FRANCE-HOUELLEBECQ Novel on hypothesis of an Islamic government in France in 2022 sparks controversy

Record ID: 565730

  • Title: FRANCE-HOUELLEBECQ Novel on hypothesis of an Islamic government in France in 2022 sparks controversy
  • Date: 7th January 2015
  • Summary: VENICE, ITALY (FILE - SEPTEMBER 2, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HOUELLEBECQ AND MOVIE TEAM BEING INTERVIEWED
  • Embargoed: 22nd January 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA39M5PI4KKP7JA5PWE6ZP76947
  • Story Text: A new novel imagining a France of the near future controlled by an Islamist government seeking to instate religious schooling and polygamy provoked a furore in the country in which fears of rising Muslim influence have spurred the rise of the far right.
    "Submission," the latest novel by celebrated French writer Michel Houellebecq that appears in bookstores on Wednesday (January 7) has illicited both criticism and praise in both the literary and political worlds, while placing the fierce yet often veiled debate over Islam in France firmly in the spotlight.
    The novel was released the same day as the worst terrorist attack on French soil in recent decades as two masked gunman, shouting religious slogans in Arabic, gunned down at least 12 people at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
    Houellebecq's novel has stirred up latent alarm over the influence of France's estimated five million Muslims - Europe's largest - at a time when the unpopularity of Socialist President Francois Hollande has helped push more voters into the open arms of the anti-immigrant National Front, led by Marine Le Pen.
    The French author defended the novel on Wednesday morning, said he had taken no sides in writing the book.
    "It's not really a prophecy, one can eventually speak of a political fiction. Yes, it's a satire because the politicians are quite ridiculous, university professors too, so there are quite a few comic characters, and it's true that usually symbolises satire," he said. Houellebecq added he is unaware of novels which have forced individuals to change their voting intentions.
    The novel is set in 2022 following an imagined second mandate by Hollande. To thwart a presidential win by the National Front, France's two leading parties, the Socialists and UMP conservatives, team up to support the "Muslim Fraternity" party.
    While preaching moderation, the party begins to introduce Islam into the educational system, while promoting polygamy and the full-faced veil for women.
    Speaking ahead of the book's release, Hollande said he would read the novel.
    "I will read it because it is creating a debate. Literature is freedom so I will read it without wanting to comment too early here. But I would like to come back to what I was saying, because what we think as bold literature is only a repetition, and has always been, century after century, this temptation for decadence, of decline, of this compulsive pessimism, of this need to doubt yourself," he told journalists on French Inter radio.
    The novel, whose scenario Houellebecq insists is plausible, comes on the heels of a controversy stoked by another book, "The French Suicide" by anti-immigration editorialist Eric Zemmour. That best-seller argues that islamisation and a political elite that is powerless against it are causing France to unravel.
    Customer Francois who had just purchased the book at a store in Paris, said the furore surrounding it was a good publicity campaign.
    "Is he going to beat Zemmour, is he going to beat the former partner of the president (Valerie Trierweiler) when it comes to sales? That's the question, the rest is just for show," he said.
    Theatre critic Roland Sabra said the book reflected a topical debate in French society.
    "I don't know if it's justified but it reflects in any case a frame of mind, a debate which is a debate which has shifted with Houellebecq on the literary field but which is a debate which shakes, I think, the French society, and a debate which is in any case about the loss of certain values which result in any case in a transformation of the world in which we live," he said.
    Liberation daily's Editorial Director Laurent Joffrin, writing ahead of the book's release, said the novel has "an obvious political resonance."
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