Roger Garaudy

Biography

Roger Garaudy was born in Marseille. 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. Garaudy converted to Islam in 1982 after marrying a Palestinian woman, 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 the name "Ragaa" and became a prominent Islamic commentator and supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Political and academic career

Following the war, Garaudy joined 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.

Garaudy lectured in the faculty of arts department of the University of Clermont-Ferrand from 1962-1965. Due to controversies between Garaudy and Michel Foucault, Garaudy left. He later taught in Poitiers from 1969-1972.

Garaudy remained a Christian and eventually re-converted to Catholicism during his political career. He was befriended by one of France's most prominent clerics of the time, the Abbé Pierre, who in later years supported Garaudy, even regarding the latter's most controversial views.

In 1970, Garaudy was expelled from the Communist Party following his outspoken criticism of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Garaudy wrote more than 50 books, mainly on political philosophy and Marxism.

Holocaust denial

In 1996 Garaudy published, with his editor Pierre Guillaume, his most controversial work, Les Mythes fondateurs de la politique israelienne (literally, The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics), later translated into English as The Founding Myths of Modern Israel . In the book he wrote of "the myth of the six million" Jewish victims. Because of this, French courts banned any further publication and on 27 February 1998 fined him 240,000 French francs. He was sentenced to a suspended jail sentence of several years. Garaudy appealed this decision to the European Court of Human Rights, but his appeal was rejected as inadmissible. At his hearing, Garaudy stated that his book in no way condoned National Socialist methods, and that book was an attack on the mythologizing and use of 'the holocaust' by Israeli government as policy. He argued that his book dealt with the Israeli government's use of 'the holocaust' as a "justifying dogma" for its actions, mainly in Palestine and toward Palestinians.

Support from the Islamic World

In the Islamic Republic 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.".

Garaudy has been praised throughout the Islamic World:

Later activities and death

In later interviews, Garaudy stated that the attacks of 11 September 2001 were organized by the United States government. He also repeated his claim on the Holocaust, stating that it was "invented as a myth by Churchill, Eisenhower and De Gaulle" to justify the destruction and occupation of Germany.

In December 2006, Garaudy was unable to attend the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust due to health reasons. He reportedly sent a videotaped message supporting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's view that Israel should cease to exist.

Roger Garaudy died in Paris on 13 June 2012, aged 98.

Praise for Garaudy after his death

Following his death in June 2012, Garaudy subsequently received praise from a number of sources (as translated by MEMRI):

Published in English language