Jesse Hughes is “persona non grata” in France
Jesse Hughes is “persona non grata” in France

The love story between the Eagles of Death Metal and France lasted just six months. That American band was performing at Le Bataclan theater on 13th of November, when two ISIS suicide bombers exterminated 89 people in a turkey shoot (including Nick Alexander, Eagles’ merchandising manager). For weeks, France rallied around this group of anarchists from California with their culture of middle America.

Now the Eagles of Death Metal are toxic in France and two music festivals, Rock en Seine and Cabaret Vert, just canceled their performance. “Being in total disagreement with recent statements made by Jesse Hughes in an interview, we decided to cancel the band’s performance”, said the two festivals.

“They’d never heard a gunshot in real life and it hit them so hard”.
Last February, Eagles’ frontman Jesse Hughes was interviewed by French TV Itele. When asked about gun control, Hughes asked:

“Did your French gun control stop a single f*****g person from dying? I think the only thing that stopped it was some of the bravest men that I’ve ever seen charging head-first into the face of death with their firearms. I think the only way that my mind has been changed is that maybe until nobody has guns everybody has to have them. Because I’ve never seen anyone that’s ever had one dead, and I want everyone to have access to them, and I saw people die that maybe could have lived, I don’t know”.

Jesse Hughes shook up France’s humanitarian taboos once more. From the French weekly magazine L’Express to Britain's The Guardian newspaper, the media is now running stories of survivors who speak out against Hughes.

Hughes’ “sin” was an interview with Taki’s Magazine, titled “Surrendering to Death”. It is a tragic monologue exposing the most uncomfortable truths about the Paris’massacre. This is a selection of Hughes’ remarks:

- The same way the Rosenbergs could sell nuclear secrets from within America is the same way Muslim terrorists can attack us from within. It’s okay to be discerning when it comes to Muslims in this day and age. 

- When you’re at a soccer game in Europe and you see the words “United Arab Emirates,” you know there is a lot of Arab money floating around and influencing the dialogue. The conversation is constantly being steered away from scrutiny. They think we’re fools. So many movies are made with Arab money. George Clooney doesn’t kiss the ass of the Arabs for no reason. 

- A day after, at the stadium, Muslims booed the moment of silence and we barely heard about it in the press. I saw Muslims celebrating in the street during the attack. I saw it with my own eyes. In real time!

-I remember a woman just standing with her hands up in a surrender pose. The terrorist finally saw her and all she did was go, “No no no.” She surrendered to death in front of my very eyes. I was yelling at her, “HEY!” and I don’t think she could hear me. She was so terrified, I think she’d already given up. When you tell people they can’t help themselves and that they’re children, you weaken them to a point where three feet away is life and they can’t see it because they’re too scared.

- It’s like the bleating sheep from Animal Farm. You suggest anything that strays from the narrative and this chorus of bleats comes to drown you out. This attack didn’t happen by accident.

- Terrorists know there’s a whole group of white kids out there who are stupid and blind. You have these affluent white kids who have grown up in a liberal curriculum from the time they were in kindergarten, inundated with these lofty notions that are just hot air. Look at where it’s getting them!

It is now much easier to understand why Jesse Hughes is now “persona non grata” in France. Is it possible that Europe’s pacifist and tolerant utopia devitalized its population from the ability to fight back darkness and terrorism? for its lives?

Have a look at Europe, many Europeans used to say, listen to their words: we have abolished wars, we have buried religion, we only negotiate, we are the moral Continent, we want to make the world a better place.

This is the meaning of Jesse Hughes’ most important lesson about 89 French boys and girls, men and women, massacred at Le Bataclan theatre: “They’d never heard a gunshot in real life and it hit them so hard”.

Did the Islamic State awaken them to reality?