State cracks down on Salafi literature at Algiers book fair

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Lamine Chikhi

Reuters

ALGIERS: Algeria is cracking down on imports of books preaching the ultra-conservative Salafist branch of Islam, officials and industry insiders say, in a step aimed at reining in the growing influence of the ideology.

Salafism is a school of Islam that has its roots in Saudi Arabia and emphasizes religious purity. Its followers reject the trappings of modern life, including music, Western styles of dress and taking part in politics as conventionally defined.

Algeria has for years turned a blind eye to Salafism, but recent shows of strength by its followers – including some Salafist clerics refusing to stand for the national anthem – have focused official attention on the group.

Customs officers and officials from the Religious Affairs and Culture ministries have been given instructions to enforce more tightly an existing list of banned literature, and have been policing industry events where books are on sale.

“This year, instructions to pay attention to Salafist literature were tough,” said Mohammad Mouloudi, an anti-Salafist publisher and importer of religious books.

Hundreds of Salafists, with their trademark beards and white “khamis” (gowns) visited the annual Algiers International Book Fair earlier this month. They usually frequent the event in order to buy up religious literature in bulk for resale.

On this occasion, however, customs officers were present at the fair in large numbers, preventing the Salafist buyers from doing business as usual. Groups of uniformed officers patrolled vendors’ stands, checking the books on sale against their list of banned literature.

The officers also intercepted any buyers who had bought several large plastic bags of books. According to a Reuters reporter, 90 percent of the people stopped had beards and were wearing khamis.

“Those who resell are visible because they carry heavy bags full of books,” said a customs officer patrolling the fair, who asked not to be named. “Our job is to seize the books and give them one copy of each.”

An official from the of Culture Ministry said that 50 foreign publishers of Salafist literature who usually attend the fair – most of them from Egypt – had not been invited.

“They used to invade us with thousands of books dedicated to this category of people,” said the official, who also did not want to be identified, “and this is not what we want.”

Algeria’s authorities also try to intercept blacklisted religious books at ports and airports. Religious Affairs Ministry officials said these checks had also been tightened over the past year.

Despite the restrictions, Salafist bookshops still exist in Algeria, particularly in poor neighborhoods.

One typical title, by Saudi cleric Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Ibn Nada al-Otaibi, explains why all forms of music, including religious songs are considered “bidaa” (innovation), which is forbidden in Salafist jurisprudence.

Salafists – often associated with the Wahhabi interpretation of the Hanbali school of Sunni Islam, the official juridical school in Saudi Arabia – are a minority in Algeria, most of whose 35 million people adhere to more mainstream forms of Islamic thought.

Salafism has grown in influence over the past two decades, however, when the state was fighting an Islamist insurgency that left an estimated 200,000 dead.

Most of the Salafists were not involved in the violence, and the security services co-opted their religious leaders over the past 10 years to issue “fatwas,” or religious instructions, telling the insurgents to lay down their arms.

Salafists came under closer government scrutiny after they raised their profile this year by protesting against a plan to make women remove headscarves for passport photos, and by snubbing the national anthem.

“The government will implement the law against any attempt to introduce into our country practices or religious speeches from abroad,” said Prime Minister Ahmad Ouyahia in a speech in October, in an apparent reference to Salafism.

Made in Parliament, his remarks represent the first time in years that a high-level official had publicly expressed concern about Islamic ideas being imported into Algeria.

Algerian opponents of Salafism say it divides society, introduces values which are alien to Algeria and gives enormous power to a handful of clerics based in Saudi Arabia.

“Algerian Salafists are tools in Saudi Arabia’s hands,” said imam Sheikh Chemseddine Bouroubi, who follows a traditional Algerian school of Islam.

“Their goal is to spread Wahhabism in Algeria and elsewhere. We must stop them,” he told Reuters at the Algiers book fair.

Ibrahim Bergougui, a bearded and white-gowned Algerian Salafist, was standing nearby and listening to Chemseddine speak.

“It is not fair to say that we are a danger for our country,” he said. “Algerians must acknowledge that we have done a lot to put an end to the Islamic strife.”

“We have issued the fatwas that convinced the rebels to lay down arms.” He continued. “Chemseddine is a clown, not an imam.”

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=4&Article_id=121904#axzz16XCXoGOz.