Investigating Michel Houellebecq Is a Dangerous Mistake
On Tuesday, a judge placed Michel Houellebecq, one of the country’s most significant living writers, under investigation for his alleged “complicity in incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence,” an accusation that stems from comments he made about Muslims several years ago.
- Yesterday, the Union of Mosques of France, one of the groups that had filed a complaint against Houellebecq, issued a statement invoking the attack as an illustration of the danger of his rhetoric.
- It is statistically evident.” Houellebecq’s lawyers have disputed that his remarks amount to incitement, correctly noting that predicting violence is not the same as provoking it.
- Houellebecq’s remarks were controversial and insensitive, but defending his freedom to speak does not require finding his words unobjectionable.
“I believe that the wish of the population with French roots, as the phrase goes, is not for Muslims to assimilate,” Houellebecq continued, “but for them to stop stealing from and assaulting them, in short, for the violence to decrease, for them to respect the law and people.
- His place is not in a courtroom.” After the interview came out, Muslim and anti-racist groups filed complaints against Houellebecq.
- “When entire territories come under Islamist control, I think acts of resistance will take place,” Houellebecq said.
- Houellebecq’s supposed crime occurred in November 2022 during an interview with the magazine Front Populaire.
- The debate over Houellebecq’s comments acquired renewed urgency following a mass shooting last month.
- “There will be attacks and shootings in mosques, in cafés frequented by Muslims, in short, Bataclans in reverse.” He was referring to a 2015 attack on Paris’s Bataclan concert hall, one of several acts of jihadist terrorism in the 2010s that collectively killed hundreds in France.
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