Islam in Algeria
Encyclopedia
Islam
, the religion of almost all of the Algeria
n people, pervades most aspects of life. The vast majority of citizens are Sunni Muslims. Islam provides the society with its central social and cultural identity and gives most individuals their basic ethical and attitudinal orientation. Orthodox observance of the faith is much less widespread and steadfast than is identification with Islam. There are also Sufi philosophies which arose as a reaction to theoretical perspectives some scholars.
Islam was first brought to Algeria
by the Umayyad
dynasty following the invasion of Uqba ibn Nafi
, in a drawn-out process of conquest and conversion stretching from 670 to 711. The native Berbers
were rapidly converted in large numbers, although some Christian
and probably pagan
communities would remain at least until Almoravid times. However, as in the Middle East
itself, they sought to combine their new Islam with resistance to the Caliphate's foreign rule - a niche which the Kharijite and Shiite "heresies
" filled perfectly. By the late 8th century, most of Algeria was ruled by the Rustamid
s, who professed the strictly puritanical but politically moderate Ibadhi sect and saw the Caliph
s as immoral usurpers. They were destroyed by the Shia Fatimid
s in 909, but their doctrine was re-established further south by refugees whose descendants would ultimately found the towns of the M'zab
valley in the Algerian Sahara, where Ibadhism still dominates.
Though it convinced the Kutama
of Kabylie
, the Fatimids' Ismaili
doctrine remained unpopular in most of North Africa, and the Fatimids themselves abandoned Algeria for Egypt
as soon as they could, leaving North Africa to a dynasty only nominally subject to them, the Zirid
s. With the political threat of the Abbasid Caliphate gone, these soon reverted to Sunni Islam - specifically, the Maliki
branch, whose popularity had spread widely in the Maghreb
. The Fatimids took their revenge by sending the Bedouin
Banu Hilal
to wreak havoc on the region, but were incapable of controlling it; Shiism rapidly dwindled, and became virtually non-existent in the area.
The Almohad
s were zealously orthodox, and under their rule Algeria gradually acquired its notable religious homogeneity. Sunni Islam and the Maliki madhhab
became virtually universal, apart from the Ibadhis of the M'zab and small Jewish communities. When the Ottomans
ruled Algeria, they brought the Hanafi
madhhab with them; however, they accepted the local custom of Maliki law, and used Hanafi law only in cases involving Turks. During these centuries Sufi brotherhoods were widespread, and marabout
s and saint
cults - still testified to by the many Algerian towns named "Sidi (St.) ..." - enjoyed great popularity. In anarchic mountain areas, marabouts and saints (and their tombs) served a political function, aiding in the negotiation of truces, while in the cities they provided a focus for the religious brotherhoods; everywhere they were looked to for intercession
and baraka
, holy power, except among the learned minority.
Islam took longer to spread to the far south of Algeria, whose history is to a large extent separate: only in the 15th century were the Tuareg finally converted to Islam.
conquered Algiers
. Their attempts to rule the rest of the country met stiff opposition, often religiously inspired: the Sufi warrior Amir Abd al-Qadir was particularly notable for his campaign to keep the French out. Even after his defeat, rebellions continued to be mounted until at least 1870, notably that of Cheikh Mokrani; again, a religious motivation was notable in most, though not all, of these.
Soon after arriving in Algeria, the French colonial regime set about undermining traditional Muslim Algerian culture. By French law Muslims could not hold public meetings, carry firearms, or leave their homes or villages without permission. Legally, they were French subjects, but to become French citizens, with full rights, they had to renounce Islamic law. Few did so. The land of Islamic charitable trusts (habus) was regarded as government property and confiscated. Much of the network of traditional Qur'anic schools and zaouia
s - regarded with suspicion as centers of potential resistance - collapsed, and the literacy rate fell.
However, the emergence of the religious scholar and reformer Abdelhamid Ben Badis would go some way to reversing these trends. Beginning in the 1910s, he preached against the traditional marabout
s and the saint cults, and urged the importance of Arabic and Islamic education; his disciples founded an extensive network of schools, and rapidly brought the saint cults into widespread disrepute, making Algerian Islam substantially more orthodox.
While in Islam, a Muslim society subject to non-Muslim rulers is acceptable(see Qur'an
), the discrimination against Islam led it to be a strong element of the resistance movement to the French in the Algerian War of Independence
. The independence fighters were termed moudjahidine - practicers of jihad
- and its fallen are called chouhada
, martyrs, despite the revolution's avowed socialism
; even during the revolution, the FLN
made symbolic efforts to impose Islamic principles, such as banning wine
and prostitution
.
s were trained, appointed, and paid by the state, and the Friday khutba
, or sermon, was issued to them by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. That ministry also administered religious property (the habus), provided for religious education and training in schools, and created special institutes for Islamic learning. Islamic law (sharia
) principles were introduced into family law in particular, while remaining absent from most of the legal code; thus, for example, while Muslim women were banned from marrying non-Muslims (by the Algerian Family Code
of 1984), wine remained legal.
Those measures, however, did not satisfy everyone. As early as 1964 a militant Islamic movement, called Al Qiyam (values), emerged and became the precursor of the Islamic Salvation Front
(Islamist party) of the 1990s. Al Qiyam called for a more dominant role for Islam in Algeria's legal and political systems and opposed what it saw as Western practices in the social and cultural life of Algerians.
Although militant Islamism was suppressed, it reappeared in the 1970s under a different name and with a new organization. The movement began spreading to university campuses, where it was encouraged by the state as a counterbalance to left-wing student movements. By the 1980s, the movement had become even stronger, and bloody clashes erupted at the Ben Aknoun
campus of the University of Algiers
in November 1982. The violence resulted in the state's cracking down on the movement, a confrontation that would intensify throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
The rise of Islamism had a significant impact on Algerian society. More women began wearing the veil, some because they had become more conservative religiously and others because the veil kept them from being harassed on the streets, on campuses, or at work. Islamists also prevented the enactment of a more liberal family code despite pressure from feminist groups and associations.
After the Islamic Salvation Front
(FIS) won the 1991 elections, and was then banned after the elections' cancellation by the military, the tensions between Islamists and the government erupted into open fighting, which lasted some 10 years in the course of which some 100,000 people were killed
. However, some Islamist parties remained aboveground - notably the Movement of Society for Peace
and Islamic Renaissance Movement
- and were allowed by the government to contest later elections. In recent years, the Civil Harmony Act and Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation
have been passed, providing an amnesty for most crimes committed in the course of the war.
, agnostics
and deists
but they are concentrated in the larger cities and in Kabylie
(Matoub Lounes or Ferhat Mehenni
to name few are popular singers among Kabyle
youth). Sunni Islam is universal apart from the small Mozabite
community, concentrated in five Saharan oases, which instead follows Ibadhism
.
The dominant madhhab
is Maliki
, although, at least until the last century, some families of Turkish
descent followed the Hanafi
madhhab. Sufi brotherhoods have retreated considerably, but remain in some areas. Saint cults are widely disapproved of as un-Islamic, but continue, as a visit to the shrine of Sidi Abderrahmane in Algiers
quickly demonstrates.
The popularity of Islamism
fluctuates according to circumstance; in the 2002 elections, legal Islamist parties received some 20% of the seats in the National Assembly, way down from the FIS's
50% in 1991. Conversely, strong anti-Islamist sentiment (typified politically by the RCD
, which received 8%) is not unknown. Support for Islamist parties is especially low in the Kabylie region, where the FIS
obtained no seats in 1991, the majority being taken by the Front of Socialist Forces, a secular party.
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, the religion of almost all of the Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
n people, pervades most aspects of life. The vast majority of citizens are Sunni Muslims. Islam provides the society with its central social and cultural identity and gives most individuals their basic ethical and attitudinal orientation. Orthodox observance of the faith is much less widespread and steadfast than is identification with Islam. There are also Sufi philosophies which arose as a reaction to theoretical perspectives some scholars.
Arrival of Islam
- See: Medieval Muslim AlgeriaMedieval Muslim AlgeriaMedieval Muslim Algeria was a period of Muslim dominance in Algeria during the Middle Ages, roughly spanning the millennium from the 7th century to the 17th century. Unlike the invasions of previous religions and cultures, the coming of Islam, which was spread by Arabs, was to have pervasive and...
Islam was first brought to Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
by the Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
dynasty following the invasion of Uqba ibn Nafi
Uqba ibn Nafi
Uqba ibn Nafi was an Arab hero and general who was serving the Umayyad dynasty, in Amir Muavia and Yazid periods, who began the Islamic conquest of the Maghreb, including present-day Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Morocco in North Africa. He was the nephew of 'Amr ibn al-'As. Uqba is often surnamed...
, in a drawn-out process of conquest and conversion stretching from 670 to 711. The native Berbers
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
were rapidly converted in large numbers, although some Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and probably pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
communities would remain at least until Almoravid times. However, as in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
itself, they sought to combine their new Islam with resistance to the Caliphate's foreign rule - a niche which the Kharijite and Shiite "heresies
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
" filled perfectly. By the late 8th century, most of Algeria was ruled by the Rustamid
Rustamid
The Rustamid dynasty of Ibāḍī Kharijite imām that ruled the central Maghreb as a Muslim theocracy for a century and a half from their capital Tahert in present Algeria until the Ismailite Fatimid Caliphs destroyed it. The dynasty had a Persian origin...
s, who professed the strictly puritanical but politically moderate Ibadhi sect and saw the Caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
s as immoral usurpers. They were destroyed by the Shia Fatimid
Fatimid
The Fatimid Islamic Caliphate or al-Fāṭimiyyūn was a Berber Shia Muslim caliphate first centered in Tunisia and later in Egypt that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz from 5 January 909 to 1171.The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the...
s in 909, but their doctrine was re-established further south by refugees whose descendants would ultimately found the towns of the M'zab
M'zab
The M'zab or Mzab, , is a region of the northern Sahara, in the Ghardaïa wilaya, an administrative division similar to a province, of Algeria...
valley in the Algerian Sahara, where Ibadhism still dominates.
Though it convinced the Kutama
Kutama
The Kutama were a powerful Berber tribe, in the region of Jijel , a member of the great Sanhaja confederation of the Maghrib and the armed body of the Fatimid Caliphate.-Origins of the Kutama:...
of Kabylie
Kabylie
Kabylie or Kabylia , is a region in the north of Algeria.It is part of the Tell Atlas and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Kabylia covers several provinces of Algeria: the whole of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia , most of Bouira and parts of the wilayas of Bordj Bou Arreridj, Jijel,...
, the Fatimids' Ismaili
Ismaili
' is a branch of Shia Islam. It is the second largest branch of Shia Islam, after the Twelvers...
doctrine remained unpopular in most of North Africa, and the Fatimids themselves abandoned Algeria for Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
as soon as they could, leaving North Africa to a dynasty only nominally subject to them, the Zirid
Zirid
The Zirid dynasty were a Sanhadja Berber dynasty, originating in modern Algeria, initially on behalf of the Fatimids, for about two centuries, until weakened by the Banu Hilal and finally destroyed by the Almohads. Their capital was Kairouan...
s. With the political threat of the Abbasid Caliphate gone, these soon reverted to Sunni Islam - specifically, the Maliki
Maliki
The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...
branch, whose popularity had spread widely in the Maghreb
Maghreb
The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...
. The Fatimids took their revenge by sending the Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
Banu Hilal
Banu Hilal
The Banu Hilal were a confederation of Arabian Bedouin tribes that migrated from Upper Egypt into North Africa in the 11th century, having been sent by the Fatimids to punish the Zirids for abandoning Shiism. Other authors suggest that the tribes left the grasslands on the upper Nile because of...
to wreak havoc on the region, but were incapable of controlling it; Shiism rapidly dwindled, and became virtually non-existent in the area.
The Almohad
Almohad
The Almohad Dynasty , was a Moroccan Berber-Muslim dynasty founded in the 12th century that established a Berber state in Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains in roughly 1120.The movement was started by Ibn Tumart in the Masmuda tribe, followed by Abd al-Mu'min al-Gumi between 1130 and his...
s were zealously orthodox, and under their rule Algeria gradually acquired its notable religious homogeneity. Sunni Islam and the Maliki madhhab
Madhhab
is a Muslim school of law or fiqh . In the first 150 years of Islam, there were many such "schools". In fact, several of the Sahābah, or contemporary "companions" of Muhammad, are credited with founding their own...
became virtually universal, apart from the Ibadhis of the M'zab and small Jewish communities. When the Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
ruled Algeria, they brought the Hanafi
Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
madhhab with them; however, they accepted the local custom of Maliki law, and used Hanafi law only in cases involving Turks. During these centuries Sufi brotherhoods were widespread, and marabout
Marabout
A marabout is a Muslim religious leader and teacher in West Africa, and in the Maghreb. The marabout is often a scholar of the Qur'an, or religious teacher. Others may be wandering holy men who survive on alms, Sufi Murshids , or leaders of religious communities...
s and saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
cults - still testified to by the many Algerian towns named "Sidi (St.) ..." - enjoyed great popularity. In anarchic mountain areas, marabouts and saints (and their tombs) served a political function, aiding in the negotiation of truces, while in the cities they provided a focus for the religious brotherhoods; everywhere they were looked to for intercession
Intercession
Intercession is the act of interceding between two parties. In both Christian and Islamic religious usage, it is a prayer to God on behalf of others....
and baraka
Baraka
Baraka means blessing in Hebrew, Arabic and Arabic-influenced languages. It may refer to:* Baraka, also berakhah, in Judaism, a blessing usually recited during a ceremony...
, holy power, except among the learned minority.
Islam took longer to spread to the far south of Algeria, whose history is to a large extent separate: only in the 15th century were the Tuareg finally converted to Islam.
French Colonization
In 1830, the FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
conquered Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
. Their attempts to rule the rest of the country met stiff opposition, often religiously inspired: the Sufi warrior Amir Abd al-Qadir was particularly notable for his campaign to keep the French out. Even after his defeat, rebellions continued to be mounted until at least 1870, notably that of Cheikh Mokrani; again, a religious motivation was notable in most, though not all, of these.
Soon after arriving in Algeria, the French colonial regime set about undermining traditional Muslim Algerian culture. By French law Muslims could not hold public meetings, carry firearms, or leave their homes or villages without permission. Legally, they were French subjects, but to become French citizens, with full rights, they had to renounce Islamic law. Few did so. The land of Islamic charitable trusts (habus) was regarded as government property and confiscated. Much of the network of traditional Qur'anic schools and zaouia
Zaouia
A zaouia or zawiya is an Islamic religious school or monastery. The term is Maghrebi and West African, roughly corresponding to the Eastern term madrassa...
s - regarded with suspicion as centers of potential resistance - collapsed, and the literacy rate fell.
However, the emergence of the religious scholar and reformer Abdelhamid Ben Badis would go some way to reversing these trends. Beginning in the 1910s, he preached against the traditional marabout
Marabout
A marabout is a Muslim religious leader and teacher in West Africa, and in the Maghreb. The marabout is often a scholar of the Qur'an, or religious teacher. Others may be wandering holy men who survive on alms, Sufi Murshids , or leaders of religious communities...
s and the saint cults, and urged the importance of Arabic and Islamic education; his disciples founded an extensive network of schools, and rapidly brought the saint cults into widespread disrepute, making Algerian Islam substantially more orthodox.
While in Islam, a Muslim society subject to non-Muslim rulers is acceptable(see Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
), the discrimination against Islam led it to be a strong element of the resistance movement to the French in the Algerian War of Independence
Algerian War of Independence
The Algerian War was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria's gaining its independence from France...
. The independence fighters were termed moudjahidine - practicers of jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
- and its fallen are called chouhada
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
, martyrs, despite the revolution's avowed socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
; even during the revolution, the FLN
National Liberation Front (Algeria)
The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...
made symbolic efforts to impose Islamic principles, such as banning wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
and prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
.
After independence
After independence the Algerian government asserted state control over religious activities for purposes of national consolidation and political control. Islam became the religion of the state in the new constitution (Article 2), and was the religion of its leaders. The state monopolized the building of mosques, and the Ministry of Religious Affairs controlled an estimated 5,000 public mosques by the mid-1980s. ImamImam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
s were trained, appointed, and paid by the state, and the Friday khutba
Khutba
Khutbah serves as the primary formal occasion for public preaching in the Islamic tradition.Such sermons occur regularly, as prescribed by the teachings of all legal schools. The Islamic tradition can be formally at the dhuhr congregation prayer on Friday...
, or sermon, was issued to them by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. That ministry also administered religious property (the habus), provided for religious education and training in schools, and created special institutes for Islamic learning. Islamic law (sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
) principles were introduced into family law in particular, while remaining absent from most of the legal code; thus, for example, while Muslim women were banned from marrying non-Muslims (by the Algerian Family Code
Algerian Family Code
The Algerian Family Code , enacted on June 9, 1984, specifies the laws relating to familial relations in Arab Algeria . It includes strong elements of Islamic law which have brought it praise from Islamists and condemnation from secularists and feminists.-History:Its critics particularly focus on...
of 1984), wine remained legal.
Those measures, however, did not satisfy everyone. As early as 1964 a militant Islamic movement, called Al Qiyam (values), emerged and became the precursor of the Islamic Salvation Front
Islamic Salvation Front
The Islamic Salvation Front is an outlawed Islamist political party in Algeria.-Goals:...
(Islamist party) of the 1990s. Al Qiyam called for a more dominant role for Islam in Algeria's legal and political systems and opposed what it saw as Western practices in the social and cultural life of Algerians.
Although militant Islamism was suppressed, it reappeared in the 1970s under a different name and with a new organization. The movement began spreading to university campuses, where it was encouraged by the state as a counterbalance to left-wing student movements. By the 1980s, the movement had become even stronger, and bloody clashes erupted at the Ben Aknoun
Ben Aknoun
Ben Aknoun is a suburb of the city of Algiers in northern Algeria....
campus of the University of Algiers
University of Algiers
The University of Algiers Benyoucef Benkhedda is a university located in Algiers, Algeria. It was founded in 1909 and is organized into seven faculties.-History:...
in November 1982. The violence resulted in the state's cracking down on the movement, a confrontation that would intensify throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
The rise of Islamism had a significant impact on Algerian society. More women began wearing the veil, some because they had become more conservative religiously and others because the veil kept them from being harassed on the streets, on campuses, or at work. Islamists also prevented the enactment of a more liberal family code despite pressure from feminist groups and associations.
After the Islamic Salvation Front
Islamic Salvation Front
The Islamic Salvation Front is an outlawed Islamist political party in Algeria.-Goals:...
(FIS) won the 1991 elections, and was then banned after the elections' cancellation by the military, the tensions between Islamists and the government erupted into open fighting, which lasted some 10 years in the course of which some 100,000 people were killed
Algerian Civil War
The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives, in a population of about 25,010,000 in 1990 and 31,193,917 in 2000.More than 70 journalists were...
. However, some Islamist parties remained aboveground - notably the Movement of Society for Peace
Movement of Society for Peace
The Movement for the Society of Peace is an Islamist party in Algeria, led until his 2003 death by Mahfoud Nahnah. Its current leader is Bouguerra Soltani. It is aligned with the international Muslim Brotherhood...
and Islamic Renaissance Movement
Islamic Renaissance Movement
The Islamic Renaissance Movement is a moderate Islamist political party of Algeria.In the 2002 elections it received 0.6 percent of the vote and has one member of parliament. In the 17 May 2007 People's National Assembly elections, the party won 3.39% of the vote and 5 out of 389 seats....
- and were allowed by the government to contest later elections. In recent years, the Civil Harmony Act and Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation
Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation
The Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation was a charter proposed by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in an attempt to bring closure to the Algerian Civil War by offering an amnesty for most violence committed in it...
have been passed, providing an amnesty for most crimes committed in the course of the war.
Practice
The majority of Algerians are traditionally Muslim; resident Christians, numbering less than 1% of the population, are mainly foreigners. It is difficult to determine the number of atheistsAtheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, agnostics
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
and deists
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
but they are concentrated in the larger cities and in Kabylie
Kabylie
Kabylie or Kabylia , is a region in the north of Algeria.It is part of the Tell Atlas and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Kabylia covers several provinces of Algeria: the whole of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia , most of Bouira and parts of the wilayas of Bordj Bou Arreridj, Jijel,...
(Matoub Lounes or Ferhat Mehenni
Ferhat Mehenni
Ferhat Mehenni also known as Ferhat Imazighen Imula is a Kabyle singer and political activist, the founder and first President of the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie...
to name few are popular singers among Kabyle
Kabyle people
The Kabyle people are the largest homogeneous Algerian ethno-cultural and linguistical community and the largest nation in North Africa to be considered exclusively Berber. Their traditional homeland is Kabylie in the north of Algeria, one hundred miles east of Algiers...
youth). Sunni Islam is universal apart from the small Mozabite
Mozabite
The Mozabite people are a Berber ethnic group living in M'zab in the northern Sahara. They speak Tumzabt. Most of them are Ibadi Muslims. Nearly all of them read and write Arabic, though they use the Zenata dialect of the Berber language, for which they have no surviving written form.Mozabites...
community, concentrated in five Saharan oases, which instead follows Ibadhism
Ibadi
The Ibāḍī movement, Ibadism or Ibāḍiyya is a form of Islam distinct from the Sunni and Shia denominations. It is the dominant form of Islam in Oman and Zanzibar...
.
The dominant madhhab
Madhhab
is a Muslim school of law or fiqh . In the first 150 years of Islam, there were many such "schools". In fact, several of the Sahābah, or contemporary "companions" of Muhammad, are credited with founding their own...
is Maliki
Maliki
The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...
, although, at least until the last century, some families of Turkish
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
descent followed the Hanafi
Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
madhhab. Sufi brotherhoods have retreated considerably, but remain in some areas. Saint cults are widely disapproved of as un-Islamic, but continue, as a visit to the shrine of Sidi Abderrahmane in Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
quickly demonstrates.
The popularity of Islamism
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
fluctuates according to circumstance; in the 2002 elections, legal Islamist parties received some 20% of the seats in the National Assembly, way down from the FIS's
Islamic Salvation Front
The Islamic Salvation Front is an outlawed Islamist political party in Algeria.-Goals:...
50% in 1991. Conversely, strong anti-Islamist sentiment (typified politically by the RCD
Rally for Culture and Democracy
The Rally for Culture and Democracy is a political party in Algeria. It promotes secularism and has its principal power base in Kabylia, a major Berber-speaking region...
, which received 8%) is not unknown. Support for Islamist parties is especially low in the Kabylie region, where the FIS
Islamic Salvation Front
The Islamic Salvation Front is an outlawed Islamist political party in Algeria.-Goals:...
obtained no seats in 1991, the majority being taken by the Front of Socialist Forces, a secular party.