As Londoners anoint their first Muslim mayor, Labour MP Sadiq Khan, readers of Michel Houellebecq’s satire Submission might remember the fictional Muslim Brotherhood president of France, Mohammed Ben Abbes. In the controversial 2015 novel, Abbes’ moderate theocratic platform slides into full totalitarianism while limp, scholarly protagonist Francois helplessly looks on and, ultimately, gladly submits.
Sadiq Khan shares with Abbes a winsome handling of the press, easy popular appeal, and a preference for invoking his gratitude to his immigrant parents’ adopted homeland: “We’re blessed being in this country,” he likes to say. Londoners initially hesitant to support Khan might have felt, as Francois does first seeing Abbes make his case on TV, that “none of it sounded especially new.”
