Journalist ordered to stand trial for offending Muslims

[Undertoad]

...in Italy.

ROME (Reuters) - A judge has ordered best-selling writer and journalist Oriana Fallaci to stand trial in her native Italy on charges she defamed Islam in a recent book.

The decision angered Italy's justice minister but delighted Muslim activists, who accused Fallaci of inciting religious hatred in her 2004 work "La Forza della Ragione" (The Force of Reason).

Fallaci lives in New York and has regularly provoked the wrath of Muslims with her outspoken criticism of Islam following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.

In "La Forza della Ragione," Fallaci wrote that terrorists had killed 6,000 people over the past 20 years in the name of the Koran and said the Islamic faith "sows hatred in the place of love and slavery in the place of freedom."

State prosecutors originally dismissed accusations of defamation from an Italian Muslim organization, and said Fallaci should not stand trial because she was merely exercising her right to freedom of speech.

But a preliminary judge in the northern Italian city of Bergamo, Armando Grasso, rejected the prosecutors advice at a hearing on Tuesday and said Fallaci should be indicted.

Grasso's ruling homed in on 18 sentences in the book, saying some of Fallaci's words were "without doubt offensive to Islam and to those who practice that religious faith."

[glatt]

Wasn't it Italy that passed a law recently (last year or two) that you can't insult people? I can't remember the details, but I'm pretty sure it was Italy.

[jaguar]

er....if the state prosecutors have dismissed accusations how can the judge go ahead?
state: 'we're not pursuing the case, it's crap'
judge: 'yes you are'
state: wtf?

however there's a few worrying things here, to quote from the article:

"In Europe we are seeing the birth of a movement that is looking to silence those who don't follow a single mindset, within which it is forbidden to speak ill of Islam, of homosexuals or of the children of homosexuals," Castelli was quoted as saying in an interview with Radio Padania.

While I think the right to call religions crap is an essential part of freedom of speech I wonder about the mindset of someone that puts 'children of homosexuals' in the same breath.

Also:

Just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Fallaci published "La Rabbia e l'Orgoglio" ("The Rage and the Pride"), in which she said the West was superior to Islamic society and complained that Muslim immigrants had "multiplied like rats."

There's a fine line here between 'defaming islam' and out-and-out racism, she seems rather close.

[Undertoad]

Jag, you are right, it looks like Italy's justice system is to blame and this is a "nothing to see here" item if it was really generated by a single judge.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by glatt

Wasn't it Italy that passed a law recently (last year or two) that you can't insult people? I can't remember the details, but I'm pretty sure it was Italy.

That seems prudent in the homeland of the Mafia.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

That seems prudent in the homeland of the Mafia.

That's Sicily.