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'.[1]
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 1.3 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
