The Islamic republic of... France?

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Could a piece of fiction cause a hatred so strong that would lead to mass killings? The bloody attack in Paris leaving scores of dead innocents will probably add even more dramatism to the vision of one Michel Houellebecq of France as a possible future Islamic republic...

The attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that became infamous for its critical positions against Islam and the Muhammad cartoons from previous years (and whose latest cover was directly inspired by Houellebecq's writings), could also have a connection to Houellebecq's new book, where he describes a fictitious scenario of the Islamisation of France.

France, the year 2022. The crescent shines over Paris, and the green flag of Islam floats atop the Elysee Palace. France has just elected its first Muslim president, Mohammed ben Abbes. The new head of state decides to abolish the secular republic, and build an Islamic theocratic state, where polygamy is legalised, and men have all the power. Women are required to wear burqas and have no right to work or study, the Sorbonne is turned into an Islamic university, all professors there being obliged to accept Islam.

Just a fictional story or a peek into the future? The author seems to genuinely believe that such a far-fetched scenario is actually possible, even if it does not happen so soon as his book claims.

Some years ago, the world-famous writer got the high French literary award Goncourt, and the critics have never stopped calling him a highly controversial, even scandalous author ever since. His brand new book Submission only comes to confirm that. It bears an explosive message, which sounds as if it is taken directly from the rhetoric of the far-right Front National, which is now being echoed in Germany as well: "the West is threatened with Islamisation".

The French League against Racism and Anti-Semitism has warned that Houellebecq is playing with people's collective fears. They have called his books "the greatest present that Marine Le Pen could have received". What they mean is the political intrigue in the book: in order to stop FN and Le Pen from taking over the country, the mainstream leftist and centre-right parties collude to deny her the presidency in favour of the Muslim candidate, thus taking the responsibility for what happens afterwards. His critics believe that Houellebecq is settling scores with real French politicians and an entire political caste which in his view has failed to unite society.

French president Francois Hollande has distanced himself from Houellebecq. He believes his books are not some sort of literature bravery, but merely a regurgitation of old populist cliches. Because there have always been people who have praised the decadent and retrograde, and have dwelt in a permanent sense of hopeless pessimism. Houellebecq himself denies the accusation that he is aiming to fuel people's prejudices. The bad boy of French literature does not seem to believe that he merely plays the role of a professional provocateur. He is convinced that Marine Le Pen would not draw any benefits from his books, since she has been doing quite well in recent times, anyway.

Houellebecq's book, as well as in previous cases, has caused very polarised reactions. Some of the critics call it daring, funny, even a sarcastic satire of today's French society. Others call it an Islamophobic lampoon, solely designed to advocate the ideas of the far-right. The philosopher Malek Chebel says that Houellebecq uses his talent to fuel the fears of Islam, and exactly because he is a great writer, he should have more responsibility in that respect.

His books will probably affect the way the French people perceive the Islamic community in their country, along with yesterday's dreadful attack of course. There is a sense among the Muslim community that they are being branded and stigmatised, and used as a scapegoat for all of France's troubles. The economic crisis could naturally cause a crisis of values, even a moral crisis. And some demagogues in politics would be sure to enjoy taking benefit of this in order to sow fear and have political gains as a result. Unfortunately, Houellebecq's books tend to ultimately drive the point in the same direction.

Whether Submission is a painful call against Islam, or merely a social and political snapshot of the French society, Houellebecq himself will not tell. The protagonist in his latest book, a man called Francois, also finds it hard to define himself. He acknowledges that Islam has had both an attractive and repulsive effect on him, which can be quite confusing for the reader as well. This relativism affects both the character and the author, who has said that he neither supports nor rejects his protagonist, but would rather allow the reader to decide for themselves. Let us hope that he will not be massacred by some extremist lunatic in response to his writings, because these are points to be made and openly discussed, as opposed to being tackled with machine-guns and/or self-censorship.

Update: The much dreaded exchange of violence may have already begun.

Comments

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Seems like the French Police may have at least one of the wrong suspects for the Charlie Hebdo murders...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/08/charlie-hebdo-shooting-suspect-twitter-mourad-hamyd (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/08/charlie-hebdo-shooting-suspect-twitter-mourad-hamyd)

Maybe they have avoided the French version of the Jean Charles de Menezes fiasco, though.

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Indeed, the risk of a witch-hunt ensuing after these attacks, is great.

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

the risk of a witch-hunt ensuing after these attacks

Along with copycat attacks in the name of the Charlie Hebdo attacks as well.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

The terrorists who killed cartoonists should be found and prosecuted. Murder is not the way to right wrongs. Suing in court for slander, is. And Muslims may have a point about been wronged in this case, because even a cursory research shows what sort of systematic deliberate provocations that yellow magazine had been resorting to for quite a while, explicitly targeting religious faith. One could see things like this (NSFW (http://valsodar.blog.bg/photos/52113/original/1513172_10205581770454006_8733637638347901684_n.jpg)), or that photo where the "innocent" cartoonist was posing while licking the image of Muhammad.

That's not an expression of the freedom of speech. That's a deliberate provocation in very poor taste, aiming at gaining more publicity and doing more sales for the magazine. It's got nothing remotely resembling a social message in it. It's trolling. And as such, it should've been "openly addressed" - in court. Not on the battlefield that the magazine office was turned into.

The offended Muslims can't win this way. And the "indigenous Europeans" can't "win their land back from the barbarians" by throwing grenades on mosques. All they'll both get is more hatred and blood.

[404.livejournal.com]

It's the price of living in a society that values freedom of speech. If Muslims can't handle people skewering their religion, I'm sure there are plenty of countries that will make sure their precious snowflake feelings are not disturbed, maybe move to Saudi Arabia, or Iran.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

That's all nice and cosy, but have you heard anything of the defamation laws in France? If France can champion the efforts to combat anti-Semitism, then perhaps it ought to stay true to that principle that they've themselves set, and show some standard here?

Let's not pretend that those guys at the magazine were just poking some innocent fun at a fictional character, while remaining totally unaware of the implications of those provocations. That's just lame.

The best thing about being mature about the freedom of speech is to know where its limits are, and where you enter troll territory.

That said, I reiterate that killing people for ideology is barbaric and should be met with absolute zero tolerance.

[leo-sosnine.livejournal.com]

not surprised to read that in this community

"offended muslims" yeah

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

That's not a typically Balkanite approach to the matter. The one to be expected from your corner of the continent would be "See? Told you so, Muslims bad, kill Muslims!" Or something slightly more sophisticated. Are you sure you're a True Balkanite, hmmm?

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

"That's not an expression of the freedom of speech."

In many countries, it isn't considered one, but I'd argue that it should be. If we only protect speech that is offensive to no one, we might as well not have free speech at all. Offensive, divisive expression is exactly the sort of thing that deserves the strongest protections*, else the very concept of "freedom of speech" become meaningless.

If some become violent because of said expression, that is a symptom of deeper underlying problems, and those problems won't go away simply by discouraging certain kinds of expression.


(*this does not mean that such speech has no consequences, but these are matters for societal pressure, the court of public opinion, etc. Consequences should be the result of NGOs leveraging social pressure, not state punishment.)

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

Houllebecq for all his islamophobia is in general quite an exceptional writer, having read several of his early books I am curious enough to read his latest "propaganda". It's possible though that he's gone somewhat senile as he's always been a bit on the edge and quite an outsider from mainstream society.

Interestingly enough I visited the Charlie Hebdo offices almost by accident, back in 2010, while on vacation in Paris with my family. Was always a big fan of French comics like Fluide Glaciale (you can find lots of backissues on issuu if you are a fan, BTW), and having only recently heard of Charlie, I found their location on the net and just walked in the door, thinking I would find some old dudes with stacks of old comics lying around. At the time there had been no threats yet (those started in 2011) and they were just like, can we help you? I explained in my bad French that I thought it was a store of their old issues, excused myself and left. A year later they got firebombed and yesterday was the last attack... an unfair revenge committed by cowards who can't take a joke.

The fact is that in most Western countries you couldn't even publish stuff like that, making fun of all kinds of stuff that people hold sacred. Religion, sex, the law, politics, everything was a matter of ridicule and laughter in these publications I've seen. The caricatures they make of Jesus among others are so absurdly funny that in some countries they would get probably get prison sentences right away. That's one thing I noticed about French (and Italians to some extent), they basically will insult anyone and everyone whenever they feel like it.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Je suis charlie. (http://www.vox.com/2015/1/7/7507883/charlie-hebdo-explained-covers)

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

That one is funny beyond life and death.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they poked at a lot of topics.









I hope the magazine is somehow resurrected, but alas, I fear it won't :-(

Many apologies for the edits. the lj-spoiler tag borks html-table tags.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Ideology (religion, nationalism, and all sorts of -isms) is the bane of human civilization, and the root of all evil in this world. Has always been, and will continue to be so for a long time to come.

People have the right to be assholes to other people, and other people have the right to recognize them for the assholes that they are - even if being an asshole helps bring a point through at times. But ending human lives in a gruesome and violent manner over ideology? Now that's beyond despicable. It's not just inhuman, it's NON-human. These people are not humans. They're animals.

Which still doesn't make the millions of ordinary peeps who happen to share their particular brand of mass delusion that they call religion, monsters. The temptation to label them so is particularly big in moments like these, I know. But how we humans conduct ourselves in such situations, is exactly what defines who and what we are.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

What I found paradoxically ironic in this whole debacle is that a left-wing magazine has essentially helped make the point of the likes of Wilders, Le Pen and the other far-right extremists who've been warning about the Islamic Menace for quite a while. These terrorists essentially provided them with the rationale they needed to push their agenda even more vigorously through.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Which is exactly what they want. Recruiting gets a bonus every time some Robespierre wannabe wants to flex his muscles to kill people he doesn't like for La Patrie.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

This is only one of many events within a long chain, the previous ones being those mass riots in the Paris suburbs some time ago. The issue will not only not be going away, no matter how hard some are hoping, but it'll be coming back again and again, ever harder.

It shows that the presumably advanced societies have missed something very significant in the whole picture.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

As I noted in DDStory's thread earlier, Baraka is a very real thing and we ignore it or discount it's influence at our own peril. It seems that secular western democracy is ill-equipped to recognize or fight the glamour that such movements exude.

(frozen) (no subject)

[planet-x-zero.livejournal.com]

"Consider yourself warned"

Consider myself censored. Let the adults debate. Why you feel like you need to go around policing the debate is incredibly disturbing in light of what's going on.

(frozen) (no subject)

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Here's the deal, and it's actually very simple. Read the rules of this community. You needn't even go beyond the very first one:

"If you must attack, attack the opinion and not the person. Name-calling will not be tolerated."

What you did up there was the exact opposite.

Here's the essence of that rule, as clear as I could convey it to you. Personal attacks WILL NOT be tolerated here even for a minute, period. You may call that censorship, stomping upon your divine rights to troll people, whatever. It. Just. Will. NOT. Happen.

Here's how it goes. By joining the community, you've essentially subscribed to its rules. If you can't or won't respect them, then perhaps you should look for alternatives. May I recommend 4chan for example.

The next time you cause any drama of this sort, you're getting a direct suspension. I have no patience for this sort of disruption right now.

Btw, if you had ever bothered to check the rules, you would've realised that this is not the place for expressing grievances of this sort. THIS (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1301765.html) one is.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Just saw this...

Hacktivist’ group Anonymous says it will avenge Charlie Hebdo attacks by shutting down jihadist websites. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11335676/Hacktivists-Anonymous-says-it-will-avenge-Charlie-Hebdo-attacks-by-shutting-down-jihadist-websites.html)



It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

That will totally show'em! :)

Nah. Actually this could be a serious blow on them, even if temporary. The IS has extensively used social media to build itself an image and recruit new lunatics to the cause. That could have an impact.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

That's awesome. If anyone could do it, they can.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2014/1119/After-Ferguson-threat-Anonymous-removes-the-KKK-s-hoods.-Effective-video

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, brutality dictating good taste is utterly abominable and entirely unacceptable. This, I'd hope, would earn 100% approval ratings as far as the comment goes.

However, we're also talking the state that invented the modern use of bloodshed for political purposes as far back as the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror in 1792. In one sense, one could actually say the Islamists are aping the France of Robespierre aiming to see if the France of Hollande will act like the USA of George "Mission Accomplished" Bush. Since we are talking France, it's a fifty-fifty bet.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

They should hope so.

Bush really was "the best case" violent enough to aid recruitment, but lacking the conviction and moral support to actually pose a lasting threat.