Declining in recent years, particularly since the hirak of 2019, the fundamentalists seem to have found the hair of the beast in Algeria. The resurgence of extremist discourse manifested itself particularly on the television channels, but above all on internetduring the month of Ramadan which has just ended.
Faced with several security challenges at the national and regional level, including threats from the head of AQIMAbou Obeida al-Annabi, the return to the front of the stage of the fundamentalist propaganda did not escape the vigilance of the People’s National Army (ANP).
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In this context, the Chief of Staff, Saïd Chanegrihaaffirmed Thursday (April 20, 2023, editor’s note), via a press release from the MDN, that Algeria “will never allow the return of these adventurers who nearly led the country to the precipice and cause the collapse of the national state”.
Chanegriha “the Algerian State will never allow the return of these adventurers who nearly led the country to the precipice«
Thus, it is the first time since his enthronement as head of the ANP staff (December 23, 2019) that Army General Saïd Chanegriha has held a strong speechwhich is intended as a warning against fundamentalist circles and religious extremism.
In a speech he delivered at the headquarters of the Territorial Air Defense Forces Command (CFDAT) in Algiers, Saïd Chanegriha argued that “vain attempts” aimed at “the security and stability of the nation as well as the unity of the Algerian people (…) were manifested recently by the return of the activities of certain fundamentalists known for their extremist religious discourse, which recalls the 90s of the last century ».
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Similarly, the Chief of Staff of the ANP underlined that the Algerian State “will never allow the return of these adventurers who nearly led the country to the precipice and cause the collapse of the national state”. “These extremists, he said, must know that their time is over.”
Chanegriha also remarked that “the Algerian people who have endured the torments of barbaric terrorism (…) will never allow (extremists) to deceive them again. Because he is now aware of their sneaky modus operandi which consists in using the attachment of Algerians to their religion to achieve dubious political objectives, and which are part of destructive projects and hostile foreign agendas ».
The Chief of Staff of the ANP evokes “hostile subversive circles”
Subsequently, the Chief of Staff of the ANP emphasized the fact that the extremist discourse “triggered at the instigation of hostile subversive circles » left the stage of clandestinity to be displayed in broad daylight. “We are fully aware, he said, that these activities are now carried out openly whereas (previously) they were carried out clandestinely and in closed spaces”.
Before ending his speech, Saïd Chanegriha made a point of recalling that the fight against fundamentalism is everyone’s business. “The fight against extremism, in all its forms, must be waged at all levels by involving all players. An effort that begins from the family, then the school which is called upon to instill in the rising generations a good civic education based on the anchoring of the values of citizenship and the teaching of the duties of the citizen towards his country and his society (… ). A citizen proud of his Algerianness“, he explained.
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By way of conclusion, the army general wanted to be reassuring. He will say: “we will know, thanks to the conscience and the unity of our valiant peopleand its adherence to its army and its institutions, to defeat these subversive designs and move forward to consolidate the place of our country in the concert of nations”.
