SWC Protests Sale Of Antisemitic Books In France At Muslim Conference To Promote Solidarity Between Christians, Buddhists And Jews

June 7, 2006

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER
European Office, registered as Non-profit organization in France under the
law of 1901
64, avenue Marceau, 75008 Paris
Tel:  33 (0) 1 47 23 76 37
Fax: 33 (0) 1 47 20 84 01

SWC Protests Sale Of Antisemitic Books In France At Muslim Conference To Promote Solidarity Between Christians, Buddhists And Jews

Paris

The programme of the "23rd Annual Gathering of the Muslims of France", held in Paris - Le Bourget on 5 - 8 May, had set as a principal theme:

"Living Together: Respect, Dialogue, Solidarity... Religions in France and their Acceptance: Protestants, Jews, Buddhists..."

In a letter to French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Shimon Samuels, noted the distortion of this announced objective.

Samuels pointed to the freely distributed handbook of the Assembly's organizer, the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF; publisher L'Information citoyenne l'Archipel, Paris 2006) which on page 25 underlines 'the importance of finding ways to facilitate coexistence between Jews and Muslims by first establishing an 'agreement not to import the Israeli - Palestinian conflict here.''

The letter to the Minister of the Interior stressed that "the choice of Tayssir Tamimi as a keynote speaker has arguably violated this principle of interreligious harmony.  Since 2003, he is President of the Palestinian Supreme Sharia Court and Head of the Palestine Interfaith Dialogue Committee - prestigious posts held long before the election of the current Hamas government."

Samuels continued, "However, just prior to his arrival in Paris, according to Palestine Media Watch (www.pmw.org.il) Tamimi was reported to have posted on his own website (http://ww.kudah.gov.ps/news.asp?tbl=news&id=268) a description of the International Christian Embassy as having 'adopted Satan as God' and 'comprising the greatest danger to world truth, justice and peace' as 'the Crusader motivation behind the British and American policy in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and other Arab and Muslim countries... which, by forgery, deception and lying have defined world policy led by Zionism in both its branches - the Jewish and the Christian.'"

The letter lamented that "this official opening, hardly in the spirit of the Assembly's slogan 'Living together: Respect, Dialogue, Solidarity' set the scene for the open sale of antisemitic texts. Our Centre purchased from a variety of stands the following publications in French and Arabic:

—"LA CONSPIRATION: APERCUS DU COMPLOT JUIF ET INTERNATIONAL CONTRE LE PEUPLE PALESTINIEN" (The Conspiracy : Perceptions of the Jewish and International Plot Against the Palestinian People), Zaghloul Al-Najar, Marefah Press, Beirut 2005. 
These 280 pages of poison (in French) open with: "This conspiracy began with the malicious lie invented by the Jews against God pretending that He promised to Abraham and his descendants the possession of the land of Palestine until Judgement Day." Thenceforth, the writer makes the Jews responsible for every evil the world has known culminating in 9/11 and the scapegoating of Osama Bin-Laden.

— "LA MOSQUEE SAINTE AL-AQSA", no mention of publisher, under "History and Grave Events", states on page 15:  "16/8/1929 The Palestinians rebel against the Jews who try to take over the Al Bourak wall" [This apparently refers to the Western or "Wailing" Wall of the Temple, Judaism's holiest site]  "16/7/1948 The Israeli airforce drops 60 bombs on Al Haram resulting in considerable damage to the two mosques" [There was no Israeli airforce action in Jerusalem in 1948 and no such damage to Al Haram or the Temple Mount.] "21/8/1969 An extremist Jew set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque and provoked a blaze that ravaged nearly one-third of the Holy mosque (1,500 sq.m.) including the seat of Saladin" [The arsonist was in fact an insane Australian Christian bent on hastening Armageddon, and the Israeli authorities immediately repaired all the damage.] This publication (in French) is aimed at, ex post hoc, inciting a new generation by creating an amalgam between these falsifications of history and the current so-called "Al Aqsa Intifada".

—"LES MYTHES FONDATEURS DE LA POLITIQUE ISRAELIENNE" (The Founding Myths of Israeli Policy), Roger Garaudy, Al Fihrist, Beirut 1996.
This revisionist manifesto (in French),propagated "The Myths of the Six Million and of Nuremberg Justice", by a convicted Holocaust denier, was banned in France under the 1990 Gayssot Law.

—"THE COMPLETE INTERNATIONAL JEW" (in Arabic, 2 volume edition), Adel Almoalem, Cairo
This notorious antisemitic text, later retracted by its author Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors, adapts his 1920's calumny charging Jewish domination of the United States, to an attack on the contemporary Jewish presence in Jerusalem.

—"ZIONISM AND NAZISM - THE END OF HISTORY" (in Arabic), Abd Al Wahab Al Masiri, Dar Shorouk, Cairo 
Zionists are here presented as Nazi collaborators and the Holocaust is thereby put in question.

—"BIOGRAPHY OF AHMED YASSIN - A LEGEND OF RESISTANCE AND CHALLENGE" (in Arabic)
Massaad Khayri and Bahaa el Din Ibrahim, Wahba, Egypt This is a glorification of Hamas terrorism as a fundamental principal of the the Islamic obligation to Jihad.

The Centre advised the Minister that "these publications, disseminated at Le Bourget, can incite to hatred and violence against Jews and Christians and can encourage recruitment to causes associated with terrorism", adding that "a photo display of these volumes is attached and the originals, together with their purchase receipts, are available for your attention."

Following similar sales at the 2005 22nd Annual Gathering of the Muslims of France, the Centre now urged the Minister "to investigate this abuse, once again, of the good name of Islam in France, and to ensure that the 24th Annual Gathering next year is kept free of hate and intolerance."

Samuels concluded by stating that "as part of our constant monitoring programme of hatred, both in print and on-line, we are advising the Frankfurt Book Fair to proscribe the publishing houses whose publications were disseminated at Le Bourget. We believe that under French law and Article 13 of the European Union Amsterdam Treaty, these publishers should also be banned from France."

Indeed, in the context of the Wiesenthal Centre's ongoing cooperation agreement with the Frankfurt Book Fair, the names of the aforementioned publishing houses were provided to its President, Jurgen Boos.

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33 6 09 77 01 58