Eric Zemmour
Nationality:
French
Place of Residence:
Paris, France
Occupation:
Political journalist, author, commentator
Medium:
TV, radio, books, interviews
He identifies himself as a French of Berber origin. In 1969, he moved to the Chateau Rouge district in the capital and later attended Sciences Po Paris, where he received a degree in public administration in 1979.
After failing the entrance exam to the French National School of Administration twice, he briefly worked in advertising. He began his career in journalism at the Quotidien de Paris in 1986, and joined Le Figaro as a political journalist in 1996. He first appeared on French TV in 2003 and, within a decade, became one of France’s most outspoken critics of immigration and Islam.
Ideas
On immigration
“Employers have the ‘right’ to refuse to hire Arabs or blacks.”
“On statistics related to delinquency of minors, I think there is between 90 to 95 percent of blacks and Maghrebians. It’s not ridiculous, it’s reality.”
In 2011, Zemmour was found guilty of inciting racial hatred after claiming “most drug traffickers are black and Arab; yes, it is a fact.”
He often cites bogus statistics regarding immigration, falsely claiming that there are 12 millions foreigners in France: “There are 5 million foreigners in France and their children under four years old represent 7 million. Or a total of 12 million.”
He has said: “We are no longer in France in many suburbs. French people have become foreigners in their own country.”
On Islam and Muslims
“All Muslims, whether they say it or not, consider jihadists to be good Muslims.”
“Islam is incompatible with the republic and France. Islam and Islamism are exactly the same thing. What we call Islamists, those refer to themselves as Muslims, when you say Daesh, and one refers to the Islamic State. Why? Because they apply Islam, everything they do is supported by Islamic suras. If they slaughter adversaries, it is written in the Qur’an that it is necessary to slaughter Jews and Christians. Muhammad himself killed many, and you know that for all Muslims he’s the perfect man who should be imitated.”
“In some neighborhoods, we do not live the French way but the Muslim way. Most women are covered, men wear outfits like the Prophet in the 7th century, we keep a close eye on young girls and forbid them go out with this or that boy, you are a whore if you wear a miniskirt, we watch young men to see if they drink alcohol. We can no longer call this France.”
“Islam is not a religion, it’s a law, it is a right and it is a nation; it is not a religion.”
“If tomorrow there were 30 or 40 million French Muslims determined to veil their wives and apply Shariah laws, the minimum rules of laïcité (freedom of public institutions) could only be preserved by a dictatorship.”
On women and feminism
“Before feminism, a young bus driver could slide a concupiscent hand over a charming female’s behind without her suing him for sexual harassment.”
When interviewed about his book “Le Premier Sexe,” and his views on politics and women, a journalist asked Zemmour whether power should stay in the hands of men. He replied: “Of course it does, otherwise power dissipates. Women are regents, it’s always been this way in French history. They don’t express power, they don’t incarnate power, that’s how it is.”
Video
The following may contain offensive material; Arab News does not support but believes it is important to be aware of its destructive influence.
Analysis
French journalist, author and commentator Eric Zemmour’s controversial stances on racism, immigration and Islam have brought widespread condemnation along with legal action by numerous organizations.
Charges filed against the self-styled “enemy of political correctness” include racial defamation, and making Islamophobic and xenophobic remarks.
In 2011, he was found guilty of incitement to racial hatred after telling a TV chat show that drug dealers were mostly “blacks and Arabs.”
Zemmour was born in Montreuil, a small town outside Paris, in 1958 and raised in the Chateau-Rouge district of the capital. He received a degree in public administration from Science Po Paris in 1979 and began his career in journalism at the Quotidien de Paris newspaper in 1986. In 1996, he joined Le Figaro as a political journalist. He first appeared on French TV in 2003 and, within a decade, became a prominent French critic of immigration and Islam.
Despite being a son of Algerian immigrants, Zemmour often focuses on a decline in French identity due to immigration. He has been a strong advocate of the “clash of civilizations” theory, which suggests that people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world, and of the nationalistic, far-right “Great Replacement” theory developed by French philosopher Renaud Camus.
According to this premise, Arab and African populations are replacing white French people with the complicity of European liberal elites. Zemmour sees the presence of French Muslims as a threat to French culture and civilization — this same outlook inspired the attacks on a Christchurch mosque and religious center that left more than 50 dead.
Zemmour favors an “assimilation model” of immigration, and repeatedly invents and distorts statistics on the subject in order to stir up fear, even going so far as to compare French immigration to a “demographic tsunami.”
He has condemned French people who give their children “foreign” names, including former president Nicolas Sarkozy whose daughter is named Giulia.
Regarding French people of Moroccan origin, he said: “To give a name that is not French to your child is not detaching oneself from Islam, it’s wanting to continue an Islamic identity in France, it is wanting to transform France into a country that is more and more Muslim.”
In 2019, during the recording of a French TV show, Zemmour told Hapsatou Sy, a French businesswoman of African descent, that her “non-French” name “was an insult to France and did not belong to French identity.”
Zemmour mainly targets French people of African descent and French Muslims, claiming their communities are violent and incompatible with French society.
Although French law does not allow statistics linked to ethnicity, he has falsely stated: “On statistics related to delinquency of minors, I think there is between 90 to 95 percent of blacks and Maghrebians. It’s not ridiculous, it’s reality.”
He has also declared that “Islam is incompatible with the republic and France, and that Islam and Islamism are exactly the same thing.
“What we call Islamists, those who refer to themselves as Muslims, when you say Daesh, you refer to the Islamic State. Why?” he asked. “Because they apply Islam, everything they do is supported by Islamic suras; if they slaughter adversaries, it is written in the Qur’an that it is necessary to slaughter Jews and Christians. Muhammad killed many himself and you know that in Islam and for every Muslim, he’s the perfect man who should be imitated.”