Watch has posted a translation of an article in the French journal Libération about Mohammed Ennacer Latrèche, the man behind the French Muslim Party (PMF) who sponsored yesterday’s demonstrations in Paris against the French hijab ban. (Hat tip: Merde in France.)

The son of an Algerian Imam from Strasbourg, Latr�che founded his party in 1997, after studies in Syria. His ambition was then to “liberate Muslims from the influence of the Socialist Party, the Zionist party.” He regularly drew attention to himself at the local level. Elected officials and the police have accused him of “overheating” the young on housing estates. In 2000, during the trial of a policeman who had killed a youth, Latr�che denounced “racist” jurors and a “partisan” justice, and led fifty demonstrators in prayer before the Strasbourg courthouse. However, it is the repeated incidents during many demonstrations that would make it impossible to associate with him. As recently as 2000, Licra [The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism], filed a complaint against him following the anti-Semitic slogans shouted during an event in support of the Palestinians. In 2001, he took aim at the philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy and the journalist Alexandre Adler. In 2002, he distributed pamphlets including maps from which Israel had been excised. The start of the war in Iraq gave him his 15 minutes of fame. He organized and participated in an operation of human-shields in Baghdad with several youths from Strasbourg neighborhoods. He also appears publicly with the Holocaust denier Serge Thion and co-edits “the Judeo-Nazi manifesto of Ariel Sharon” with Ginette Skandrani, the militant pro-Palestinian. Those close to him explain the silence of the local media regarding Latr�che by claiming that the former are “controlled by the Jews.”

Here’s Monsieur Latrèche in action, wearing a very comfortable-looking Western-style sport jacket.

Protest organizer Mohamed Latreche shouts slogans in a microphone behind a veiled woman as hundreds of Muslims take to the streets in Paris Saturday, Jan. 17, 2004, to protest the French government plan to ban religious attire in public schools. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)