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A.C.N - Aid to the Church in Need Italian Office |
Religious Freedom in
the Majority Islamic Countries |
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Algeria Population:
29,476,000
Although Islam is the state religion, and the candidate for the presidency of the republic should, according to the 1976 constitution (since modified in 1980) be a Muslim, the Algerian Islamist movement only came to the attention of the world community from the early 1980s onwards, when it decided to emerge from the secrecy that had been imposed on it by the FLN (National Liberation Front), the party descended from the movement which brought the country to independence. But in reality the Algerian Islamist movement has a longer history behind it. Already in 1931 under Sheikh Abdulhamid Ben Badis, the association of the Ulema had been born; it has since represented one of the principal political and cultural agents of the diffusion of so called reformist Islam. At the request of the FLN, the Algerian Islamic movement in 1956 joined the forces involved in the war of independence. Once the primary objective of the war had been achieved, however, with the birth of the independent state of Algeria, the Islamists began to oppose the political line pursued by the government, which was Pan Arab and secular socialist in outlook. A few organisations such as Al-Qiyam (the Revolt) founded in 1964, tried from then on to assure the survival of the Islamic tradition, at least in the cultural sphere, but came into almost immediate conflict with the regime, which in various ways curbed its activities (Al-Qiyam was dissolved in 1966). Parallel with this, the FLN became the promoter of a State Islam, via the activities of a ministry dedicated specifically to "Religious Affairs"; this nonetheless did not succeed in checking the growth of the Islamist movement, which was radically opposed to the idea of the secular state. The growth in support for the Islamists was moreover also due to the serious economic and social difficulties which troubled the country and also to the failure of the Government’s economic policy. From the autumn of 1981 (with the occupation of the mosque in Laghouat), the conflict between the Islamists and the government became more bitter and violent. At the same time, during the 1980s, the economic situation in Algeria grew worse; widespread corruption began to emerge in the institutions, and the ideological leadership of the regime seemed no longer capable of providing answers to the growing unrest in the country. In October 1988 the first real and genuine popular uprisings occurred, with the Islamists in the front line and suffering heavy losses among their militants (80 killed). The government attempted to engage in dialogue with the sheikhs at the head of the Islamist movement. A new constitution was promulgated, opening the way to a multi-party system, and the FLN (Islamic Salvation Front) was officially recognised. In June 1990 the FIS obtained 55% of the vote to the municipal and regional elections, taking control of the major cities in the country, Algiers, Oran, etc. In 1992 the political elections witnessed another resounding affirmation of the FIS, but the result was to all intents annulled by the army. Thus began the bloody civil war which still continues today and which has been the cause of tens of thousands of deaths. The religious persecutions The problem of religious freedom in Algeria has its origins in 1962 when, with independence, Islam became the state religion. From then on many churches were transformed into mosques; the Christians were prevented from openly expressing their own religious identity, even though the importation and distribution of Bibles and other Christian writings was still tolerated. In 1978 the episcopal vicar of Algiers, Monsignor Gaston Jaquier, was assassinated in the city - probably for no other reason than that he had gone out openly wearing his pectoral cross. On May 8, 1994 Father Henri Vergès, aged 64, and Sister Paule-Hélène Saint-Raymond, aged 67, were murdered as they left the Catholic Library where they were engaged in their work for young people. The library, placed at the people’s disposal by the archbishop of Algiers, is in the Casbah - it provides educational support for the students, organises computer courses, and also distributes basic necessities to the poorest of the people. In the town of Kabyli di Tizi Ouzo, four missionaries of the White Fathers (three Frenchmen and one Belgian) were brutally murdered on December 27 1994. On Sunday September 3 1995 two nuns were assassinated in Algiers. They were Sister Bibiane Leclerc and Sister Angèle-Marie Littlejohn, aged 65 and 62 respectively. Both had lived in Algiers since 1964. Bishop Pierre Claverie of Oran was killed by a bomb on August 1 1996, together with his driver Muhammed Pouchikhi. Pierre Claverie had dedicated his life to promoting dialogue between Islam and Christianity; he was known as the "Bishop of the Muslims" and had studied Islam in depth - indeed to such an extent that, according to the English Catholic journal The Tablet of August 10 1996, the Muslims themselves would consult him on the subject. According to the Algerian authorities, those directly responsible for the attack were killed in a gun fight with the police some months after the attack. On March 23 1998, the trial of the other suspected accomplices ended with the death penalty for eight of the accused. The condemned men were said to have been part of an Islamic fundamentalist cell who had supported the group who actually carried out the attack. However, according to some witnesses, the whole business has many puzzling aspects. One Algerian journalist has declared that the condemned men had told him that they had only confessed under torture. In Catholic circles in Algiers, according to the testimony of the Italian journalist Maurizio Blondet, in an interview with the Vatican Fides press agency, there is a widespread feeling that the government itself might have been involved in some way in the assassination of Bishop Claverie. During the night of March 26 - 27 1996, seven French Trappist monks were seized close to their village monastery of Tibhrine (60 miles south of the capital) by the GIA (Armed Islamic Group). Following the refusal by the French government to consider the demands of the terrorists and following an announcement of their execution by the GIA, the decapitated bodies of the seven monks were discovered on March 21. Another seven monks were killed in gun attack in the streets of the Casbah in Bab el-Qued. The Ugandan archbishop Augustine Kasujja, arriving in Oran on September 25, 1998 to represent the Holy See at the episcopal consecration of Bishop Alphonse Georger - who will take the place of Bishop Pierre Claverie - declared that his own nomination as a papal nuncio should be seen as a sign of hope for the African continent, whose inhabitants must themselves now assume responsibility for the evangelisation of Africa, as Pope John Paul II has said. |
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