Det er ikke mer enn 24 år siden, og 150 000 mennesker døde i den blodige borgerkrigen i Algerie mellom islamister og daværende stat. En ny borgerkrig vil bli langt blodigere enn forrige, mener Stephen Pollard i Spectator. Borgerkrig i Algerie vil føre til EUs kollaps, sier han.
Islamistene har ikke gjort det bra i politiske valg. Dette har fått mang en ekspert til å mene at islamismen er på retur i landet. Nei, sier Pollard, de er tvert om styrket, da de har lagt om taktikken. De opptrer som «moralpoliti», de har påvirket læreplaner i skolen i islamsk retning, de har blokkert for en verdsliggjøring av lovverket, og de har utstedt fatwaer om pålagt tilsløring av kvinner og at menn skal la skjegget gro. Resultatet er blant annet at 70 – 90 prosent av kvinnene i Algerie nå bruker slør, et udiskutabelt tegn på hvilken retning verdimessig Algerie går i.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Some observers have mistaken the decline in electoral success of Islamist parties as evidence of the decline of Islamism within Algeria. El-Islah, Ennahda and the Movement of Society and Peace have fractured and split. In the 2012 elections, they tried coming together as the Green Algeria Alliance but still managed to win only 48 out of 462 seats in parliament.
This is deeply misleading. Islamist leaders have switched tactics. Long ago they realised they cannot win through the ballot, so they have been using other means. As self-proclaimed guardians of public morality, they have campaigned to ensure the school curriculum is focused on ‘Islamic science’ and used their communal influence to try to stop the government changing the ‘family code’, which keeps women under the ‘guardianship’ of men. They have had fatwas issued demanding that ministries ensure women wear veils and men grow beards, and last year attempted — albeit unsuccessfully — to block a bill that criminalised violence against women.
Within the past few years, the veil has become normal in Algeria, with an estimated 70 per cent of women now wearing one (up to 90 per cent outside towns). And a billion dollars is now being spent building the largest mosque in Africa, in Algiers.