Archbishop Lefebvre On Muslim Immigration
Declaration Preliminary to the Court Case of June 21, 1990
Sirs,
Invoking the laws of July 29, 1981, and July 1, 1977, 1 am accused firstly of the crime of provocation to discrimination, to hatred or to racial violence with respect to a group of persons on account of their origin or their belonging to a particular ethnic group, nation, race or religion.
Secondly, of the crime of public defamation with respect to this group... I am supposed to have pronounced these provocative and defamatory words when I held a press conference at the Crillon Hotel on November 14, 1989. I affirm firstly that I did not hold a press conference. I had nothing written and I made no declaration. I only wanted to reply to the journalists’ questions on the occasion of the ceremony for the 60th anniversary of my Priestly Ordination at the Bourget.
You must admit that Moslem immigration had no special reason to be brought up on this occasion. The least one can say is that my reply was not pre‑meditated. I therefore replied very freely, giving my opinion of the danger of Islamic penetration into a country whose Catholic religion is violently rejected and despised by Islam. The Koran, which is the law of Islam, provokes to discrimination, to hatred and to violence. Do not attribute to me that which I denounce.
The proofs of this hatred and of this violence are legion both in the past and in the present.
For as long as Moslems are an insignificant minority in a Christian country they can live in a friendly way, because they follow the laws and customs of the country which accepts them. But as soon as they are numerous and organized they become aggressive and they seek to impose their laws, which are hostile to European civilization. Examples are abundant. Soon they will take charge of our city councils, and will transform our churches into mosques. We will either have to become Moslem, leave the country or become their captives. This is in the profound nature of Islam. It is not I who am racist in denouncing this very racism.
The pretended defamation is only the statement of obvious facts. Kidnapping of white girls is well known to the police and it still exists today. It is not defamation to denounce the kidnappers of our compatriots. It is to call upon justice and demand the protection of our fellow citizens. If you prevent us from crying out against the nefarious consequences of Islam’s penetration of France and Europe, you render yourselves accomplices to the violence committed in the name of the Koran by Islam in our Christian countries. It is they who have undertaken this procedure against us, a procedure which truly shows the fundamental racism of Islam against the French, against the Jews and against every religion which is not Moslem.
It is not I who am racist because I denounce racism. I lived all my life in the midst of other races ‑ thirty years in Africa, among animists and Moslems. There I strove to bring them both spiritual and material goods ‑ schools, hospitals, etc. They showed their gratitude in decorating me as Officer of the Equatorial Star of Gabon and Grand Officer of the National Order of Senegal, and the French government recognized my overseas services by making me Officer of the Legion of Honor.
To condemn me as a racist because I seek to protect my country which is menaced in its very existence and Christian traditions... this would be to use justice for injustice. This would be the justice at the service of executioners whose victims have at most the right to keep quiet and to perish. This would be the summit of injustice.
† Marcel Lefebvre
Ecône
May 12, 1990