In an era of cultural amnesia and ideological surrender, the West continues to retreat from confronting the one force most openly committed to its transformation: political Islam. In an extraordinary and deeply disturbing interview, Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, the French anthropologist now under 24-hour police protection for her work exposing the Muslim Brotherhood, sat down with Dr. Ephraïm Herrera—historian, Arabist, Islamologist, and Sorbonne Ph.D.—to explore the comprehensive ideology of jihad, its historical consistency, and the suicidal blindness of Western institutions.

Herrera’s latest work, Le djihad: De la théorie aux actes (Jihad: From Theory to Action), forms the basis of their conversation, and what emerges is a sobering, fact-based, lucid, and richly contextualized exposition of orthodox Islam’s theological, political, and military dimensions.

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The Taboo of Textual Honesty

Bergeaud-Blackler opens with a sharp critique of the social sciences: scholars are effectively forbidden from engaging Islamic texts in their analyses, lest they be accused of “Orientalism” — a smear popularized by Edward Said that has paralyzed Western academia. Herrera confirms this ideological barricade is not accidental but institutional. Western universities often receive substantial funding from Islamic regimes—notably Qatar—to sustain “Islamic Studies” programs that actively sanitize classical Islamic doctrine. Scholars who deviate from this narrative risk being blacklisted, denied access to fieldwork, or worse.

In Sunni Islam, the doors of ijtihad—independent legal reasoning—were officially closed in the Middle Ages. Anyone who tries to reinterpret the Qur’an or the Hadith is liable for death. That’s not extremism—that’s orthodoxy.

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Jihad: The Duty, the Method, the Endgame

Jihad, Herrera explains, is not a spiritual metaphor. It is a jurisprudential obligation—a framework of action defined by classical Islamic law (Sharia), derived from the Qur’an and the Hadith. Every major collection of hadith includes a Kitab al-Jihad, “The Book of Jihad,” which details the Prophet Muhammad’s war campaigns as a legal precedent. The doctrine is explicit: Islam is a complete system encompassing religion and state (ad-din wa-d-dawla), and the goal is global domination through legal and political conquest.

From Ibn Khaldun to Sayyid Qutb, from al-Ghazali to Yusuf al-Qaradawi, jihad has been the consistent mechanism through which Islam expands its reach. Whether through war or gradual infiltration, the method may change, but the objective does not: the imposition of Allah’s law over all of humanity.

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The Muslim Brotherhood: Subversion Through Democracy

Herrera singles out the Muslim Brotherhood—founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928 following the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate—as the ideological and operational brain trust of modern Islamic revivalism. Banna’s solution to the fall of Islamic power was deceptively simple: Muslims were not devout enough; by becoming better Muslims, through organized social outreach and indoctrination, they would restore the Caliphate.

This outreach is not just theoretical—it plays out in the streets of Europe. When a preacher in a no-go zone sees a young delinquent, he tells him: ‘You are the best of nations. Give up alcohol, women—come back to Islam.’ And once the boy returns, he’s ready to serve the cause. What begins as moral reform quickly becomes ideological militarization.

Qaradawi, the Brotherhood’s most influential spiritual leader, advanced this plan through “peaceful jihad”: demographic replacement, dawa (missionary activity), and political entryism. He even sanctioned female suicide bombers, a legal innovation justified under the banner of “defensive jihad.”

As Qaradawi himself declared: “Islam failed to conquer Europe twice—at Poitiers and at Vienna. The third time, we will succeed peacefully, through immigration and dawa.”

It is not reform. It is conquest, repackaged as coexistence.

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Europe’s Soft Conquest

According to Herrera, Europe is already deep into a third wave of Islamic conquest. The first (8th century) was repelled by Charles Martel at Poitiers; the second was stopped at the gates of Vienna in 1683. The third, Qaradawi claimed, will be peaceful. Muslims, even though traditional Islamic law forbids settling in non-Muslim lands, are encouraged to reside in the West under the pretense of religious freedom—a strategic innovation designed to turn public space into Islamic space.

Burkinis, halal food, mosque construction, hijabs—these are not cultural accommodations. They are markers of territorial transformation, meant to show the Muslim presence and readiness to dominate.

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Islam’s Dual System: Peace and War

The world is divided under Islamic law into three zones:

• Dar al-Islam (House of Islam): lands under Muslim rule
• Dar al-Harb (House of War): all others
• Dar al-Salam (House of Peace): the world after Islamic domination

When a Muslim cleric says he is “for peace,” Herrera warns, he means he seeks to turn the world into Dar al-Salam—through conquest.

This isn’t speculation. It’s doctrine. In fact, it’s a textbook example of the Islamic tactic known as taqiyya—a sanctioned form of religious dissimulation. It’s not lying in the conventional sense, but rather a calculated use of insider language to deceive outsiders. Words like “peace,” “justice,” and “tolerance” are given entirely different meanings within Islamic jurisprudence. To the Western ear, they sound benign—even noble. But in the Islamic context, they often signify submission, conquest, or strategic delay. Ask a Muslim cleric what he truly means by ‘peace,’ and—if pressed—he may tell you: Dar al-Salam after Islamic victory.

Even Sufism, often romanticized in the West as Islam’s mystical and peaceful branch, offers no escape. As one Sufi master put it: “The stick with which I strike my instincts, I also use to strike the head of my enemies.” In Islam, spiritual struggle and militant jihad coexist.

Non-Muslims living under Islamic rule are not equals—they are dhimmis, second-class subjects stripped of civil rights.

“The jizya tax must be paid in person, with the non-Muslim kneeling, slapped on the neck. It’s not just tax—it’s submission by design, to pressure conversion.”
It is a legal and symbolic mechanism of subjugation, meant not merely to extract wealth, but to degrade and dominate.

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Hudna and Hijra: Tactical Patience as Holy War

Two often-overlooked Islamic doctrines—Hudna and Hijra—reveal that jihad is waged not only with the sword, but with strategy, subversion, and time.

Hudna refers to a temporary truce or ceasefire, permitted under Islamic law only when Muslims are too weak to win militarily. It is not a genuine peace agreement. It is a strategic pause. The most famous example is the Treaty of Hudaybiya, which Muhammad signed when outnumbered, only to break it two years later after gathering enough forces to conquer Mecca. That moment became a blueprint: when Muslims are strong, they fight; when they are weak, they negotiate.

Hijra, meanwhile, refers to migration, not as escape from persecution, but as a tactical move into new territory for eventual conquest. The original Hijra was Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to Medina, where he built a power base before returning to take Mecca by force. In classical jurisprudence, Hijra is a preparatory phase of jihad: Muslims migrate, establish enclaves, build parallel structures, and, over time, assert dominance.

Together, these doctrines form the strategic spine of modern Islam in the West. When Islamic leaders speak of “peace,” they often mean Hudna—temporary calm before resumed struggle. When they encourage mass migration, they are invoking Hijra—a religious duty to expand the House of Islam by resettling and Islamizing new lands.

Herrera warns: these are not relics. They are active strategies—used today in France, Sweden, Texas, and the United Kingdom. The West, blind to religious war, calls it diversity. Islam calls it victory.

This isn’t assimilation. It’s strategic colonization cloaked in multicultural language.

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Taqiyya: The Art of Concealment

Throughout the interview, Herrera emphasizes the concept of taqiyya, or dissimulation. Islam permits the concealment of one’s true beliefs to protect the faith. In practice, this means Islamic leaders in the West often publicly promote peace, coexistence, or pluralism, while privately advancing jihad and Islamic law. The effect is to lull Western societies into submission by cloaking conquest in the language of tolerance.

This strategy is not new. When Muhammad was weak, he signed a ten-year peace treaty—the Treaty of Hudaybiya—with the Quraysh. Two years later, having gathered 10,000 men, he broke the treaty and conquered Mecca. That is the model. In Islamic doctrine, peace agreements are not moral commitments—they are tactical pauses.

Islamophobia: Weaponized Victimhood

The Brotherhood has exploited Western guilt through the weaponization of “Islamophobia,” Herrera explains. This term, deliberately undefined, silences criticism, delegitimizes factual analysis, and mobilizes Muslims by casting them as perpetual victims. It is, in essence, another form of jihad—a psychological and legal warfare tool designed to erode Western civilizational confidence.

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The Role of the OIC: A Proto-Caliphate?

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), comprised of 57 Muslim-majority countries, functions as a de facto international caliphate. It promotes blasphemy laws, works to suppress criticism of Islam globally, and influences UN policies. Bergeaud-Blackler and Herrera agree: the OIC follows the ideological blueprint of the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Islam’s View of Jews and Israel

In the most sobering section, Herrera explains how hatred of Jews is built into Islamic eschatology. Muhammad’s betrayal by Jewish tribes, notably the Banu Qurayza, who were later exterminated by him, forms the basis for deep-seated theological animosity. Islamic texts foresee a final apocalyptic war in which even trees and stones will call on Muslims to kill Jews.

Israel, in this framework, is not a state but a theological affront—an Islamic land illegally occupied by Jews. Thus, no peace process, land compromise, or negotiation can ever resolve the conflict. The goal is the elimination of the Jewish presence.

This hostility is not incidental—it is structural. Islamic tradition teaches that the Prophet Muhammad died from poison administered by a Jewish woman, making Jews the “murderers of the Prophet.” Sayyid Qutb, the Brotherhood’s chief ideologue, even argued that Jews are more dangerous than polytheists because they knowingly rejected Muhammad after receiving divine revelation. In this theology, Jews are not just infidels—they are the eternal enemy of Islam.

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The West’s Terminal Denial

Despite this mountain of evidence—doctrinal, historical, and strategic—Herrera says Western elites refuse to acknowledge reality. French academics, Israeli policymakers, and European politicians alike cling to the illusion that Islam is fundamentally peaceful, that jihad is marginal, and that integration will solve everything.

Until that denial ends, Europe is on a path to submission.

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Final Warning

“We have to start looking,” Herrera says bluntly. “If Islam is moderate, as they claim, then let us enforce our Republic’s laws against the radicals, and the moderates will support us. But they don’t. Because orthodoxy always wins.”

It is a stark and necessary wake-up call from a scholar unafraid to name the enemy, dissect the doctrine, and demand that the West finally take a stand.

The West says: religion can only be peaceful. That’s why it cannot recognize religious war even when it’s being waged against it.

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Editor’s Note: Florence Bergeaud-Blackler continues to face credible threats for her research. Dr. Herrera, despite his clarity and compassion, is rarely invited to speak publicly in France or Israel. Both are being silenced by the same forces they expose.

If their warnings are ignored, it will not be because they were unclear. It will be because we chose not to listen.