During the early 1990’s, the North African nations of Algeria and Egypt both saw the rise of radical political activists, who called for the replacement of the countries’ secular governments with Islamic states. Both countries responded by trying to suppress Islamic parties; the resulting wars led to violations of human rights by both governments and their Islamist opponents.
Although there are many differences between Algeria and Egypt, the two nations share number of similarities relevant to human rights issues. Both have governments closely associated with their militaries, and both have been troubled by conflicts between their governments and Islamic militants. Until 1952, Egypt was a monarchy that had been dominated by the British. In that year, a group of army officers known as the Free Officers’ Movement took power from King Farouk I. In 1956, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser achieved sole leadership of the country, and in 1957, Egypt became a one-party state. The two Egyptian presidents who followed Nasser, Anwar el-Sadat and Hosnī Mubārak, rose within the power structure established by Nasser and relied on the support of the military.
Although Egypt liberalized under Sadat and allowed the establishment of multiple political parties in 1976, the rise of antidemocratic Islamic radicals and the assassination of President Sadat by some of those radicals in 1981 led to mass arrests and imprisonments under a new emergency law that restricted basic human rights and enabled the government to seize and detain anyone suspected of subversion. Although the 1981 law was limited to three years, it was consistently extended for additional three-year periods throughout the twentieth century. Following a 1995 attempt to assassinate President Mubārak, government efforts to suppress Islamic organizations intensified.
Algeria was a French colony that began a war of independence in 1954 under the leadership of the National Liberation Front
After Boumédienne took control of the FLN government, he attempted to appeal to Muslim sympathies through publicity campaigns emphasizing Islamic values and morals. At the same time, Boumédienne suppressed Islamic challengers to his regime. After Boumédienne’s death in 1978, he was succeeded as president by Colonel Chadli Bendjedid. Islamic activism increased steadily during Bendjedid’s time in power. After riots, provoked by economic hardship, swept the country in 1988, Bendjedid attempted to soothe popular unrest by liberalizing the country’s political system. As in Egypt, however, liberalization was followed by a rapid increase in radical Islamic activities. In local elections in June, 1990, the Islamic Salvation Front
Although women made up nearly half the college graduates in Algeria in 1990, the FIS held that the education of women should end and that women should be restricted to their homes. Belhadj also maintained that Arabic should be the only language used in Algeria, despite the fact that French and Berber were widely spoken. From the perspective of liberal democracy, it appeared that the democratic election of FIS candidates could undermine the basic human right of political participation.
Confident of its strength, the FIS called on supporters to rise against the government in the spring of 1991 in order to force Bendjedid to resign and call for early elections. Those opposed to the Muslims, such as the General Union of Algerian Workers,
Conflict between government forces and Islamic groups followed the crackdowns in both Egypt and Algeria. In Egypt, the most violent Islamic organization was Gamaat Islamiya (the Islamic Group).
The military takeover of Algeria and the banning of the Islamic Salvation Front led to a radicalization of Islamic forces in that country. In the period 1993-1995, the Algerian military reportedly murdered many families with connections to the FIS. Under this pressure, the armed wing of the FIS, the Islamic Salvation Army
The crackdown on Islamic militants by the governments of Egypt and Algeria had four major impacts in the area of human rights. First, the rise of Islamic parties in these and in other countries provided examples of what some political scientists have called the paradox of democracy. In both countries, the Islamic parties had substantial popular support, which meant that in free elections these parties would probably win offices of some power. However, the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria and the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic organizations in Egypt were opposed to many of what are generally considered basic human rights in democratic societies. These parties favored the imposition of sharia,
However, the suppression of the Islamic parties did not simply make them go away. Instead, banned opposition parties began engaging in extensive underground organizing. In Egypt, for example, Islamic radicals who were shut out of electoral politics worked their way into positions of leadership in professional associations and labor unions. They created charities and free clinics that increased support for their cause in poor communities. A second impact of the crackdown, then, was the division of the Egyptian and Algerian societies into two dramatically opposed sides.
The conflict resulting from this division was the third impact of the crackdown; it led to continuing violence from both sides. In Algeria, international observers estimated that more than 150,000 people were killed between 1992 and 2002 by either the Algerian military or Islamic opposition groups. Government security forces and government-backed militias in Algeria regularly tortured and executed suspected opponents. The opposition groups massacred entire villages, frequently mutilating the corpses of their victims. In 1996, the Islamists murdered one of the most popular singers in Algeria, Cheb Aziz.
Although the conflict in Egypt did not reach the extreme violence of Algeria, the Egyptian situation also resulted in fear and loss of life. The Islamic Group, in particular, attacked Egyptian intellectuals, members of the Coptic Christian minority, and government officials. In 1992, members of this organization assassinated noted political commentator Farag Foda.
The division of a society into two opposed sides tends to leave little room for the free expression of opinions or for support for human rights. After the secretary-general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), Hafez Abu Saada,
The fourth impact of the Algerian and Egyptian crackdown on Islamic militants was international. Members of the Islamic underground in both countries established links with radicals in other countries and joined a worldwide network. Egypt’s suppressed Islamic parties, in particular, provided leaders and participants in international terrorism. Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, one of the founding members of the Egyptian Islamic Group, was sentenced to life in prison for taking part in the plot to bomb the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993. The international group al-Qaeda,
Al-Qaeda became well known to the world in September, 2001, when members of the organization hijacked airplanes and flew them into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, destroying the World Trade Center towers.
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Abdo, Geneive. No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Examines Islamic activism in Egypt, drawing on interviews with Egyptian Muslims. Includes selected bibliography and index. -
Martinez, Luis. The Algerian Civil War, 1990-1998. Translated by Jonathan Derrick. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. Presents an interpretive history of the war between Islamic forces and the Algerian military. Includes chronology, map, bibliography, and index. -
Sullivan, Denis Joseph, and Sana Abed-Kotob. Islam in Contemporary Egypt: Civil Society vs. the State. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1999. Study of politics in modern Egypt maintains that Islamic organizations, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, are not opposed to democratic civil society; rather, they are a part of civil society that is being repressed by the government. Includes bibliography and index. -
Willis, Michael. The Islamist Challenge in Algeria: A Political History. New York: New York University Press, 1996. Presents a comprehensive study of the role of Islam in contemporary Algerian politics. Particularly informative concerning the period 1990-1996. Includes glossary, bibliography, and index.
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