fbpx

Marine Le Pen Faces trial for comparing Muslim prayer to Nazi occupation

French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen will go on trial for comparing Muslim street prayers to wartime Nazi occupation, a party official and the prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.
[additional-authors]
September 22, 2015

French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen will go on trial for comparing Muslim street prayers to wartime Nazi occupation, a party official and the prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.

Le Pen, whom polls see likely to win a regional election in northern France in December, has widened the National Front’s appeal since she took its helm in 2011 by expelling extremists and cracking down on anti-Semitism.

But the party also thrives on concerns over immigration. In a meeting in 2010, Le Pen criticized Muslims praying in the streets when mosques are full.

She will be judged on Oct. 20 over charges of “incitement to discrimination over people’s religious beliefs,” the prosecutor’s office in Lyon said. Party official Wallerand de Saint-Just confirmed the FN had been informed of the trial.

Le Pen had told the 2010 rally in Lyon: “I’m sorry, but for those who really like to talk about World War II, if we’re talking about occupation, we could talk about that (street prayers), because that is clearly an occupation of the territory.”

“It is an occupation of sections of the territory, of neighborhoods in which religious law applies, it is an occupation. There are no tanks, there are no soldiers, but it is an occupation anyhow, and it weighs on people,” she added.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Losing One’s True North

Normally we say goodbye to our loved ones, as they fly back to their normal lives, but what is normal about the lives they fly back to at this moment in time?

Peter Beinart’s Rapture

Instead of correcting some of the hyperbolic anti-Israel “reporting” that has so blurred people’s capacity to know what is going on, he pours fuel on the flames of ignorance and perpetuates a rhetoric that lays blame for the whole conflict primarily or solely on Israel.

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.