Anti-dhimmitude from Nicholas Sarkozy. By Tom Heneghan for Reuters, with thanks to C.M.:
PARIS (Reuters) – A French paper accused of insulting Muslims by printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad surprised a court hearing on Wednesday with a letter of support from presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy.
“I prefer an excess of caricatures to an absence of caricatures,” Sarkozy, the conservative interior minister who helped launch the French Muslim Council, wrote in a letter read out by a lawyer for the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
The letter from the presidential frontrunner, whose ministry is also responsible for religious affairs, drew an angry response from one of three Muslim groups suing the weekly.
“He should remain neutral,” Abdullah Zekri of the Paris Grand Mosque said at the court hearing the case on Wednesday and Thursday and due to deliver its decision at a later date.
The French Muslim Council held an emergency meeting later on Wednesday and some members urged resignations in protest, but its leader Dalil Boubakeur said no decision would be made now.