Algeria’s Brotherhood changing own skin to achieve political gains

Ahmed Adel

The branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Algeria keeps changing in the light of changes on the political stage in this North Africa state.

Nevertheless, as a policy, this is not paying off, according to former Muslim Brotherhood senior member, Tharwat al-Kherbawi, who dedicates the bulk of his book “Secret of the Temple” to this issue.

The Muslim Brotherhood, he says in the book, is ready to do anything to reach its goals.

In Algeria, the Muslim Brotherhood started adapting to conditions on the political stage after a decade of violence that ended in 2002.

The violence stated in 1992 when Algerian authorities canceled out the results of the legislative elections which were won by the Islamist Salvation Front.

Following those ten years, ousted Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika launched a national reconciliation initiative that caused the Islamists to lay down their arms. They also accepted to become part of the political process in their country. Since then, the Islamists have been trying to reach power via political means.

The Islamic Group of Algeria did not participate in the popular protests that erupted in February 2019 against Bouteflika. However, when Bouteflika stepped down, the group joined the protests in an attempt to usurp the whole thing.

This came seven years after the group pulled out of the coalition with Bouteflika.

The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Movement of Society for Peace issued a statement in which it praised the protests.

The revolution, it said, liberated large swaths of the Algerian society, regardless of their political or ideological affiliations.

The movement did not participate in the presidential elections. Nonetheless, it did not call for boycotting them.

However, when the results of the elections appeared, the movement declared support to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.