Remapping Islamic Terrorism in Algeria

Abstract

Between 1988 and 2000, thousands of lives were taken in Algeria at the hands of a violence that sought justification in religion—Islam. While these events can be understood as the direct consequence of decolonization and the bloody Algerian War that lasted eight years, it is important to note that the rise of terrorist violence in Algeria has had consequences beyond its national boundaries. For instance, renowned historian Benjamin Stora has argued that the treatment of Islam in contemporary France appears to have been shaped by the long and bloody conflict that resulted in Algeria obtaining its independence. As Stora points out, “the War with Algeria continues through the struggle against Islam, which today is masked as a fight against Islamic ‘fundamentalism’—a word that is curiously borrowed from vocabulary that is specific to Christianity. The observance of a France that is rooted in the purity of a mythical identity, endlessly threatened, is what legitimizes, a priori, all violence, all measures of ‘war’ in a defense against the ‘invaders.’”