Algeria’s Brothers in last-ditch effort to rescue North Africa project

Shaimaa Hefzi

The International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood was hoping that its branch in Egypt would be its Trojan Horse that would ensure its presence, and even expansion, in North Africa.

The organization also established branches in other North African countries, such as Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

Nevertheless, the collapse of the organization in Egypt forced it to shift its focus to one of the other branches in North Africa. It settled on the branch in Algeria.

The Brotherhood used religion during the colonial period to rally up support to it. The same group played a role in the North African state in the post-colonial period.

North African governments applied varying degrees of tolerance to the presence of the group in their countries.

In Algeria, the Muslim Brotherhood emerged while the French occupation of the country was making its last gasps. It did not play a major role in Algerian politics after the occupation due to the presence of a struggle for power in the country.

The Muslim Brotherhood started to be legally present in Algeria in the early 1990s. Constitutional amendments introduced by then-president Chadli Bendjedid allowed the presence of a multiparty political system in Algeria for the first time.

The system opened the door for the founding of the Movement of Society for Peace, the political arm of the Brotherhood in Algeria.

The movement turned down invitations to join the Islamic Salvation Front in 1992. Unlike in the case of Tunisia, the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Algeria is still trying to gain a formidable status on the political stage.