In 1998 he published his book entitled “Marianne et le Prophète: L’Islam dans la France laique.” (Paris: Bernard Grasset), a full frontal attack on traditionalist contemporary  Islam, which made him a well-known figure, hated and threatened by extremist on the one hand, while giving hope to progressive and secular immigrant Muslims on the other. The price he has had to pay is to live, together with his family, under constant death threats.

The thesis presented in this book is that every century needs a new image of the Koran and must interpret it intelligently. He says that the Holy Book is constantly accompanied by a creative and interpretive intelligence, reading and rereading it through the concerns, aspirations, problems and expectations of time and place. No generation has the right to interpret the Koran for future generations. No century may legislate for the next one. The problem experienced by today’s Islam is that a sacred value has been attributed both to Islam and to its ancient interpretations.

According to Bencheikh, “Islam has always promoted a specific theology of the majority controlling the territory. In France it is important to manage to create a theology of the minorities.” He suggests the hypothesis that, by implementing such a change, Muslims would at last “rediscover the original meaning” of their faith. In his words one sees a total readiness to accept the changes needed to live as a Muslim in France: “I live in the West, and I am determined to interpret Islam in order not to find myself alienated in this society.” Unlike other leaders of Islamism, who dream of an Islamic State in the land of liberty, Bencheikh believes that secularism, “is non-negotiable, because it is a permanent and universal sentiment” and Muslims in France should embrace it.

Islam, says Bencheikh, can exist in the world only to the extent there are consciences that freely commit to it. It is a religion of individuals, in which only the individual is responsible for his/her commitment and degree of involvement, and no one can validate the faith of another. One must separate the political and religious aspects in general, in order to achieve two liberalisation processes. The first concerns the state and is to its benefit in the sense that a supportive state works in favour of all citizens and on the basis of exceptionable criteria. The second concerns religion, which is thereby free of political interference.

Historically speaking, every time there has been interference between politics and religion, the political world has always gained advantages, never the religious one, and one can see this again today in various Muslim countries. Bencheikh is very controversial in the manner in which he addresses those suspected of radicalism and extremism, and put an abrupt end to all controversy over the veil in French schools telling Muslim girls that, if they wish to please God, “your real hijab is your education.”