Algeria's other Islamists: Abdallah Djaballah and the Ennahda movement

Journal of North African Studies

Volumn 3, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 46-70

  Willis, Michael ^a  

^a AL AKHAWAYN UNIVERSITY   (Morocco)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ISLAMISM; PARTY POLITICS; POLITICAL CHANGE; POLITICAL PARTICIPATION; POLITICAL PROCESS;

ALGERIA;

EID: 0032231488     PISSN: 13629387     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13629389808718337     Document Type: Article

References (81)

1. Author's interview with Abdallah Djaballah, London, 7 October 1994.
2. Ibid.
3. The seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca took place in November 1979 and lasted for nearly two weeks before being crushed by the Saudi authorities. Although led by a Saudi, Juhaiman al-Utaiba, the seizure had included many non-Saudis amongst its militantly Islamist supporters and participants.
4. Interview with Rabah Kebir, FCO unclassified document.
5. Ibid.
6. Although the Islamic Group had continued to fail to establish a national framework for itself - whilst becoming very influential in Eastern Algeria - a specific aim of the Islamic Group had been to establish an organisational framework comprised of cells responsible to a provincial leader.
7. Djaballah's group had become officially public in 1987 following the regime's authorisation of non-political organisations. In the increasingly open political atmosphere following the events of October 1988, the group formally named itself the Ennahda Association for Social and Cultural Reform. Emad Eldin Shahin, Political Ascent: Contemporary Islamic Movements in North Africa (Boulder CO: Westview 1997) p.124.
8. Author's interview with Rabah Kebir, 27 September 1995.
9. It was estimated by Rabah Kebir that approximately 80 per cent of the leadership of the Islamic Group of the 1980s subsequently joined the FIS. Interview with Rabah Kebir, FCO unclassified document.
10. Two years later, at the height of the general strike organised by the FIS in mid-1991, Ennahda went so far as to argue in one of its press releases that: 'In the ranks of some of [the] Islamic organisations are men who do not know Islam and do not follow it.' Bayan 2, 1 Juin 1991 (Announcement 2, 2 June 1991).
11. El Moudjahid 19 October 1990, quoted in Jean-Jacques Lavenue, Algérie: La Démocratie Interdite (Paris: L'Harmattan 1992) p.73.
12. Le Matin 8 September 1994. An alternative account explaining why Ennahda and FIS failed to integrate comes from a member of the FIS majlis shura during this period. He argues that Ennahda's attempts to enter the FIS were in fact blocked by certain members of the FIS majlis shura - significantly, many of those who themselves had previously been members of Djaballah's association. The reason for their hostility to Ennahda's entry was linked to the alleged ease with which Djaballah revealed information to the security services when arrested and interrogated during the 1980s. Author's interview with member of the FIS majlis shura in 1989-91, London, 29 June 1997.
13. Algérie Actualité 30 May 1991. The poll also confirmed that Ennahda's base of support was overwhelmingly located in the east of the country (over 85 percent of it) and that the party registered no support at all in the south and west. It also indicated that the party's support was stronger in rural than in urban areas.
14. These two candidates had stood in Khenchla and Tebessa. They were due to stand, respectively, against candidates from the FIS and the FLN in the planned second round.
15. Author's interview with Abdallah Djaballah, London, 7 October 1994.
16. Abdallah Djaballah was later to comment: 'The government entered into national dialogue to gain international legitimacy and to gain time.' Speech by Abdallah Djaballah on 'The Future of the Maghrib', London, 6 October 1994.
17. Le Matin 8 September 1994.
18. Liberté 22 November 1994.
19. Speech by Abdallah Djaballah to Society for Algerian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, 1 April 1996.
20. Ibid.
21. El Watan 15 September 1996.
22. Interview with Abdallah Djaballah, El Hourria 22 July 1996
23. reproduced in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (SWB) ME/2688 MED/22 12 August 1996.
24. Ennahda stressed, however, that its call to vote against the proposed changes to the constitution did not extend beyond the party - it gave no direction to the wider Algerian population. This official position of 'non-endorsement' was formulated by the party's majlis shura in an attempt to placate the regime. It did not, however, have the backing of Djaballah himself who wanted to see the party unambiguously reject the constitutional changes.
25. Ennahda also argued that from a legal point of view only an elected National Assembly was entitled to this power and thus elections to one must precede any referendum. Djaballah maintained that this sequence - as dictated by constitution of 1989 - would increase public respect for legal and constitutional processes. Interview with Abdallah Djaballah, El Hourria 22 July 1996 (note 22).
26. Interview with Abdallah Djaballah, Al Hayat 8 July 1996
27. reproduced in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (SWB) ME/2661 MED/22 11 July 1996.
28. El Watan 1/2 November 1996.
29. The official results of the election to the National Assembly recorded a total vote of 915, 446 (8.7 per cent of the total vote) for Ennahda, resulting in the election of 34 of the party's candidates to the Assembly. At the elections to the communal APC and regional APW councils, the party had officially secured 404,566 (2.6 per cent - 290 seats) and 744,730 (7.5 per cent - 128 seats) votes respectively.
30. 'Le Mouvement de la Nahda Islamique: un nouveau parti politique.' Declaration. En-Nahda September 1990 reproduced in M. Al-Ahnaf; Bernard Botiveau and Franck Frégosi, L'Algérie par ses Islamistes (Paris: Karthala 1991) p.57.
31. For the full list see En-Nahda, February 1990, reproduced in Al-Ahnaf, Botiveau and Frégosi (note 28) pp.52-3.
32. 'Le Mouvement'. (note 28).
33. Abderrahim Lamchichi, L'Islamisme en Algérie (Paris: L'Harmattan 1992) p.107.
34. Al- Salaam 15 September 1990
35. quoted by Bouthenia Cheriet: 'Islamism and Feminism: Algeria's "Rites of Passage" to Democracy' in John P. Entelis and Phillip C. Naylor, State and Society in Algeria (Boulder: Westview 1992) p.202.
36. Le Matin 8 September 1994.
37. Le Matin 8 September 1994;
38. BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (SWB) ME/2165 MED 12-19, 27 November 1994.
39. Interview with Abdallah Djaballah, En-Nahda February 1990, reproduced in Al-Ahnaf, Botiveau and Frégosi (note 28) pp.53-4.
40. Abdallah Djaballah, En-Nahda 1990, pp.53-4. Ibid.
41. See En-Nahda September 1990 reproduced in Al-Ahnaf, Botiveau and Frégosi (note 28) p.56.
42. Abdallah Djaballah at press conference, En-Nahda September 1990 reproduced in Al-Ahnaf, Botiveau and Frégosi (note 28) p.55.
43. Lavenue (note 11) p.73.
44. Significance was attached to Ennahda's endorsement of the Rome Platform which advocated all of the main tenets of liberal democracy for Algeria. However, it was rumoured that a number of the other political parties involved in drawing up the document had had initial reservations about the party's participation. When it came to the actual negotiations surrounding concerning the content of the eventual platform, it was said that Ennahda's representatives were particularly resistant to some of the articles concerning human rights.
45. Djaballah described the Rome Platform as a 'National-Islamic alliance'. Speech by Abdallah Djaballah to Society for Algerian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, 1 April 1996.
46. BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (SWB) ME/2140 MED/11 31 October 1994.
47. Le Matin 11 September 1994
48. Le Matin 1994 Ibid.
49. One member of Ennahda, Ali Kennouche, a candidate for the party in Skikda in the 1991 elections, was tried and convicted by the authorities in 1993 for having attempted to set up an armed group with the assistance of dissident members of the armed forces. Abed Charef, Algérie: Le Grand Dérapage (France: Editions de l'Aube 1994) p.416. There were also members of the armed groups who had once been members of Djaballah's earlier organisations in the 1970s and 1980s. Foremost amongst these was Madani Merzak who rose to become commander of the Armée Islamique du Salut (AIS) - the armed wing of the FIS - in 1995.
50. El Watan 22 November 1993.
51. Interview with Abdallah Djaballah, Al Hayat 8 July 1996 (note 25).
52. Le Matin 8 September 1994.
53. Le Matin did concede that Ennahda did not explicitly endorse violence - but argued that this was only because it did not have the power to use it for itself. Le Matin 11 September 1994.
54. Speech by Abdallah Djaballah, London, 1 April 1996 (note 19).
55. Interview with Abdallah Djaballah, L'Observateur 29 May 1991 reproduced in Maghreb-Machrek (No.133 Juillet-Septembre 1991) p.116.
56. Article 5, Loi no. 89-11 du Juillet 1989. Relative aux Associations à Caractère Politique. Reproduced in Maghreb-Machrek (No.127, January-March 1990) pp.200-205.
57. Interview with Abdallah Djaballah, L'Observateur 29 May 1991 (note 51). In the period 1990-92 Ennahda had indicated that the constitution was the only obstacle to the establishment of an Islamic state.
58. Speech by Abdallah Djaballah, London, 1 April 1996 (note 19).
59. BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (SWB) ME/2165 MED 12-19, 27 November 1994.
60. This position restated similar pronouncements Djaballah had made. In October 1994 he declared: 'Legitimacy is based on two factors. First, government should be committed to Islam and should be dependent and have all its programmes based on Islam. Second, the people should be satisfied with the government. We believe the people have the right to choose their rulers and have the right to dismiss them when they believe they have failed them.' Speech by Abdallah Djaballah on 'The Future of the Maghrib', London, 6 October 1994.
61. Abdallah Djaballah, Conception Islamique de la Théorie de L'Etat. (Conférence donnée à l'Université Libre devant les étudiants en études supérieures section de droit, Madrid, 31 May 1995) p.22.
62. Lamchichi (note 31) p.107.
63. Author's interview with Sadouki Mahfoud, member of the Majlis Shura of Ennahda, London, 7 June 1997.
64. Harakat al-Nahda al-Islamyah. Al Mu'atamar al Ta'sisi. Nadi al-Sanubarr, 7-9 Septembre 1994. Al-Kilima al-Iftitahiyyah Li R'ais Al Harakah (Islamic Ennahda Movement. Founding Congress. Club de Pins, 7-9 September 1994. Introductory Speech of the President of the Movement).
65. Interview with Abdallah Djaballah, En-Nahda February 1990 (note 35) Ennahda's stance on this issue once again set it against Algeria's secular parties most of which strongly backed the recognition of Tamazigh as a national language alongside Arabic. The most active proponent of this demand was the strongly Kabyle RCD. Djaballah expressed his anger against the RCD's propensity to speak in the name of the Kabyles, arguing that historically this section of Algeria's population had been renown for 'their zeal for Islam'.
66. Author's interview with Sadouki Mahfoud, London, 7 June 1997.
67. Interview with Abdallah Djaballah, L'Observateur 29 May 1991 (note 51).
68. Interview with Abdallah Djaballah, En-Nahda February 1990 (note 35).
69. 'Le Mouvement de la Nahda Islamique: un nouveau parti politique.' Declaration. En-Nahda September 1990 (note 28).
70. Al-Ahnaf, Botiveau and Frégosi (note 28) p.44.
71. Nada lil-Sh'ab al-Jaza'iri al-muslim al-mujahid wa-lil-ummah al-muslimah fi kull makan. Bayan 1, 24 janvier 1991. ('A Call to the Algerian Muslim Mujahid and the Muslim Umma Everywhere.' Announcement 1, 24 January 1991).
72. Address of Abdallah Djaballah to Conference entitled Securité et Stabilité dans la Mer Mediterrané, Cyprus, 1 July 1995.
73. Lavenue (note 11) p.73.
74. El Watan 1/2 November 1996.
75. Lavenue (note 11) p.73.
76. El Watan 30 September 1996.
77. El Watan 1996. Ibid.
78. Le Matin 11 September 1994.
79. Le Matin 8 September 1994.
80. El Watan 18 November 1996.
81. For example, one member of Ennahda's majlis shura stated that the party would be happy to accept the election of a government led by the RCD in Algeria - a statement in marked contrast to the animosity of pronouncements made during the period 1990-91. Author's interview with Sadouki Mahfoud, London, 7 June 1997.