communities." # # BETE NOIRE # # 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. # # 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. # # 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. # # The Paris Mosque has hired Jean-Marc Varaut, one of France's leading # trial lawyers, whose past clients include Maurice Papon, the former # official condemned in 1998 for Nazi-era crimes against humanity for # sending Jews to death camps. # # RESTORING BLASPHEMY? # # Houellebecq's lawyer Emmanuel Pierrat argues that the case # effectively re-establishes the notion of blasphemy, despite the fact # that France as a secular state has no such law, and says # Houellebecq's opponents want to deny him freedom of expression. # # He also argues that the interview in Lire truncated a six-hour # conversation and Houellebecq was not given the chance to approve the # article before it appeared. # # 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, who lives outside Cork, Ireland, 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. - Gordon