SHAFAQNA (Shia News Association) — Speaking in a commemorating ceremony for French Muslim philosopher, Roger Garaudy; the ayatollah pointed to Garaudy’s viewpoints and said the philosopher gained many experiences from Christianity and Communism and at last converted to the religion of Islam.
Pointing to Garaudy’s perspective about Wahhabism, Ayatollah Taskhiri underscored,” he believed that there stand different models of apostasy in different divine religion and to him the worst kind of apostaty in Islam was Wahhabism.”
“Wahhabism was also against Garaudy and spread widely negative propaganda against him,” said Head of the World Forum for Proximity of Isalmic Schools of Thought
“This character was against extremism,” said Ayatollah Taskhiri calling Garaudy as one of the pioneers of religious interfaith dialogues
Roger Garaudy or Ragaa Garaudy (17 July 1913 – 13 June 2012) was a French philosopher. Formerly a prominent communist author, he converted to Islam and wrote several books which have been controversial due to his anti-Zionist positions and denial of the Holocaust.
Born to Catholic and atheist parents in Marseille, Garaudy converted at age 14 and became a Protestant.
During World War II, Garaudy joined the French Resistance, for which he was imprisoned in Djelfa, Algeria, as a prisoner of war of Vichy France. Following the war, Garaudy joined the French Communist Party.
As a political candidate he succeeded in being elected to the National Assembly and eventually rose to the position of deputy speaker, and later senator. He became a leading party theoretician for the party and authored scores of scholarly works.
Garaudy remained a Christian and eventually re-converted to Catholicism during his political career. He was befriended by one of France's most prominent clerics of the time, the Abbé Pierre, who in later years supported Garaudy, even regarding the latter's most controversial views.
In 1970, Garaudy was expelled from the Communist Party following his outspoken criticism of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Garaudy converted to Islam in 1982, later writing that "The Christ of Paul is not the Jesus of the Bible," and also forming other critical scholarly conclusions regarding the Old and New Testaments. As a Muslim he adopted the name "Ragaa" and became a prominent Islamic commentator and supporter of the Palestinian cause.
Garaudy wrote more than 50 books, mainly on political philosophy and Marxism.— www.shafaqna.com/english/
