Adonis Diaries

“Cardinal” of French Communists converted to Islam: Roger Garaudi passed away

He was 98 years old. Roger Garaudi was a highly cultured man, a politician, chairman of the French communist party, a deputy, a senator, and an engaged activist…and published 40 books

Roger was kicked out of the communist party in 1970 for his anti-Stalinism positions. A year later, he converted to Islam and took the name of Raja (Hope).

In 1913, at the age of 14, from an atheist family, he converted to Protestantism. He received a doctoral degree in philosophy from the university of Moscow.

Between 1940 to 1943, Garaudi was incarcerated by the French Vichy government in an Algerian camp for 30 months.

Roger was elected deputy in 1954 and acceded to the vice-presidency of the French Senate from 1959 to 1962.

For a decade (1960-70), Garaudi headed the editing of the “Cahiers du Communism“, the mouthpiece and center of research of the communist party.

In 1971, Garaudi converted to Islam and published in 1981 “Promises from Islam“.

He joined the presidential campaign of Francois Mitterrand and split shortly after.

The publication of “The Founding Myths of Israel Politics” brought down on him the calamities of the various Zionist lobbies, which harassed him of antisemitism, and denying the Nazi Holaucost, and …..

In 1998, the French appeal court condemned Garaudi for 9 months of prison term without prison and heavy fines for critiquing the exaggerated propaganda of crimes against humanity exacted by Nazi Germany on the Jews…

In the later years, Garaudi visited Cairo, Tehran, Beirut, Damascus, Amman, Qatar, and the Palestinian Occupied Territories…

Note: Translated from the arabic version of the French daily Le Monde