Algeria’s Brothers denigrating everyone else

Nahla Abdelmonem

Attempts by the Movement of Society for Peace, the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Algeria, to gain a foothold on the political stage in this North African country can sabotage its transition towards democracy.

The February 2019 uprising threw light on the effects the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood on the Algerian political stage is having on the country’s human rights record as well as political plurality in it.

Tolerance

The Movement of Society for Peace has no tolerance to other political forces, especially Algeria’s secularists whom it always accuses of being a bunch of traitors in its bid to win over new supporters.

Movement head, Abderrazak Makri, usually accuses Algeria’s secularists of being agents of France.

Makri accused secularists last month of wanting to dominate his country. He also accused them of wanting to reach power and exclude other Algerian political forces.

In lashing out at other political forces, the Movement of Society for Peace tends to call these forces names, even without discussing their political agendas or ideas.

Indicator

Algerian political thinker, Amar Yazli, said Algeria’s Islamist movements, in general, and the Muslim Brotherhood, in particular, owe their presence on the Algerian political stage to the openness created by the 1989 constitution.

“This means that these movements reflected the presence of a political will for plurality,” Yazli told The Reference.

He added that the Movement of Society for Peace changed its name several times since its emergence to adapt to restrictions in Algerian law to the use of Islam politically.

The movement, he said, is under obligation to act within the rules of democracy.

Yazli referred to attempts by the Movement of Society for Peace to distance itself from the International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood and tailor its own ideas to democratic practices and idease.