France: Writer Michel Houellebecq accused of inciting hate and violence against Muslims

The French writer Michel Houellebecq has been accused of hate crimes against Muslims for remarks he made in an interview in 2022.

Houellebecq, 70, is one of France's most internationally renowned authors.

French authorities filed charges on Tuesday against the novelist and essayist for "complicity in incitement to discrimination, hatred, or violence against a group of people on the basis of their origin or their membership or non-membership in a specific ethnic group, nation, race, or religion," specifically targeting Muslims, according to a report from AFP.

The statements that led to the legal proceedings date back to 2022. In an interview with the French magazine Front Populaire, Houellebecq stated that Muslims posed a threat to the French "'pure-blooded'."

"The desire of the 'pure-blooded' French population, as they say, is not for Muslims to assimilate, but for them to stop stealing from them and assaulting them. Or, alternatively, that they leave," said the writer.

In addition, Houellebecq referred to the jihadist attacks carried out at the Bataclan concert hall (Paris) in 2015, suggesting that such attacks could be carried out against Muslims on French soil.

Various French organizations filed a joint complaint against Houellebecq over those statements. The author's legal team maintains that his words "fall within the scope of freedom of opinion and expression."