Asssalamualaikum,
...................continued from part 35
Betrayal of Islam by the Nationalists: Algeria
In spring 1962, the O.A.S.; Organisation de l'Armee Secrete, the French terrorist group that sought to keep Algeria French, carried out ratonnades (rat hunt), shooting down on sight every Muslim, where an average of fourty Muslim men, women and children were massacred each day.
On July 3, 1962, President de Gaulle proclaimed Algeria to be a free and independent nation. The number of Muslims killed in the seven year war reached 1,500,00. In addition 2,000,000 peasants were put in regroupment villages and up to 300,000 became refugees and another 1,000,000 moved to the cities (Ottaway; 1970; pp. 31).
But when power was in their hands, the nationalists were more than happy to betray Islam. Algeria shunned Islamic polity; instead purposely and wittingly chose a secular system to administer the Muslims' life. In order to appear legitimate in the eyes of the unwarying Muslims, secularism in Algeria was given a cloak of Islam.
Article 4 of its constitution says: Islam is the religion of the State.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
...............to be continued
