Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and one of the world’s leading experts on Islam and jihadism, is a regular contributor to L’Informale.
He has previously conducted seminars on these topics for the FBI, the United States Central Command, the United States Army Command, the Joint Forces Staff College, the Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), the Department of Justice’s Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council, and the wider U.S. intelligence community.
He has also explored jihad and terrorism in a seminar co-sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the German Foreign Ministry. He is currently a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy. Throughout his career, his work has earned the support and esteem of prominent international figures: Oriana Fallaci defined him as «my companion in arms, my friend», Geert Wilders called him «a hero of our times», and high praise has also come from Daniel Pipes, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Bat Ye’or.
Together with journalist Daniel Greenfield, you wrote a pamphlet titled Why We’re At War With Iran. Could you explain to us why the Iranian regime represents a global threat?
The Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, and the Ayatollah Khamenei after him both made it clear that the Islamic Revolution in Iran was a template for the Islamization of the entire world. The Islamic Revolution was to be exported everywhere, and that is exactly what the Islamic Republic has attempted to do by financing Hamas and Hizballah, as well as by constructing the Shi’ite crescent, which formerly included those groups along with the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Shi’ite regime in Baghdad. The Islamic Republic also worked with Venezuela and the leftist Podemos party in Spain. It will continue this global adventurism as long as it is able to do so.
The framework agreement reached between the United States and Iran appears to be a defeat for Israel. What is your assessment of this agreement? Are there sufficient guarantees to ensure that Tehran does not develop nuclear weapons?
The agreement is a disaster. It gives a new lease on life to the Islamic Republic and cash beyond the wildest dreams of Barack Obama, which it will use to resume its jihad against the U.S. and Israel. There are no more guarantees that it will not develop nuclear weapons than there were in Obama’s nuclear deal.
Net of European weakness and its ideological refusal to use force, since taking office, the current Trump Administration has frantically sought an agreement first with Hamas in Gaza and then with the ayatollahs in Iran. How do you explain this inability to understand the jihadist nature, and therefore the incompatibility with any stable agreement, of these entities?
It’s extremely puzzling. In 2016, Trump gave a major speech explaining how he would fight jihad. All that seems to have gone out the window now, however, apparently under the influence of Qatar. Is Trump so easily bought? Or has he been the target of an influence operation? Or both? The answer is not clear at this point, but the result is: the Trump administration is now enabling the global jihad more than Obama or old Joe Biden ever did.
Following the October 7 massacre, we have witnessed an ideological alignment in the West between far-left movements and Islamist factions. How do you analyze this political convergence, and what do you believe its long-term consequences will be for Western democracies?
The left loves Islam because it hates the West. It hates Judeo-Christian civilization, and so loves the ancient enemy of that situation. It wants to destroy free societies and establish an authoritarian socialist megastate, and so it sees a natural ally in Islam, which also envisions an authoritarian megastate based on Sharia. Both hate dissent and deny the freedom of speech. Leftists think they will be able to control and tame Islam once they’ve defeated the West; in that, they’re in for a surprise.
Could you outline which historical doctrinal texts or passages, in your view, jihadists utilize most frequently to justify anti-Semitic hatred? Are there any differences in this regard between Sunnis and Shiites?
No difference between Sunnis and Shi’ites in this. The Hadith scapegoat and demonize the Jews, accuse them of killing Muhammad, scheming against the Muslims, and much more. The Qur’an is no better. The Jews in the Qur’an are called the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82); they fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah (2:79; 3:75, 3:181); they claim that Allah’s power is limited (5:64); they love to listen to lies (5:41); they disobey Allah and never observe his commands (5:13). They are disputing and quarreling (2:247); hiding the truth and misleading people (3:78); staging rebellion against the prophets and rejecting their guidance (2:55); being hypocritical (2:14, 2:44); giving preference to their own interests over the teachings of Muhammad (2:87); wishing evil for people and trying to mislead them (2:109); feeling pain when others are happy or fortunate (3:120); being arrogant about their being Allah’s beloved people (5:18); devouring people’s wealth by subterfuge (4:161); slandering the true religion and being cursed by Allah (4:46); killing the prophets (2:61); being merciless and heartless (2:74); never keeping their promises or fulfilling their words (2:100); being unrestrained in committing sins (5:79); being cowardly (59:13-14); being miserly (4:53); being transformed into apes and pigs for breaking the Sabbath (2:63-65; 5:59-60; 7:166); and more. They are under Allah’s curse (9:30), and Muslims should wage war against them and subjugate them under Islamic hegemony (9:29).
If the jihadist ideology is inherently linked to a specific interpretation of sacred texts, what do you believe should be the fundamental strategy to defeat it?
Raise awareness among non-Muslims about it. Make it clear to Muslims in the West that it is not welcome here — they can practice their religion but not pursue jihad or practice other aspects of Islam that contradict Western values. This must be clear and explicit, with programs in mosques, transparent and inspectable programs, that honestly teach against all this.
Many academics and international observers accuse you of promoting an «essentialist» and literalist vision of Islam, which supposedly fails to sufficiently distinguish between the vast majority of so-called «moderate» Muslims and the radical or jihadist minority. How do you respond to this criticism? In your opinion, is it possible to reform Islam to eradicate anti-Semitism and the concept of violent jihad?
Here we are 25 years after 9/11, and there have been nearly 50,000 jihad terror attacks worldwide since then. If the vast majority of Muslims really opposed jihad terrorism, we would expect to see massive Muslim organizations dedicated to fighting it and to teaching young Muslims to reject it. These organizations should have millions of members, and every mosque in the world should have classes explaining why the «essentialist» and «literalist» view of Islam is wrong. Yet there are no such organizations and no mosques have such programs. Why not? The critics never answer that. Antisemitism and jihad cannot be removed from Islam. Allah says that Islam is «perfected» (Qur’an 5:3); what is perfect needs no reform. Any such reform would be denounced as an unacceptable innovation (bid’a), a heresy. These things cannot be reformed. They can only be managed by non-Muslims working from an unyielding position of strength. But no one in the West has the will to do that.
