A Front National local councilor has embarrassed France's far-Right party by announcing his recent conversion to Islam, and urging fellow members to join him, The Daily Telegraph said Saturday.
Maxence Buttey, 22, offended officials of the anti-immigration party by sending them a video in which he praised the "visionary" virtues of the Qur'an and urged them to become Muslims.
Buttey, a councilor in the eastern Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand, said the Front National and Islam had much in common.
"Both are demonized 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 Buttey had been suspended from a regional FN committee.
"Religion is a private choice which I respect but it must not enter into the sphere of our political activities. The proselytizing video which Maxence sent out is unacceptable," Bardella said.