Roger Garaudy

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Roger Garaudy or Ragaa (born July 17, 1913, in Marseille) is a French author, philosopher and politician. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s he was an important figure in the French Communist Party, and he has written over 50 books, chiefly on Marxist themes. He was the center of a public scandal in 1996-1998, when he was put on trial for his book Foundational Myths of the politics of Israel (Les Mythes fondateurs de la politique israelienne). The court found that this book "contested crimes against humanity" and was an "incitement to racism", and consequently banned its publication and condemned Garaudy to a fine of 120,000 French Francs (about $20,000). Garaudy appealed this decision to a European court, but the appeal was rejected.

Raised by Catholic and atheist parents, Garaudy became a Protestant, then a Communist. During World War II, he was imprisoned in Djelfa, Algeria, as a prisoner of war of Vichy France. In the postwar years he was elected to public office several times as a member of the French Communist Party, but was expelled from the Party in 1970 due to his criticism of the U.S.S.R.. He then became Catholic, before converting to Islam in 1982, taking his new name, Ragaa. Garaudy has lived in south of Spain, nearby Córdoba, for over 20 years.