Hortefeux A Friend Of Islam Not Racist, Says Rector Aboubakr

The rector of the Great Mosque f Paris, Dalil Aboubakr, said on Saturday that former Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux is a friend of Islam, the one who installed anti-Islamophobia commission in 2010, and thus innocent of racism charges.

Mr Dalil Aboubakr had been summoned on Thursday by the appeal court of Paris to give his witness over the racism case that an emigrant student has brought to justice, accusing Hortefeux of uttering racist words against him, during the 2009 Summer University of the Union for the Republic in power in France. In June 2010, the trial court has fined Hortefeux 750 euros, and 2000 euros as compensation to the victim, before the defendant appealed the ruling.

Rector Dalil Aboubakr told Echorouk reporter by phone, from France, that “Defending Hortefeux before the court is a duty toward this friend of Islam, who gave a lot to Muslims,” adding: “He is the one who installed the anti-Islamophobia commission in July 2010, and I do not believe he committed any racist crime, given that the court cleared him.”