Racism in France: Writer predicts attacks on Muslims as a ‘Bataclan in reverse’

The role of Muslims in French society and anti-Islamic racism are once again dividing some of the country’s intellectuals with the Muslim community. The rector of the Paris mosque has announced that he will denounce the writer Michel Houellebecq “for racism and serious comments about Muslims”, after his long conversation in the Front Popularie magazine with the sovereign philosopher Michel Onfray, in the December issue.

The Grand Mosque of Paris announced on Wednesday that it had filed a complaint against the writer for “serious” comments against Muslims in France. The perpetrator is accused by the Muslim institution of “hate provocation” for statements “of astonishing brutality”.

The Muslim establishment quotes several excerpts from the essay. “People are arming themselves. They get guns, they take lessons at shooting ranges. And these are not exalted,” said the writer.

“When all territories are under Islamic control, I think there will be acts of resistance. There will be attacks and shootings in mosques, in cafes frequented by Muslims. Decidedly upside down bataclanHouellebecq continued, referring to the attack on the Bataclan club by Islamic terrorists in Paris.

Shocked, the Grand Mosque denounced statements intended to “provoke discriminatory speech” and announced its readiness to file a complaint.

brutal statements

Previously winner of the Prix Goncourt 2010 he regularly criticized Islam and his followers. Too much provocation for Michel Houellebecq?

In a press release published on Wednesday December 28 on Twitter, the Grand Mosque of Paris announced its intention to press charges against the writer, after “very serious remarks about Muslims in France”.

The wishes of the “native French population”

“The wish of French native populationas they say, It’s not that Muslims assimilate, but stop robbing and attacking them. Or, another solution, that they leave”, said Michel Houellebecq, winner of the Goncourt 2010, in an interview with the philosopher.

“Unacceptable sentences of astonishing brutality,” said the rector of the Paris mosque.

In its press release, the Grand Mosque considers that “these sentences of stoning Michel Houellebecq are unacceptable and surprisingly brutal. They are not intended to shed light on any public debate, but rather to provoke discourse and, therefore, discriminatory actions“.

“The Dumbest Religion”

It is not the first time that the writer has attacked the Muslim community. “stupidest religion it is still islam. When you read the Koran you collapsed … collapsed! », He estimated in an interview with Lire magazine, in 2001 on the occasion of the launch of Plataforma. .”

Michel Houellebecq insisted, at the same time, in an interview published in Le Figaro. “Reading the Quran is disgusting” She said. “Islam, just born, is distinguished by its will to subjugate the world. His nature is to submit. It is a warlike, intolerant religion that makes people miserable.”

A 45 page essay

The two Frenchmen, a philosopher and a writer, both deeply quarrelsome, met for a summit at the Front Populaire magazine. Michel Onfray and Michel Houellebecq, observers of our times, of their customs, with a brutal vision of their civilizations, met for a long discussion.

Decline, death penalty, great replacement, Islam, transhumanism, feminism, spirituality, euthanasia are the themes of the December issue.

Michel Houellebecq declared the Great Replacement, which describes the replacement of native Europeans by non-Europeans throughout the West, as a “fact”, during an extensive debate with French philosopher Michel Onfray.

“I was surprised that the Great Replacement is called theory. It’s not a theory, it’s a fact,” Houellebecq said. “As far as immigration is concerned, no one checks anything. That’s the whole problem. Europe will be devastated by this cataclysm” challenges.

“Objectively that’s what the numbers say,” added Onfray, who said he believed the West’s decline was above all “a demographic decline”.

racist arguments

Both thinkers also talked about Islam, but had different views on its trajectory.

Onfray said he believed Islamism “isn’t such a powerful phenomenon,” but rather “a reaction to American power”. He stated that Muslims will end up taking sides in the West, under the banner of consumerist materialism and abandoning their religion, as other peoples, such as Europeans, have already done to a large extent.

houellebecq he thought differently: “When entire territories are under Islamist control, I think there will be acts of resistance. There will be bombings and shootings in mosques.”

He went on to add that he predicted “Bataclan in reverse,” referring to the Islamists who killed more than 100 Frenchmen at the Bataclan nightclub in Paris. “You believe that civil war is coming. I think it’s already herequietly,” Onfray replied.

Houellebecq and Onfray, addressed various topics, such as the European Union, God, immigration and euthanasia, in a 45-page essay.

“I want to defend the West, but it must be worth defending,” said Houellebecq, describing the content of his article co-written with Michel Onfray in the French magazine Front Populaire, warning “lovers of positive psychology and resilient absurdity, leave them go the other way”.

The philosopher and the writer, both convinced of the inevitable decline of the West, discuss in depth in their essay the dangers awaiting Europeans. These include transhumanism, the Great Replacement, Americanization, European bureaucracy, de-Christianization, environmentalism and the ongoing war in Ukraine, all issues that touch our time.

Discussion has been described as “exceptional dialogue (that) is not depressing, not even apocalyptic. It’s bright, deep, often funnyAnd charming in every way. The genius of the absurd of Houellebecq blends wonderfully with the rhetorical strength of Onfray”, writes Le Figaro.

Both authors also define themselves as “attached to the people”. “You’re like me. You’re a populist,” Onfray said, to which Houellebecq replied: “That’s fine with me. From the right, I have my doubts, but ‘populist’ is fine with me.”

Paris, correspondent

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