Anti-Muslim remarks: Michel Houellebecq indicted

According to Le FigaroMichel Houellebecq was indicted in Nanterre for complicity in provoking discrimination, hatred or violence.

This procedure follows complaints from the Union of Mosques of France and the MRAP, after an interview with Michel Onfray published in the journal Popular frontin November 2022. The writer declared: “I believe that the wish of the ethnic French population, as they say, is not that Muslims assimilate, but that they stop stealing and attacking them, in short that their violence decreases, that they respect the law and people. Or, another good solution, is for them to leave. »

This indictment is a good thing. Faced with uninhibited anti-Muslim speech, which seems to believe that everything is permissible, it constitutes a salutary reminder. Presenting Muslims as a population of thieves and aggressors, then suggesting their departure, is not a simple criticism of religion. Literary prestige should not be used to make stigma respectable. Houellebecq remains presumed innocent. But fame grants no immunity.