Algeria foiling Brotherhood plan to use Covid-19 to raise its popularity

Asmaa al-Batakoshi

The Algerian government has succeeded in sabotaging Muslim Brotherhood plans to use the Covid-19 virus outbreak in serving its own interests.

The government said it would start receiving donations for the national response to Covid-19 through specific bank accounts.

This is a move on the road of preventing the politicization of the Covid-19 crisis, especially by groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.

Algerian police also takes the donations and then distributes them to needy citizens in different parts of Algeria.

Return

The decision by the Algerian government to close down the mosques on Covid-19 fears has caused confusion inside the Muslim Brotherhood and the charity organizations affiliated to it.

The Islamist group looked for special religious organizations to use in promoting its own ideology among Algerian citizens.

Nevertheless, the response of the Algerian government to the disease has imposed restrictions that at the end sabotage the plans of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Muslim Brotherhood leaders and figures race against each other to donate funds for the national response against Covid-19, in an attempt to come at the center of light.

Mercy markets

The outlawed Salvation Front utilized social and economic conditions in the early 1990s to increase its appeal among ordinary Algerians.

It did this by organizing mercy markets that functioned as an alternative to official economic and trade institutions.

The front increased its popularity among Algerians ahead of the 1991 legislative elections, using these markets.

The Muslim Brotherhood uses its female members in reaching Algerian families, especially poor ones.

It also works hard to control student unions in the universities.