Michel Houllebecq
Michel Houllebecq is a controversial French novelist.
According to one source, he frequently criticises 'liberalism, feminism and religion. Particularly religion, and especially Islam'.
Contents
Views
On Islam
In 2002 Houllebecq was charged with inciting racial or religious hatred after calling Islam 'the most stupid of religions' but was acquitted in court.[1]
Activities
His sixth novel Submission, scheduled to be published in English in September 2015 is set in 2022, and imagines France electing its first Muslim president.[1]. As a consequence, in the novel 'immediately all women go veiled in the street, state secondary schools adopt an Islamic curriculum, and [the protagonist] François is informed that he cannot return to his university work unless he converts to Islam.'[2] Critics argued that this narrative was fear-mongering and accused him of fomenting Islamophobia.[3]
Likely due to this them, Houellebecq was featured on the cover of Charlie Hebdo, the French magazine where 12 people were murdered on on 7 January 2015, shortly before the attacks. Houellebecq reportedly 'postponed promotional work and retreated to an unspecified location' following the attacks.[1]
In a previous novel, Platform, two characters are murdered by Muslims, reportedly described in the book as 'clots' in the 'blood vessels' of Europe.[3]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Martin Pengelly, Who is Michel Houellebecq, the French novelist on the Charlie Hebdo cover?, The Guardian, 10 January 2015
- ↑ Soumission by Michel Houellebecq review – much more than a satire on Islamism, The Guardian, 9 January 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lizzie Dearden, Michel Houellebecq's Submission: Author says novel imagining Muslim-run France is not Islamophobic scare story, The Independent, 5 January 2015
