Which is the real Michel Houellebecq? The great man likes to cultivate the confusion. Although he detests the French literary establishment (and the compliment is returned), Michel Houellebecq – or one part of Michel Houellebecq – is a classic French literary "poseur". He is invariably pictured with a cigarette dangling at an existential angle (ie with composed insouciance) between the index and third fingers of his right hand (ie not the traditional smoker's fingers).In court in Paris this week the bestselling novelist boasted that he had never had a coherent idea in his life. He was, he said, the greatest exponent of the judicious use of the semi-colon in the recent history of French literature. However, as all his friends knew, there was no point in asking for his opinion on anything.And yet he went on, willingly, to pour out his opinions.

All monotheistic religions promoted hatred, rather than love. The Bible was packed with passages "so boring they make you want to shit" But, at least, it had some poetry – unlike the Koran. He had no hatred or contempt for Muslims or Arabs; he just hated their "stupid" religion.Was he aware that the expression of such opinions could be contrary to the French Penal Code? He had never read the code, he replied. "It is excessively long and I suspect that there are many boring passages." (Laughter in court.)Mr Houellebecq, 44, was on trial for incitement to religious and racial hatred Judgement will be given next month. The case had been brought, not by the French state, which called for his acquittal, but by four Islamic organisations. On behalf of the six million Muslims in France, they want Mr Houellebecq to be punished for calling Islam "dangerous" and "the most stupid of all" religions.It has been suggested that Mr Houellebecq is a new Salman Rushdie, and there are some resemblances. He is being attacked by Islamic organisations for expressing anti-Islamic opinions.

He says that he fears for his life (although, unlike Rushdie, no one in power anywhere in the world has threatened it).In other, more significant, ways, Houellebecq is no Rushdie. He is not being attacked for what he wrote, although his most recent novel, Platform, which entered the British bestsellers' list this month, contains virulent anti-Islamic passages. It is also a (possibly spoof) apologia for sexual tourism, which, according to the book, is the only recourse left open to Western men and women, who have lost the instinctive capacity for love.Houellebecq is being sued under the laws of a democratic state for provocatively worded opinions that he expressed in an interview with a literary magazine The likelihood is that he will be acquitted. It was perhaps unwise of the Islamic groups to bring the prosecution but there is no doubt that, according to the letter of the vaguely worded French anti-racism legislation, they do have a cause for complaint.Houellebecq, in court and elsewhere, says we should learn to distinguish between a writer and his work. He says, like DH Lawrence, "Listen to the novel, not the novelist".Fair enough Houellebecq is an outstanding writer. At the very least, he stands out from the self-regarding dross of most contemporary French novels (of which more than 300 were published this month alone).

But Houellebecq also plays around, effectively and often amusingly, on the publicity-generating boundaries between his muddled life and opinions and his novels' mordant portrait of a moralising, but morally defunct, Western world.His male characters get drunk, visit sex clubs and proposition every woman they meet So, it appears, does he. He has lived for several years, with his wife and Welsh corgi, in a converted bed and breakfast on Bere Island, in Bantry Bay. He says that western part of County Cork is the perfect place to write because it is "quiet" and there are no "wife-swapping clubs" to distract him from working.His "hatred" (his own word) for Islam also hovers, disturbingly, on this frontier between Houellebecq the writer, and Houellebecq the psychologically fragile man. (His official biographical notes cheerfully admit to several nervous breakdowns.) The notes begin: "Michel Houellebecq (pronounced Wellbeck) was born on 26 February 1958 on the French (Indian Ocean) island of R?ion. His father, a mountain guide, and his mother, an anaesthetist, soon lost all interest in his existence ... At the age of six, Michel was given over to the care of his paternal grandmother, a Communist."What the notes do not say (although he talked about it in the contentious interview with Lire magazine) is that Houellebecq's mother left him and his father for a new relationship with a Muslim man and that she converted to Islam They have never been reconciled His real name is Michel Thomas. He assumed his grandmother's name – Houellebecq – only when he began to write.Houellebecq appears to have had a reasonably happy relationship with his granny, who was a rigid Stalinist ideologist and Communist activist.