Roger Garaudy

Roger Garaudy or Ragaa (born July 17, 1913, in Marseille) is a French author, philosopher and politician best known for his holocaust revisionism or negationist stances. For more than 20 years Garaudy has resided in south of Spain, near Córdoba.

Early Life, Politics and Religion

Born to Catholic and atheist parents, Garaudy converted at age 14 and became a Protestant. , but eventually became a prominent Communist. During World War II, Garaudy joined the French resistance, for which he was imprisoned in Djelfa, Algeria, as a prisoner of war of Vichy France. Following the war, the Communists became powerful, occupying most of Eastern Europe, and Garaudy join the French Communist Party. As a political candidate he succeeded in being elected to the National Assembly and eventually rose to the position of deputy speaker, and later, senator. He became a leading party theortician and authored scores of scholarly works.

Although a Communist, Garaudy remained a Christian and eventually converted to Catholicism. He was befriended by one of Frances most prominent clerics of the time, Abbe Pierre, who in later years supported Garaudy, even for the latter's most controversial views.

In 1970, following Garaudy's outspoken criticism of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, he was expelled from the Communist Party in 1970 for criticizing the U.S.S.R.. Garaudy has authored more than 50 books, mainly on political philosophy and Marxism.

Despite his Christian roots, in 1982 Garaudy converted to Islam in 1982, later writing that "The Christ of Paul is not the Jesus of the Bible," and also forming other critical scholarly conclusions regarding the Old and New Testaments. As a Muslim he adopted theRagaaand has become a prominent Islamic commentator and supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Holocaust Denial and Conviction

In 1996, Garaudy published his most controversial work Les Mythes fondateurs de la politique israelienne, later translated into English as The Founding Myths of Modern Israel (Institute for Historical Review, 2000). In his book, Garaudy enumerated many of the premises of the international Jewish claim to rights in Palestine and to the legitimacy of modern state of Israel as "myths," e.g., the "theological myths" of the Bible; the twentieth century "myth of Zionist anti-Fascism" (citing evidence that Zionists actually collaborated with Hitler's regime); the "myth of justice at Nuremburg," the "myth of the six million," and the "myth of the land without a people for a people without a land." These and other myths, as Garaudy's book argues, had been used by world Zionists to disposses the Palestinians of their homeland.

Under France's 1990 Gayssot Law, which prohibits the questioning of the existence of the category of crimes against humanity as defined in the London Charter of 1945, several of Garaudy's assertions, in particular, his claim that the Holocaust was a myth, were deemed to be illegal. Garaudy's trial began in 1996 and he was convicted in 1998. The court ruled that the chapters entitled "The Myth of the Nuremberg Trials and The Myth of the Holocaust" in the first edition, constituted "" by writing of "the myth of the six million" Jewish victims in Hitler's gas chambers.

French courts banned further publication of Garaudy's book and on February 27, 1998 fined him 240,000 French Francs (about $40,000) and sentenced him to a suspended jail sentence of several years. The decision of the court provoked a debate about freedom of speech in France and Europe and some claimed the verdict was a political one. Garaudy appealed this decision to the European Court of Human Rights, but his appeal was rejected as inadmissible.

Support from the Islamic World

Following his trial and conviction in France, Garaudy was hailed in the Muslim world and received substantial financial, political and public support. In the fundamentalist Islamic state of Iran, 160 members of the parliament signed a petition in Garaudy's support. Senior Iranian officials invited him to Tehran and received him warmly. Iranian leaders condemned Israel and the West for bringing Garaudy to trial. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei cited Garaudy for his work in exposing the Zionists’ “Nazi-like behavior.” Iranian President Mohammad Khatami described Garaudy as “a thinker” and “a believer” who was brought to trial merely for publishing research which was “displeasing to the West." Last December when the Islamic Republic's Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motakki hosted an international conference to prove that the Holocaust did not happen, Garaudy, unable to attend for health reasons, sent a videotape message supporting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Garaudy has been praised through the Islamic World:

• In June 1999, Jordanian intellectuals named Garaudy "the most important international cultural personality of the 20th century."
• Former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam has called Garaudy "the greatest contemporary Western philosopher."
• Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi has stated that Garaudy is "Europe's greater philosopher since Plato and Aristotle."

Support from Hezbollah

In February 2006, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah described Garaudy as "a great French philosopher." Nasrallah went on to praise Garaudy for exposing "alleged Jewish Holocaust in Germany" and stated that Garaudy "proved that this Holocaust is a myth." Nasrallah also criticized France for putting Garaudy on trial.

Recent Activities

In recent interviews, Garaudy has stated that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were organized by the United States Government. He has also repeated his claim that the Holocaust is a myth, stating that the genocide of Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War was "invented as a myth by Churchill, Eisenhower an De Gaulle" to justify the destruction and occupation of Germany.