Photo: WENN
Another survivor of the Paris terror attacks that killed 89 Eagles Of Metal fans has spoken out, telling frontman Jesse Hughes: 'I love your music, but your stupidty is fucking dangerous'.
Hughes has caused some controversy with a number of his comments. He called for more people to have guns for protection, before claiming that Bataclan security may have known the attacks were going to happen, and been in on the atrocities - which shook the world when ISIS struck back in November.
The venue later slammed his views as 'insane', then apologised for his 'absurd accusations' and saying that he was under immense stress and turmoil following the incident.
Now, fellow fan and survivor Ismael El Iraki writes in an open letter to Hughes via The Guardian: "I love your [band's] music, your concerts mostly (such fun, wild shows) and man, I never thought that you would become one of those spreaders of fear. Fox News, Trump, all those guys. You always felt like a maverick, a rebel: we now know that you are not. We (and by that I mean the rebels, the mavericks, the rock crowd) always loved and defended you because you were a lovable fool and kind of a dumb fuck, like the Three Stooges or Tex Avery’s wolf. You now proved your stupidity to be fucking dangerous."
He continues: "Your comments reopened a nasty wound. 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. 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. Wasn’t gonna miss an Eagles of Death Metal concert, and it was only the first of eight rock shows I had lined up that week.
"You say Islam is the problem. I say: “All you fucking bigots and your fairytale shit stories are the problem. Racism and refusal to recognize one another as complex (more complex than ethnicity or race can explain) human beings is the problem. Reducing others to what you think you know is the problem.
"Just come back to the real spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, which is that a good rock show should make you wanna fuck or fight. Not rally a nasty conservative politician."
The Bataclan later slammed his views as 'insane', then apologised for his 'absurd accusations' and saying that he was under immense stress and turmoil following the incident, before just last week telling Taki's Magazine: "There's no denying the terrorists were already inside, and they had to get in somehow. During the shooting I went outside and the backstage door was propped open. How did that happen?"
Rock En Seine and Cabaret Vert festivals in France have since dropped Eagles Of Death Metal from their line-ups, saying they are "in total disagreement with Jesse Hughes' recent allegations".
