French anthropologist Florence Bergeaud-Blackler

In Western media, criticism of Islamic zealotry is both rare and muted. The reason for such reticence is obvious: any publication that gains widespread attention for its negative analysis and/or mockery of Islam puts its personnel and plant at risk of Islamic ultra-violence. Salman Rushdie, Jyllands-Posten, Charlie Hebdo, and numerous others have provided object lessons on what happens to Islam-critics who become well known to the general public. Most writers see no point in risking violent death or maiming. A publisher has to consider what will happen if his offices are torched and his staff massacred. Best to leave the topic to daredevils like Tommy Robinson and Rasmus Paludan, and keep a low profile.

The Muslim Brotherhood is genteel-seeming front for the Islamization of the West. It provides cover for various groups and individuals (including violent “radicals”) who push for sharia and intimidate the kuffar. Not unsurprisingly, criticizing it directly carries a measure of risk.

Florence Bergeaud-Blackler is a French anthropologist who specializes in uncompromising cultural research on Islam. She is the author of Les Sens du halal : une norme dans un marché mondial (The senses of halal : a standard in a global market) and Le Marché halal : ou l’invention d’une tradition (The Halal Market : or the invention of a tradition). Last winter she published her most recent book, Le Frérisme et Ses Reseaux, l’Enquête. Here’s an excerpt from a review of it by Tommaso Virgili, published by European Eye on Radicalization:

In her book Le frérisme et ses reseaux, l’enquête (The Brotherhood and its Networks, An Investigation), Florence Bergeaud-Blackler paints a comprehensive picture of the history, ideology, structure, goals, strategy, and allies of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) galaxy in Europe and beyond — thus bringing her previous research on the halal eco-system to the next level.

The book, divided into eleven chapters, takes the reader from the origins of the Muslim Brotherhood to its evolution and present-day iterations, dissecting every single aspect in ample detail thanks to a rich variety of sources that range from academic literature (including primary sources in Arabic) to blog accounts, newspapers, and institutional websites. Thereby, Bergeaud-Blackler shows the mastery of both academic and “investigative” skills that is necessary to penetrate a complex and protean movement that changes and hides its many faces in a hall of mirrors.

Her criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood attracted enough attention to provoke the usual reaction from the “Muslim street”. Last March she registered a complaint that she had been subjected to death threats after her book was published. Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers on social media were open in their support for violent action against her. As a result, she was placed under police protection.

Dr. Bergeaud-Blackler received a significant amount of backing from fellow French intellectuals, who decried the lack of support for her on the part of public institutions. The philosopher and Islamologist Razika Adnani supported her and denounced the attacks against her: “The Islamists — those who think about Islamism and not just the Muslim Brotherhood — have never hidden their intention, and that not only about France or the West but about all humanity.”

Last May a conference on the Muslim Brotherhood hosted by Florence Bergeaud-Blackler which was to be held at the Sorbonne was postponed at the request of the Dean of the Faculty of Letters. This decision caused controversy and, following a wave of indignation recalling in particular the threats and invective to which the researcher was subjected because of her work, the Sorbonne finally accepted the proposal to reschedule this event, which took place on June 2 under heavy security.

Dr. Bergeaud-Blackler’s case generated enough publicity to be noticed by the English-language press. Below are excerpts from an article published on May 29 in The Spectator. The author, Liam Duffy, is sympathetic towards Dr. Bergeaud-Blackler, but he and his publication are, after all, part of the Media-Industrial Complex, so punches must be pulled. One is concerned about “Islamism” and “radicalization” rather than Islam itself, which is, as everyone knows, a religion of peace.

See the original article for the embedded links:

The French academic paying a heavy price for probing the Muslim Brotherhood

An interview with Florence Bergeaud-Blackler

Loitering by the entrance, I clock a large gentleman with tattoos crawling up his neck from underneath his collar. It’s immediately obvious he’s not there for lunch: he is there on behalf of the French state to prevent an assassination. Specifically, the targeting of the academic I am meeting: Dr. Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, who’s been living under police protection for the last six weeks since the reaction to her book on the Muslim Brotherhood took a turn.

The Muslim Brotherhood is perhaps the most significant Islamist organisation in the world. A political party founded against the backdrop of 20th century colonialism in Egypt, it arrived in the West via students and exiles fleeing repressive regimes in the Arab world. It is also obsessively secretive. So an anthropologist probing and writing about the group’s activities doesn’t go down well.

The rumblings began before the book was even published. When the book came out in January though, Bergeaud-Blackler, no stranger to sensitive subjects, could not have anticipated the response. The denunciations came thick and fast, some from Islamist sympathisers in the media and academic sphere, some from those who believed they were defending Muslims against a bigoted screed. The author’s conference at the Sorbonne was cancelled (since rescheduled) without a proper explanation. As the controversy grew, death threats arrived.

[…]

Bergeaud-Blackler has found a sympathetic hearing in parts of the media, allowing her to come out swinging. To date, she insists she has not received a genuine rebuttal of her work. Instead, she says, the reaction has consisted of accusations of Islamophobia, and of promoting conspiracy theories, alongside denunciations of her character and motive. Some has been all these things, but with the veneer of academic critique.

[…]

Perhaps the most influential Brotherhood ideologue until his recent death, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, outlined a comprehensive plan of priorities for the movement. But, all too often, the organisation can be opaque. One formerly prominent UK-based member left because of its excessive secrecy: ‘We are not selling opium,’ he complained, ‘we are propagating dawa (conveying the message of Islam to non-Muslims.)’

Is there a relationship between the Brotherhood and terrorism, specifically the jihadist kind, I ask Bergeaud-Blackler. It’s a question that has been doing the rounds in European policy circles since the early 2000s: ‘They are really embarrassed by the jihadists,’ she almost laughs back. I note this is less of a moral objection than a strategic one: jihadists bring bad press. On the other hand, she believes that the Brothers’ political narratives and grievances inadvertently contribute to radicalisation.

[…]

‘I don’t oppose them as a human being, I oppose them as a democrat, as a scientist,’ she fires back, ‘in a theocracy, science as we know it can no longer be practiced. So, I must oppose them.’

It strikes me that the idea of the Muslim Brotherhood installing a theocracy any time soon is ludicrous, something all too absent from analysis over the years. It’s easy to be spooked by the group’s grand plans, something that has led to some quarters vastly overstating their influence and conflating ordinary Muslims with the ambitions of a small cohort of political activists. But it also occurs to me that they don’t actually need to be successful. It is in merely trying to implement this utopian vision that the damage may be done.

If an academic must face a campaign of denunciations and even death threats for investigating Islamism in Europe, then the next academic, or journalist, will never pick up their pen. As we get up to leave and the police officers I never spotted emerge, it’s clear that both science and democratic freedoms can come under threat, long before any hint of a theocracy.