Mosque Files Complaint Against Author Houellebecq for Alleged Anti-Muslim Remarks

In a discussion between the writer and Michel Onfray published in a recent issue of the Front Populaire review, the author of "Submission and Serotonin" notably declared: "People are arming themselves. They are getting guns, taking courses at shooting ranges. And they are not hot heads. When entire territories are under Islamic control, I think acts of resistance will take place. There will be attacks and shootings in mosques, in cafes frequented by Muslims, in short, Bataclan in reverse."

And to add: "the wish of the native French population, as they say, is not that the Muslims assimilate, but that they stop stealing and assaulting them. Or else, another solution, that they leave."

These remarks, considered "as being an incitement to hatred against Muslims", provoked the reaction of the Grand Mosque of Paris. "These lapidary phrases by Michel Houellebecq are unacceptable and stunningly brutal. They are not intended to enlighten any public debate but to stoke discriminatory and violent discourse," it was outraged.

"In a democratic society, the law allows for the criticism of religions, and it totally accepts this debate, in which everyone can provide the contradiction. In the present case, however, it is a call for the rejection and exclusion of the Muslim component as a whole. So the debate is no longer possible, and it is now the strict application of the law that should be requested," the religious institution wrote.