Excerpt:
The Brussels-based Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) issued a statement mourning the death on June 13 of French Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy, prompting fierce criticism on Saturday from the Simon Wiesenthal Center's office in Paris.
According to the president of the Islamic organization, the "FIOE received with great sorrow the news of the death of the French thinker Roger Garaudy, known to the world as a distinguished philosopher with a life of diverse contributions and interactions across the world."
The FIOE statement, which was posted on the group's website, added that Garaudy was a "great thinker" and "whether people agree or disagree with pioneering thinkers, they cannot in any way ignore the vibrant ideological and human life of a thinker, who spent close to a whole century of our lifetime, with a keen concern for achieving understanding between nations, and interaction between civilizations."