islamic-video.com

6/12/2006 12:20:00 PM GMT
 

Controversial Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci is facing a lawsuit for making discriminatory and offensive comments against the Islamic religion, IRNA reported.

In her book “Power of Wisdom”, Fallaci insulted Islam publicly in more than eighteen sentences, according to Italy's official news agency, ANSA.

Reports say Fallaci, who lives in New York, isn’t expected to attend Monday’s hearing in the northern Italian city of Bergamo.

The former war correspondent had often stirred controversy for her provocative publications. Her most recent books have drawn accusations she incites hatred against Islam and Muslims.

In her essay “The Rage and the Pride," written in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Fallaci wrote that “the children of Allah spend their time with their bottoms in the air, praying five times a day."

In 2004, the head of the Italian Muslim Union, Adel Smith, filed a lawsuit against Fallaci, charging that some passages in her previous book were offensive to Islam.

Mr Smith's lawyer cited a phrase from the book that refers to Islam as "a pool ... that never purifies."

Last year, Italian preliminary investigative judge Armando Grasso ordered that the 76-year-old journalist should stand trial, saying that her book included expressions which were "unequivocally offensive to Islam" and accusing her of violating an Italian law that bans “outrage to religion”.

Fallaci had openly declared recently that if she sees the minaret of the newly constructed mosque in her neighborhood complete, she would blow it up with her friends.