French author facing year in jail over defense of great replacement theory & 'hate' charge

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French novelist Michel Houellebecq faces investigation over remarks about Islam and immigration, charged with inciting hatred and facing up to one year in prison and a 45,000 euro fine.

The 70-year-old author was charged on Tuesday, November 10, with “complicity in incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence against a group of people on the grounds of their origin or their membership or non-membership of a particular ethnic group, nation, race or religion.” The case stems from a complaint filed in November 2022 by the Union of Mosques of France (UMF) and the Movement against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples (MRAP).

The proceedings concern an interview Houellebecq gave to Front Populaire, the review founded by philosopher Michel Onfray. In it, the author discussed the decline of Western civilisation, the future of France, Islam and Muslim immigration.

Among the passages cited in the case is his prediction that there would be attacks and shootings in mosques and in cafés frequented by Muslims. He also said that once entire territories fell under Islamist control, he believed acts of resistance would occur, adding that “things can move quite fast.”

In the same interview, Houellebecq endorsed the “Great Replacement” theory popularised by writer Renaud Camus, whom he called a “good writer” who had observed a change in the ethnic and religious composition of Europe’s population. He described it as a “statistical fact” rather than a theory.

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