Algerians on the Path of Terrorism

Submitted by K Prabhakar Rao on Fri, 07/06/2007 - 19:41. al qaeda algeria Fanaticism & Terrorism terrorism wahhabism

Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao

Terrorism world wide is now associated with Islam. Although all Muslims are not terrorists most of the terrorists have proved to be Muslims. Islam that claims to be a religion of peace and universal brotherhood has been hijacked by the fundamentalists whose battle arm is the group of terrorists. Islamic nations that are suffering due to poverty, religious bigotry, lack of modern education and backwardness are the potential or existing breeding grounds for terrorism (If already not). Present world events are proving this conclusion. With spreading of Wahaabi cult in the Islamic world, Islamic nations in Africa too are falling a prey to this dangerous self destructing phenomenon. In the name of religion, youth are misguided in these poor and backward countries. Such nations blame west for their own inability to progress due to lack of scientific disposition. They cite perceived Western Christian colonial domination in the bye gone years (1). The clergy and Mullahs in these countries derive their strength in the society from campaign of hate and revenge towards west and perceived superiority of Islam over other religions of the world and misdirected self glorification. The concept of entire world belonging to Islam having been created by Allah has driven them to the craziness and extremities. They remain in power by virtue of this hate phobia injected into the masses. Youth devoid of modern education automatically fall into the cess pool. The tragedy is that even the educated and modern youth in these countries and staying abroad are taking the path of terrorism inspired by the crazy fanatic Mullahs. African nations such as Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Tunisia and Libya (Now changed) have fallen victims to such hatred (2). Egypt which is another famous and ancient African nation once identified itself as the savior of Muslim world in the past directed and led Arab wars against Israel. Finally wisdom prevailed on them subsequent to many humiliating military defeats at the hands of Israel and Egypt is now wisely keeping itself away from this conflict having signed a peace treaty with Israel. Algeria which is another poor and backward African nation is no exception and has identified itself with the world of terrorism.

Algeria (Arabic: , Al Jaza'ir IPA: Berber: , Dzayer [ldzæjər]), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, Its national name is Al Jumhuriyah al Jaza'iriyah ad Dimuqratiyah ash Sha'biyah and is the second largest country on the African continent and is five times of Texas. 85 % of its area is desert and no one lives there. It is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, and Morocco as well as a few kilometers of the Western Sahara in the west. Constitutionally, Algeria is defined as an Islamic, Arab, and Amazigh (Berber) country. Algeria is a member of the African Union and of OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). It has long Mediterrarian coast line bordering Tunisia and Libya (3).

Algeria has ancient past. Phoenician traders settled on the Mediterranean coast in the 1st millennium B.C. As ancient Numidia, Algeria became a Roman colony, part of what was called Mauretania Caesariensis, at the close of the Punic Wars (145 B.C.). Conquered by the Vandals about A.D. 440, it fell from a high state of civilization to virtual barbarism, from which it partly recovered after an invasion by Arabs about 650. Christian during its Roman period, the indigenous Berbers were then converted to Islam. Falling under the control of the Ottoman Empire by 1536, Algiers served for three centuries as the headquarters of the Barbary pirates. Ostensibly to rid the region of the pirates, the French occupied Algeria in 1830 and made it a part of France in 1848.

Algeria gained independence from France in1962 after full scale war after uprisings in 1954-55. Ahmed Bib Bella became the elected president who nationalized many foreign holdings that led to opposition. The country soon was plunged into long rule of military dictatorships and there was no respite till the first parliamentary elections were held in Dec 1991 where the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut; FIS) won the largest number of votes. To thwart the electoral results, the army canceled the general election, which plunged the country into a bloody civil war. An estimated 100,000 people were massacred by Islamic terrorists since war began in Jan. 1992. The undeclared civil war escalated in its brutality and senselessness in 1997–1998. Islamic extremists, who had originally focused their attacks on government officials and then shifted to intellectuals and journalists, abandoned political motivations entirely and targeted defenseless villagers. The mass slaughters were as savage as they were random, and the government was markedly ineffectual in stemming the violence (4). Algeria became caught in a cycle of violence, which became increasingly random and indiscriminate. On June 29, 1992, President Boudiaf was assassinated in Annaba in front of TV cameras by Army Lt. Lembarek Boumarafi, who allegedly confessed to carrying out the killing on behalf of the Islamists. Despite efforts to restore the political process, violence and terrorism characterized the Algeria landscape during the 1990s. In 1994, Liamine Zeroual, former Minister of Defense, was appointed Head of State by the High Council of State for a three-year term. During this period, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) launched terrorist campaigns against government figures and institutions to protest the banning of the Islamist parties. A breakaway GIA group--the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC)--also undertook terrorist activity in the country. Algeria remains in essence a military dictatorship although outwardly appears democratic (5). In 2001 violence by Islamic militants was again on the rise, and the long-disaffected Berber minority engaged in several large-scale protests. .

In April 2004 presidential elections, praised by international monitors for their fairness, incumbent Bouteflika won 85% of the vote. In Oct. 2005, Algerians approved a controversial referendum sponsored by Bouteflika, the Charter on Peace and National Reconciliation, which grants amnesty to all Islamists and military officials involved in the country's bloody civil war. There is considerable doubt whether reconciliation is possible without holding anyone accountable, and the president's plan has been referred to as one of amnesia rather than amnesty. Scores of criminals got away without punishment. Scores of fundamentalist Muslims have refused amnesty and are hell bent on pursuing the policy of confrontation with the government resorting to tactics of terror.

The involvement of a growing number of Algerians in terrorist activities in North America and Europe has raised questions about their exact motivations and objectives. On balance, their activities do not represent a straightforward externalization of the long-running dispute between the Islamist opposition and the military-backed government in Algiers, in which violence is used in pursuit of specific political demands. Rather, the Algerian nationals involved appear to be inspired by a set of broader, more vague but also more absolute grievances against the West and its perceived attacks on Islam that are shared by organizations such as al-Qaeda ( 6). Thus involvement of Algerians abroad in the acts of terrorism appears to be more inspired by the theological misguided cause, of- late abetted by Al Qaeda. They appear to have fallen into the trap of anti west hatred. This is much more dangerous to the society and world peace than an organized internal resistance by radicals and fundamentalists through terrorism against Government at home seeking a change.

Prominent French analysts regard the links between the struggle in Algeria and Algerian terrorism overseas as rather loose. They argue that the terrorist phenomenon represented by Algerian nationals – and European citizens of Algerian descent – arises out of these individuals' fraught interactions with European societies and their consequent radicalisation in Europe, the US and Canada, rather than from more traditional 'diaspora' concerns that concentrate on conditions in the homeland. This has been described as a kind of 'EuroIslam' – namely, the growth of a utopian, 'universalised' Islamist vision not confined to recognisable borders but based on an aspirational urge to create an Islamic order wherever Muslims are oppressed or subjected to western strategic interests, most immediately defined as those of the US.

The arrest of European nationals of Pakistani origin in the conspiracy to blow up the America bound air crafts a year ago in London is akin to this phenomenon. There are two particularly illustrative examples as quoted by International Institute for strategic studies (6). Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national, was arrested on the Canadian border in mid-1999 driving a car carrying explosives intended for use in an attack on Los Angeles International Airport on 31 December 1999. As a junior member of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) who left Algeria soon after the military crackdown against the FIS in 1992, he fled first to Europe and then Canada. There he was indoctrinated by Islamist circles in Montreal and sent to a training camp in Afghanistan. Djamel Beghal, a French citizen of Algerian descent who was arrested in France in July 2001, was identified after a return flight from Afghanistan. Under interrogation, he made statements – later partly retracted – confessing to having coordinated an al-Qaeda cell in the Paris region with the aim of blowing up the US embassy in Paris – the same plot for which Algerians Baghdad Meziane and Brahim Merzouga, arrested prior to 11 September in Leicester, were sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment in the UK in April 2003.

However the government in Algeria is against all types of terrorism and has cooperated with west in curbing these activities by its own nationals.

Threat from Algeria gets more important by virtue of association of Al Qaeda in the activities emerging out of Algeria and also within the country. The youth are getting inspired by Euro Islam which is the latest emergence in the west where European bred and born Muslims are associating with terrorism inspired by criminals and Wahaabi fundamentalists like Osama Bin laden and Mullah Omar. The liberal policy of West of giving asylum to political organizations driven out of home countries has given opposite results to West. These criminals enjoying the free and liberal society in West are undermining the West by abetting terrorism. The attack on WTC in America and London bombings are the direct results of such policies. Algerians are too taking advantage of such liberal policies of Canada and Great Britain (Infact already taken advantage).

Militant Islamist forums have circulated a statement dated May 8, 2005 purporting to announce the formation of a new Al-Qaeda cell in Algeria. The group, Qa'idat al-Jihad fi al-Jaza'ir (al-Qaeda [base] of the Jihad in Algeria), has modeled its name on the group led by Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi (killed by US forces in Iraq in spectacular air operation in 2006), which is known as Qa'idat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (al-Qaeda of the Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers). Signed by one Abu Suheib Miliani, the group is laying claim to an ‘official' status, and are using this status to call together the remnants of the Algerian mujahideen who are refusing the government amnesty, to join a "new project".
Earlier, a similar announcement was made on the jihadi website al-Ma'sada of the formation of a new al-Qaeda group in Algeria. On this occasion the group called itself Tanzim al-Qaeda fi Bilad al-Berber, (The Organization of al-Qaeda in the Land of the Berbers i.e Algeria). The posting detailed how the ‘Nur Brigade', an affiliate to the Groupe salafiste pour la prédication et le combat (GSPC), was transferring its allegiance to Osama bin Laden [www.alm2sda.net]. It is not known if the earlier group is related to this present group, or even existed in fact (7).

While Algerian fundamentalist exiles so far had been accepted as refugees in Europe, referring to the lack of respect of human rights by the Algerian government, they are now being treated as potential terrorists. Algerian "terrorist" networks have been dismantled all over Europe, to Algiers' great delight. In the fight against Muslim fundamentalists, the US could not get a better ally than the Algerian government, with its years of experience and its established intelligence. Algeria, on the other hand, is grateful for the renewed US and European interest in fighting terrorism, including the round up of Algerian oppositional groups abroad (8).

Thus it is seen that in Algeria, there is a strong anti Government Islamic force creating problems to the nation and this is abetted by AlQaeda whose intentions are to establish world Islamic order. Involvement of Algerians abroad in acts of terrorism is the part of great Wahhabi terrorist plan to destabilize Europe and Americas with Islamic terrorism. The European Governments have to ruthlessly crush such nationals of different countries who are subscribing-to and taking part in international terrorism. The Governments are already on such course. It must be remembered that victory over Terrorism is not instantaneous. It will be long drawn and sustained battle at different corners of the world and all nations have to co ordinate and take actions to curb this danger.

Bibliography.

1. Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao, Why Islam lags behind West? www.faithcommons.org, October 11, 2006, 08:40

2. Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao, Religious tolerance and Islam, www.faithcommons.org, November. 01, 2006, 12:01

3. Algeria, Wikipedia, Free Encyclopedia, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:xzNho1f2FnQJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeria+Algeria&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=in

4. Algeria, Infoplease, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:wrEc8m79UXoJ:www.infoplease.com

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5. US Department of State background note, http://www.infoplease.com/country/profiles/algeria.html

6 . Algeria watch, The International Institute for strategic Studies, Volume 9 Issue 6, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:JPi2GK4ODg8J:www.algeria-watch.org/en/analyses/algeria_terrorism.htm

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7. Stephen Ulph, New al-Qaeda Outfit Announces its Presence in Algeria, Global Terrorism analysis, Terrorism focus, Volume 2, Issue 10 (May 27, 2005) http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=Algeria+and+terrorism&fr=slv8-msgr&u=jamestown.org/

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8 . Algeria and US discussing terrorism and Sahara, Afro news, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:vkNdi1gwGukJ:www.afrol.com/News2001/alg005_terror_wsa.htm

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