Since surviving the Bataclan concert hall attacks last fall in which 89 people were killed, Eagles Of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes has stoked controversy. In March, he apologized after claiming that the venue's security was in on the attacks: "I've been dealing with non-stop nightmares and struggling through therapy to make sense of this tragedy and insanity." But he repeated the assertions in a more recent interview with TakiMag, claiming that Muslim staff inside the venue helped co-ordinate the attacks. These comments led to the band being cut from two different music festivals in France.
Yesterday Ismael El Iraki, an Eagles Of Death Metal fan who was at the Bataclan concert the night of the attacks, posted an open letter directed at Hughes. He shot down Hughes's claim that before the attacks Bataclan staff were trying to warn anyone who looked Muslim.
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 Morrocan, who got killed in the Ouagadougou attack. Silly international Muslim conspiracy. They really cannot do any job well.
He also described the heroism of Didi, a Muslim fan.
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... He was a fucking hero. An unarmed, red-blooded, real-life fucking hero that you just insulted with your racist, hateful comments.
El Araki concluded with a plea for co-existence.
"You say: 'Islam is the problem.' I say: 'All you fucking bigots and your fairytale shit stories are the problem.' Rock 'n' roll is love, man. LOVE. Look at yourself: you have become a spreader of hate, brother. Try to be more in life like the persona we all love when you are on stage. Try to spread the love. The real love, the kind that sees right through people's beards and skin colors and religious shit and garments, the kind that can unite not only a concert crowd but hopefully a nation, a whole world."
Read his entire letter above via Exclaim!. The FADER has reached out to Jesse Hughes for comment.