A survivor of last year’s terrorist attack on Paris’ Bataclan theatre has issued a heartfelt response to Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes, who was performing inside the venue when three gunmen wearing suicide belts entered the theatre.
Since the attacks, Hughes has been vocal about his position on radical Islam and gun control, voicing several incendiary opinions and theories, most recently in an interview with conservative outlet Taki’s Mag, prompting a response from a fellow Bataclan survivor.
Originally taking to Facebook, Ismael El Iraki’s lengthy, eloquent post has since been syndicated by The Guardian. After sharing his passionate love for rock music and Hughes’s band, El Iraki addresses the frontman’s recent comments.
“So you say the security crew was in on it and was warning every Arab they saw. See, as you can see on this picture some guy took at the scene a few minute before your show began, I happen to be an Arab and to look very much like one,” he writes.
“I got a big black curly beard and the skin tone to match it. I also happen to live and breathe rock n’ roll. It is, my wife’s love aside, the single most important thing in my life. So of course, that warm November night, I was among the crowd at the Bataclan.”
“As I said I live and breathe rock ‘n’ roll, and I could not look more Muslim if I tried. But apparently, the big bad Muslim conspiracy missed me. Damn, they forgot to warn me. They also forgot to warn Djamila, and all the other Arabs who got shot and killed that very night.”
“They forgot to warn my fellow Moroccan Amin, who was shot that very night. Apparently, a few weeks later, the also forgot to warn Leila, another fellow Moroccan, who got killed in the Ouagadougou attack. Silly international Muslim conspiracy.”
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El Iraki then describes the actions of Didi, a Muslim present at the Bataclan on that fateful evening who was responsible for saving the lives of several people that night by opening “the left front door most of us got out of”.
“You know what he did, this Arab guy, this Muslim? He opened the left front door, let a shitload of people out, and then, while he was safe and sound in the street outside, HE WENT BACK IN. He turned back, and headed back in to save more people,” El Iraki writes.
“He was a fucking hero. An unarmed, red-blooded, real-life fucking hero that you just insulted with your racist, hateful comments. You, who are not a hero. You who are, just like me, just a regular guy who happened to be caught in an awful situation…”
“Just come back to the real spirit of rock ‘n’ roll,” El Iraki concludes, “which is that a good rock show should make you wanna fuck or fight. Not rally a nasty conservative politician.” Read the whole incredible post via The Guardian.
