Islamism and Islamists: The Emergence of New Types of Politico-Religious Militants

Between Dissent and Power

“…Unusually among Islamist organizations (across the Arab world at least) the FIS is explicitly a 'front' in that it encompassed very different tendencies, from the pragmatic 'technocratic-nationalist' Jaz'airists (i.e. 'Algerianists') to more ideological Salafists (in a historical, rather than contemporary sense) who adopted a pan-Islamic stance (Labat 1996). The broad and under-specified programme of the FIS was a deliberate ploy to tap into popular discontent with the ruling FLN and the state.…”

A Perverse Symbiosis: The State, Islam and Political Dissent in Contemporary Algeria

“…Uniquely among Islamist organisations (across the Arab world at least) the FIS is explicitly a 'front' in that it encompassed very different tendencies, from the pragmatic 'technocratic-nationalist' Jaz'airists (ie. Algerianists) to more ideological Salafists (in a historical, rather than contemporary sense) who adopted a pan-Islamic stance (Labat, 1996). The broad and underspecified programme of the FIS was a deliberate ploy to tap into popular discontent with the ruling FLN and the state.…”

Opportunities, Organizations, and Ideas: Islamists and Workers in Tunisia and Algeria

“…They pushed for a party organization that would "lead them to the gates of a power structure that they considered weakened and that would oˆer but token resistance." 40 In February 1989, al-Madani and Belhajj announced the formation of the FIS. Seven months later, the government legalized the FIS, despite criticism from some quarters that doing so violated a new law banning parties founded on an exclusively religious basis.…”