International Journal on Criminology
of the former FIS are present . No one knows what their weight is in society . But it is probably real and consequent ,” he recalls , “ during the first demonstrations , the Islamists were suspicious and discreet ; it was only relatively later that they showed up . It is clear that the ex-members of the FIS , like many , were surprised by the movement . But they matured and learned from their mistakes .” Thus , one no longer hears in their squares the songs and slogans that they used to proclaim in their demonstrations in the early 90s , such as Dawla islamiya wa law Kariha el mounafiqoun ( an Islamic state , even if the impious don ’ t want it ) or their war cries Alyah nahya or alayah namout ( for him I live and for him I die ). These behaviors , which do not belong to the majority “ moderate Islamism ,” have been attributed to provocations by radical militants . For moderate Islamists , the hour is for appeasement and Hirak . They therefore want to reassure themselves , especially with regards to women . There were some isolated groups of young people dressed in Afghan clothes chanting Dawla Isamiya and even attacking some Hirak demonstrators , but they were massively rejected by the other demonstrators and quickly dispersed . For many witnesses , it was “ Baltaguias ” who were responsible for this and their behavior in no way reflects that of Islamists , even among the most radical , including the use of coarse language against women .
For Salima Tlemçani , even if the Islamo-conservative ideology has resurfaced , as one can see here and there among the Hirak demonstrators and hear in rare slogans , for all that , this does not mean that there is a demand for a theocratic state or for an Islamist revolution . In fact , the images of violence of the Civil War of the 1990s are still in all memories and now serve to repel any attempt at recuperation by armed jihadist groups . Abdelmalek Droukdel , the Supreme Emir of AQIM , acknowledged this in 2017 in his interview with the jihadist magazine Inspire , when he explained that “ this very dark and painful phase [ of the 1990s ] left a negative imprint on the innocent victims of the crimes committed by the extremist deviants of the GIA .” The ex-FIS thus perfectly integrated the rejection of any totalitarian ideology and had positioned itself in a non-violent political-religious conservatism , accepting the democratic choice and aligning itself with moderate Islamist currents . There was thus no longer a credible demand in Algeria for a revolutionary theocratic project .
A Strengthened Security Apparatus
A
major fear was that jihadist groups would take advantage of a security vacuum created by Hirak to redeploy and re-emerge in the country , while Algeria ’ s neighbors , particularly in the Sahel , were worried about the possible collapse of the state . For the latter , the Libyan chaos is in all memories and its consequences continue to be felt in the region . For Dahane Ahmed Mahmoud of the Mauritanian Institute of Strategic Studies , “ the evolution of our big brother in the North is a concern for everyone and we hope that there will be no slippage
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