In Aulnay-sous-Bois, near Paris, preachers called nonbelievers animals doomed to hell and Shiites more impure than pigs and dogs. They had sources. The Quran calls Muslims "the best nation produced for mankind" (3:110), says no religion but Islam will be accepted (3:85) and promises to make it prevail over all others (9:33). Those who reject it are "the worst of creatures" (98:6), "like livestock; rather, they are more astray" (7:179), and polytheists are "unclean" (9:28). Hadiths turn rank into rules: "Islam is exalted and nothing is exalted above it" (al-Daraqutni), no Muslim is put to death for killing a disbeliever (al-Bukhari 111), whose blood money is half a believer's (al-Tirmidhi 1413), and Jews and Christians are to be pushed to the narrowest part of the road (Muslim 2167). Wherever these texts become law, the price of a life depends on its creed.
A prayer hall in Aulnay-sous-Bois, north of Paris, was ordered shut for six months, and the association running it has since been dissolved. Its preachers justified the killing of a Quran burner, attacked Jews and nonbelievers, and ranked Shiites below pigs and dogs. The mosque's lawyer suggests France now punishes quoting the Quran. The court disagreed.
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