Front National Councillor Urges French Far-Right Party to Convert to Islam

Maxence Buttey

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A far-right local councillor shocks Marine Le Pen's party by becoming a Muslim and sending Front National officials a video in which he urges them to embrace Islam

A Front National local councillor has embarrassed France's far-Right party by announcing his recent conversion to Islam – and urging fellow members to join him.

Maxence Buttey, 22, offended officials of the anti-immigration party by sending them a video in which he praised the "visionary" virtues of the Koran and urged them to become Muslims.

Mr Buttey, a councillor in the eastern Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand, said the Front National and Islam had much in common.

"Both are demonised and very far from the image portrayed in the media," he told Le Parisien newspaper. "Like Islam, the FN defends the weakest. The party denounces exorbitant interest rates charged on the debt of our country, and Islam is against the practice of usury."

Jordan Bardella, a local party secretary, said Mr Buttey had been suspended from a regional FN committee. » | David Chazan, Paris | Saturday, October 25, 2014