PARIS (Reuters) - A provocative French writer on trial for calling Islam ``the stupidest religion'' denied charges of inciting racism on Tuesday but argued the Koran was inferior to the Bible as a literary work.
Michel Houellebecq, who was sued by four Muslim groups after his comments appeared in a magazine interview, told a packed Paris court he had the right as a writer to criticize religions.
He rejected the label ``anti-Muslim racist,'' saying the term did not make sense, and accused the editor of the literary monthly Lire of twisting his words in the interview last year which was shortened from a six-hour conversation.
``He got it into his head that I was obsessed with Islam,'' said Houellebecq, 45, who looked shy and unsure in the dock. ``The way it (the interview) came out was crooked.''
The Muslim groups, which include the Mecca-based World Islamic League and the Paris Mosque, accused the writer of insulting Islam in an interview with Lire during last year's launch of his novel ``Plateforme.''
The case has become a cause celebre reminiscent of the Salman Rushdie affair, pitting free speech against religious sensitivities at a time when public concern about Islam has grown due to the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Shortly after the trial started, 11 people in the courtroom stood up in T-shirts saying ``No to the censure of the imams'' and ``Marianne veiled, Marianne raped'' -- a reference to the female symbol of the French republic. They were led out of the room.
Lire is also on trial over the remarks, which the Muslim groups say insults the Muslim community as a whole.
SEES ALL SCRIPTURES AS HATE TEXTS
Houellebecq, who lives outside Cork in Ireland, said he had read three translations of the Koran and several books about it.
``In literary terms, the Bible has several authors, some good and some as bad as crap,'' he said. ``The Koran has only one author and its overall style is mediocre.''
He rejected statements by the Muslim groups that theirs was a religion of peace, saying the holy scriptures of all three great monotheistic religions -- Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- were all ``texts of hate.''
But he added that criticizing a religion did not amount to slandering its adherents: ``I do not see how criticizing a religion in an acerbic manner involves them as people.''
Houellebecq, 45, the bete noire of contemporary French literature, is no stranger to controversy. He offended conservatives and the politically correct left with his 1998 novel ``Les Particules Elementaires'' (''Atomised'' in English).
Paris Mosque rector Dalil Boubakeur says Muslims have been insulted once before by Houellebecq, who had the main character in Plateforme admit he felt ``a quiver of glee'' every time a ``Palestinian terrorist'' was killed.
Women's groups were also outraged by the main character in Plateforme because he supported sex tourism in Southeast Asia.
The World Islamic League, the Lyon Mosque and the National Federation of Muslims in France have joined the Paris Mosque in bringing Houellebecq to trial.
ISLAMOPHOBIA
France's Human Rights League joined them as a civil party, saying Houellebecq's comments amounted to ``Islamophobia'' and deserved to be sanctioned as part of the league's struggle against discrimination and racism.
Houellebecq's publisher Flammarion has distanced itself from the author, whose comments some say may have cost him France's prestigious Goncourt prize -- for which he had been a contender.
The novelist writes in a detached style about a bleak world in which people have forgotten how to love.
Translated into 25 languages, ``Atomised'' incensed France's 1968 generation with its scathing descriptions of the hippie era but won him France's November prize in 1998 and the Impac award, one of the world's biggest fiction prizes.
Losing his case may mean a year in jail or a $51,000 fine.
The hearing was due to wind up late on Tuesday and the judge would take about a month before announcing the verdict.