The trial of Oriana Fallaci, renowned journalist and author of Italian origin, accused of defaming Islam in a book, was opened and adjourned on Monday (June 12) in an Italian court. Neither the complainant nor the defendant attended the hearing. The judge ordered the next hearing on June 26.



The charge stems from a recent book, The Force of Reason, the follow up to ‘The Rage and the Pride’ she has published following the September 11 attacks on the US. In the book, Fallaci, 77, is alleged to have made 18 blasphemous statements, including referring to Islam as “a pool that never purifies”.





The AP news agency and the Guardian London referred the book as ‘The Strength of Reason’, while the IranMania, a blog gave the name of the book as ‘Power of Wisdom’.



A former war correspondent, Fallaci has frequently stirred debate with her views, which are largely based on the notion that Muslims are engaged in a plot to conquer Europe by immigration. She has been accused of trying to incite racial hatred, but has also been applauded by rightwing factions and free speech activists.



Adel Smith, head of the Italian Muslim Union, brought the lawsuit against her.



Fallaci, who is suffering from cancer, lives in New York. She said in an interview two weeks ago with the New Yorker magazine that she would not stop expressing her views, adding that a mosque that is being built in the province of Siena in her neighbourhood should be blown up and destroyed.



Smith is known for having sought unsuccessfully to have crucifixes removed from classrooms in the public school in Abruzzo his sons attend.



Fallaci has been adopting a strong anti-Islamic stand during the course of the past few decades, and had openly declared recently that if she would see the minaret of the newly constructed mosque in her neighborhood is completed she would blow it up relying on assistance of her friends.