French Author Stops Promoting Novel (Submission) Amid ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Manhunt
The controversial French novel featured on the cover of France’s “Charlie Hebdo” magazine this week is slated to be published in the U.S. despite Wednesday’s deadly attack on the magazine’s offices in Paris. French author Michel Houellebecq has stopped promoting his controversial novel depicting a France led by a Muslim president, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack, his agent’s office said Friday.
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Although Mr. Houellebecq has described “Submission” as “political science-fiction,” it has ignited a nationwide controversy with accusations he is fueling mistrust and hatred toward Muslims.
The plot of his book unfolds in 2022 as François Hollande has finished what Mr. Houellebecq describes as the French president’s “disastrous second mandate.” An Islamic candidate, Mohammed Ben Abbes, qualifies for the runoff of the presidential election on a platform of religious and traditional values that appeal to a growing segment of the French electorate disillusioned with Western modernity. Rallying the French political establishment to his campaign after protracted negotiations, Mr. Ben Abbes finally defeats his opponent, National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is depicted in the book as archenemy of political Islam.
In Mr. Houellebecq’s account, French society peacefully accepts the new regime, where women are banned from the workplace and must wear the Islamic veil. On the bright side, he writes, economic prosperity is back after decades of record unemployment, and crime rates are brought back to a minimum Since its release Wednesday, the book—“Soumission” in French—has remained the No. 1 best seller on Amazon’s French website.
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The title of the book can be seen as a reference to one of the possible translations of the word Islam, even though Islam is widely interpreted as a submission or allegiance to God, not to a particular political order. “Submission” is also the title of a 2004 short film by Dutch film director Theo van Gogh, which deals with violence against women in Islamic societies. Mr. van Gogh was murdered by a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim a few months after the film aired on Dutch television.
Mr. Houellebecq has a history of stirring up controversy in France. “After all, the most stupid religion is Islam,” he said in a 2001 interview with a French literary magazine. “When you read the Quran, you’re appalled.…The Bible at least, is beautiful, because Jews know damn well how to write…Islam has been a dangerous religion since its inception.”
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