There is nothing tame about the fame of Michel Houellebecq, the most controversial of French writers whose novel Platform was criticised for its anti-Islamic tone. He was even accused of inciting racial hatred and taken to court during a publicity tour of the book. Houellebecq’s next book, which will be out on 7 January has already become a topic of intense debate in France, because it predicts that a Muslim will become the President of France in 2022, beating the far-Right Front. The highest Muslim population in Europe is in France—between five to six million people. After the ban on burqas, and the fear of French Muslims fighting in Syria returning home to perpetrate violence, the nation is wracked by a rise in Islamophobia.