Background Social conditions that led to formation and popularity of the FIS included a population explosion in the 1960s and 70s that outstripped the stagnant economy's ability to supply jobs, housing, food and urban infrastructure to massive numbers of young in the urban areas; a collapse in price of oil, whose sale supplied 95% of Algeria's exports and 60% of the government's budget; After independence the government of
Houari Boumediene began a campaign of
Arabization and
Islamization against the French language which was still dominant in higher education and the professions. It recruited Egyptians to Arabize and de-Frenchify the school system, including a substantial number of Muslim Brotherhood members. Many of the generation of "strictly Arabphone teachers" trained by the Brothers adopted the beliefs of their teachers and went on to form the basis of an "Islamist intelligentsia" that made up the FIS (
Ali Belhadj being a prime example). In the 1980s the government imported two renowned Islamic scholars,
Mohammed al-Ghazali and
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, to "strengthen the religious dimension" of the ruling
National Liberation Front (FLN) party's "nationalist ideology". However, both clerics were "
fellow travelers" of the Muslim Brotherhood, supporters of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies, and supported "Islamic awakening" in Algeria, giving only "lip service" to the government. Another Islamist,
Mustafa Bouyali, a "gifted inflammatory preacher" and veteran of the Algerian independence struggle, called for the application of the
sharia and creating of an
Islamic state by
jihad. After persecution by the security services he founded the
Mouvement Islamique Arme (MIA), "a loose association of tiny groups", with himself as
amir in 1982. His group carried out a series of "bold attacks" against the regime and was able to carry it fight on underground for five years before Bouyali was killed in February 1987. After the Marxist government in Afghanistan fell, many of the Salafist jihadis returned to Algeria and supported the FIS and later the
GIA. During and after the
1988 October Riots, Islamists "set about building bridges to the young urban poor". The riots "petered out" after meetings between the President Chadli and Islamists
Ali Belhadj and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Founding On 3 November 1988, the
Algerian Constitution was amended to allow parties other than the ruling
FLN to operate legally. The FIS was born shortly afterwards in
Algiers on 18 February 1989, led by an elderly sheikh, Abbassi Madani, and a charismatic young mosque preacher, Ali Belhadj. Its views ranged across a wide (but not complete Ali Belhadj, a high school teacher, appealed to a younger and less educated class. An impassioned orator, he was known for his ability to both enrage and calm at will the tens of thousands of young
hittiestes who came to hear him speak. However, his radical speeches alarmed non-Islamists and feminists. He purportedly represented a
Salafi mindset. Madani sometimes expressed support for multiparty democracy, whereas Belhadj denounced it as a potential threat to
sharia. Their support of free market trading and opposition to the ruling elite also attracted middle class traders, who felt left out of the economy. As in other Muslim countries where the political system allowed opposition and free elections for the first time, the FIS benefited from being a religious party. Unlike the secular parties it had "a coherent network of preachers already in place." Its supporters were especially concentrated in urban areas: it secured 93% of towns/cities of over 50,000. This was the "high point" of FIS influence. Its rapid rise alarmed the government, which moved to curtail the powers of local government. Once in power in local governments, its administration and its Islamic charity was praised by many as just, equitable, orderly and virtuous, in contrast to its corrupt, wasteful, arbitrary and inefficient FLN predecessors. The victory in local elections was the "high point" of FIS influence, which benefited from widespread disillusionment with the Algerian ruling party.) Furthermore, his co-leader Madani had received much aid from Iraq's direct enemies, Saudi Arabia and other oil monarchies, supported them and was unhappy about having to defer to Benhadj and the pro-Sadam position.
General strike and arrests of leadership In May 1991, the FIS called for a general strike to protest the government's redrawing of electoral districts, which it saw as
gerrymandering directed against it. The strike itself was a failure, but the demonstrations FIS organized in Algiers were huge. Mass
sit-ins were held in one of Algiers largest squares for a week, and the FIS succeeded in pressuring the government. It was persuaded in June to call the strike off by the promise of fair parliamentary elections. However, disagreements on the strike provoked open dissension among the FIS leadership (the
Madjliss ech-Choura), and the prolonged demonstrations alarmed the military. Shortly afterwards the government arrested Madani and Belhadj on 30 June 1991, having already arrested a number of lower-ranking members. The party, however, remained legal in the meantime, led by
Abdelkader Hachani after four days of contested leadership by
Mohamed Said (who was then arrested). Despite activists anger that its demands for the leaders' release went unheeded, after some deliberation (and expulsion of dissenters such as
Said Mekhloufi and
Kamareddine Kherbane who advocated direct action against the government), the FIS agreed to participate in the next elections. On 26 December 1991, the FIS won the
first round of parliamentary elections, although with one million fewer votes than in the earlier local elections. Mosques were placed under "tight surveillance". The GIA appealed to the
hittistes urban youth, while the AIS support came from the pious middle class. By the end of 1994, the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) controlled over half the guerrillas of the east and west, but barely 20% in the center, near the capital, where the GIA were mainly based. Their main leadership was based in the
Beni Khettab mountains near
Jijel. It issued communiqués condemning the GIA's indiscriminate targeting of women, journalists, and other civilians "not involved in the repression", and attacking its school arson campaign. Meanwhile, following letters from Madani and Belhadj expressing a commitment to pluralistic democracy and proposing possible solutions to the crisis, the government released both from jail to house arrest on 13 September. However, no let up was observed in the fighting, and the government was unwilling to allow them to consult with FIS figures that remained in prison; the negotiations soon foundered, and at the end of October the government announced the failure of the second round of negotiations, and published incriminating letters from Belhadj that were allegedly found on the body of GIA leader Cherif Gousmi, who had been killed on 26 September.
Work in exile A few FIS leaders, notably
Rabah Kebir, had escaped into exile abroad. During 1994, they carried out negotiations in Italy with other political parties, notably the FLN and FFS, and came out with a mutual agreement on 14 January 1995: the
Sant'Egidio platform. This set forth a set of principles: respect for human rights and multiparty democracy, rejection of army rule and dictatorship, recognition of
Islam,
Arabness, and
Berberness as essential aspects of Algerianness, demand for the release of FIS leaders, and an end to
extrajudicial killing and torture on all sides. To the surprise of many, even Ali Belhadj endorsed the agreement. However, a crucial signatory was missing: the government itself. As a result, the platform had little if any effect. Despite the government's extremely hostile reaction to the Rome Platform, though, a third attempt at negotiations took place, starting in April with a letter from Madani condemning acts of violence, and hopes were raised. However, the FIS did not offer enough concessions to satisfy the government, demanding, as usual, that FIS leaders should be released before FIS could call for a ceasefire. In July Zeroual announced that the talks had failed, for the last time. In 1995, the GIA turned on the AIS in earnest. Reports of battles between the AIS and GIA increased (resulting in an estimated 60 deaths in March 1995 alone), and the GIA reiterated its death threats against FIS and AIS leaders, claiming to be the "sole prosecutor of jihad" and angered by their negotiation attempts. On July 11
Abdelbaki Sahraoui, a co-founder of FIS, was assassinated in Paris; the GIA said that they were responsible, although there was no evidence supporting this. On November 22, 1995, the FIS asked to meet with President Zeroual in order to disband the cycle of violence that was occurring in Algeria
Declaration of ceasefire The AIS, faced with attacks from both sides and wanting to dissociate itself from the GIA's
civilian massacres, declared a unilateral ceasefire on 21 September 1997 (in order to "unveil the enemy who hides behind these abominable massacres"), and disbanded in 1999. Thousands of AIS fighters surrendered and handed over their weapons to the authorities. In January 2000 those fighters obtained amnesty under the terms of the "Civil Concord" decreed by President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika after his election in April 1999. Both Mezrag and Benaïcha offered their services to the authorities to fight the GIA and the
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has links to
Al-Qaeda. On 2 July 2003, Belhadj and Madani were released (the former had been in jail, the latter had been moved to house arrest in 1997). Foreign media were banned from covering the event locally, and FIS itself remains banned. However, their release has had little apparent impact. After a decade of vicious civil conflict, there was little enthusiasm in Algeria for reopening old wounds. As the civil war jihad impoverished the pious middle class, the AIS lost support to the "moderate" Islamic parties, especially the
Hamas party of
Mahfoud Nahnah. ==See also==