Le Pen faces lawsuit for Muslim 'occupation' claims

A French anti-racist group said on Sunday it planned to sue the daughter of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen for comparing Muslims praying in the streets to the Nazi occupation of France.

"Comparing Muslims to an army of occupation is humiliating. To be treated like invaders, like fascists, that is just not possible," said Mouloud Aounit, head of the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples (MRAP).

Aounit said his group planned to file a civil lawsuit against Marine Le Pen, who hopes to take over from her father as head of the anti-immigrant National Front, for comments she made at a rally Friday in the central city of Lyon.

Le Pen said that there "ten to fifteen" places in France where Muslims prayed in the streets outside mosques when these were full.

She said that "for those who want to talk a lot about World War II, if it's about occupation, then we could also talk about it (Muslim prayers in the streets), because that is occupation of territory."
"It is an occupation of sections of the territory, of districts in which religious laws apply. It's an occupation," she said at the rally that was part of her bid to take over party leadership when her father steps down in January.

"There are of course no tanks, there are no soldiers but it is nevertheless an occupation and it weighs on local residents," the 42-year-old said.

The comments have sparked condemnation from politicians from President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party and from the opposition Socialists and the Greens.

The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) said Le Pen's comments were "insulting towards the Muslims of France" and were an "incitement to hatred and violence against them."

Paris police in June banned a "pork sausage and wine" street party planned by extremist groups to combat what they saw as the "Islamisation" of a neighbourhood in the capital.

The Goutte d'Or district is dominated by people of north African and sub-Saharan African origin, and its mosques are so full on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayers, that many believers end up praying on the streets outside.

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