Marine Le Pen not guilty of inciting religious hatred

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Tuesday 15 December 2015 10.11 EST

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right Front National, has been acquitted of inciting hatred after she compared Muslim street prayers to the Nazi occupation.

Le Pen went on trial in Lyon after four anti-racism and human rights groups brought a case against her on charges of “incitement to discrimination, violence or hatred towards a group of people on the basis of their religion”.

Her remarks were made in 2010 at a party rally in Lyon while she was campaigning to take over the party’s leadership from her father and FN founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen. She referred to “street prayers” after reports of Muslims praying in public in three French cities, including Paris, because of the absence of mosques or lack of space in local prayer rooms.

She told supporters: “I’m sorry, but for those who really like to talk about the second world war, if we’re talking about occupation, we can also talk about this while we’re at it, because this is an occupation of territory. It’s an occupation of swaths of territory, of areas in which religious laws apply … for sure, there are no tanks, no soldiers, but it’s an occupation all the same and it weighs on people.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/15/marine-le-pen-not-guilty-inciting-religious-hatred-lyon-french-front-national