[Ennahar] Algerian Islamists have tried unsuccessfully to be added to the new revolt that has shaken Algeria since 5 January, when they had reached the peak of their popularity after the deadly riots of October 1988."Islamists have lost the war of public opinion against the official discourse that portrays them as killers, murderers of children and women," told AFP Ismail Maaraf political scientist.
Presumably because they're murderers with the blood of hundreds, maybe thousands, of women and kiddies on their hands.
Young born during the "red decade", connected to the world through the Internet and satellite channels are less permeable to fundamentalist discourse, he notes.
Yet, from his exile in Qatar, the former chairman of the Islamic Front of Salvation (FIS) Abassi Madani called on supporters of his party, declared off-the-law in 1992, to join the protest against high prices started five days ago. His deputy, Ali Belhadj, was in Bab el Oued district of Algiers where he was unwelcome, while the Imam with ascetic face was the idol of young people 20 years ago.
The incendiary sermons of Algerian Islamic loons then drew tens of thousands of faithful biased against the regime. They formed the first battalion of fighters when the FIS rose to armed action after being deprived of its electoral victory in the first multiparty legislative of the country in December 1991.
While the riots started last week, the imam has gathered around him a handful of young people, and he was quickly jugged by police. "The recovery attempt failed completely" told AFP Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia.