Roger Garaudy was born in Marseilles in 1913. He joined the French army in 1939 but in 1940 he was detained in a Vichy concentration camp in Algeria until his release in 1943. Elected to the National Assembly in 1945, he later served as Deputy Speaker and Senator. Since 1962 he has devoted himself to university teaching and his writings on political theory and the philosophy of civilizations. For many years one of France's leading Marxist theoreticians, he has become increasingly attracted by Islamic teachings and civilization, and in 1982 became a Muslim. In this study, which is equally critical of anti-semitism and political Zionism, he considers the fundamental problems presented by the policies of the State of Israel. He examines the questions of historical continuity between the Biblical Land of Israel and the present Zionist state and he considers the claim of the Zionists that God's "promise" to Abraham implies their divine right over Palestine. This leads him to an analysis of the Zionist basis of Israel's domestic and foreign policies and he concludes with a constructive proposal for peace in the Middle East based on all UN resolutions, including the original 1947 decision on the partition of Palestine, to be internationally guaranteed.
Author
روجيه جارودي French philosopher and former elected official in the National Assembly for the French Communist Party. Garaudy is controversial for his anti-zionist views. He converted to Islam in 1982. Born to Catholic and Jewish 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. Garaudy lectured in the faculty of arts department of the University Clermont-Ferrand from 1962-1965. Due to controversies between Garaudy and Michel Foucault, Garaudy left. He later taught in Poitiers from 1969-1972. 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 after marrying a Palestinian woman, 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. He was married to Salma Taji Farouki. Garaudy wrote more than 50 books, mainly on political philosophy and Marxism.
