Brotherhood of Algeria: Authority, army are within range of group’s ambitions

Muhammad Yosry

It is not easy to understand the nature of the Brotherhood of Algeria in isolation from the origin of the mother group, and its status in Egypt, in addition to understanding the nature of that relationship with the Arab armies in general, and the armies of each country separately, including of course the state of Algeria.

The year 2019 and the last months of this year witnessed a lot of events that confirm that the Algerian brothers are not very different from what Egypt witnessed after the events of January 25, 2011, and its attempts to get closer to the Algerian army at times, and at other times hostility and to pit the public opinion on it ad well as describe it as the military as did their strike in Egypt.

If he knows the reason

Historical events confirm that the Brotherhood, since its inception, penetrates at the core of its formation the non-recognition of national armies, within the general framework of the group’s thought that considers itself a state in the place of the national state, and since the army is the striking force of any state, then it will be the first and most important institution that attempts to break it or dominate it.

This is what the Brotherhood leader, Farid Abdel-Khaleq, has already confirmed in an interview with the Qatari channel, Al-Jazeera, at the end of 2013. Hence, the group in this way is waiting for the appropriate time for the emergence of its alternative military entity to the regular army, which has been translated by many events in Egypt during the past two decades.

The same situation in Algeria, and this was also evident from the end of 2018 until now, and the relationship of the Brotherhood of Algeria went through three stages, all of which are in favor of the group’s general offering and its vision of armies.

The first stage

Since its founding in Algeria by Mahfouz Nahnah and Mohamed Bouslimane in the 1980s, the Brotherhood and its various arms have sought to appear in a middle position between the opposition and the authority; to benefit from all sides, and therefore were close to power during the era of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

At that time, the group showed its support for the popular movement against the Fifth Custody, and when Bouteflika announced his retirement from the presidential candidacy, the group, represented by the Peace Society Movement (Hamas) headed by Abdel Razzaq Maqri, tried to woo the army to gain close proximity to it, in order to obtain a future advantage.

It is well known that the eyes of the Peace Society Movement are permanently attached to the Algerian army, in an attempt to push it into the political process in order to implicate it. It was not against the military establishment; rather, the army itself contributed to its success.

The second phase

After the former Algerian President, Bouteflika, announced his retirement from the presidential candidacy, Megri began attempts to woo the army, which put him in great trouble, and exposed this incident, the dispute that broke out between Megri and the Brotherhood Justice and Development Front headed by Abdullah Jaballah, who exchanged accusations between them about Contact the army.

Third stage

After Lieutenant-General Qaid Saleh, the late army chief of staff, announced that the army sided with the citizens ’demands for reform, against the background of the vacancy of the post of the President, things went in the direction of calm for the popular movement, but the Brotherhood was not satisfied with this and the group’s cells began to be active in all protests to ignite the situation against the army and transition leaders.

The fourth stage

They started to court the army again, and try to get close to the new president of the country, Abdul Majeed Tebboune, in order to unilaterally be loyal to the existing authority and demonize all other opposition forces who were yesterday’s partners.