ABSTRACT

France is a European country having the biggest number of Muslim immigrants. The presence of Muslims in France can be traced back to the aftermath of Second World War due to the need for labor. Muslims’ religious practices such as the wearing of ostensible religious symbols lead French intellectuals to consider Islam as incompatible with the Republican values. They also see it as a source of terror, taking into account the various terrorist attacks France has undergone, and which are imputed to a very small number of Muslims. This pushes a slew of writers and scholars to present their standpoints towards Muslims immigrants through some literary works, wherein Muslims are seen as strangers and colonizers that occupy the French territory in large quantities, and this is referred to as ‘Le Grand Remplacement’ [Camus, R. 2012. Le grand remplacement. Neuilly-sur-Seine: David Reinharc]. In this regard, many French writers warn against the possible decline of France [Houllebecq, M. 2015. Soumission. Paris: Flammarion] as it would be conquered by Muslim immigrants wherein the latter would establish their order and laws; thus, France would be Islamized. The present paper aims at delving beneath the textual contents of the novel in order to explore the perceptions and typifications of Muslim immigrants, using textual content analysis.