Dystopian scenarios – scary, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it films and fiction – are on the rise. Michel Houellebecq’s novel Submission is about what goes wrong in France when a charismatic, affable leader Muhammed Ben Abbes is swept into power in 2022, transforming French socialism and republicanism, both by now, declasse and eroded, into the Caliphate francaise.