Abdelkader’s universal legacy debated in Algeria

Algeria will be the venue of an international seminar on the historic leader El Amir Abdelkader on November 29-30th in celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth.

• The meeting untitled ‘Al Amir Abdelkader’s legacy, between particularism and universality: An analytical approach’   will be hosted by the University of Oran in western Algeria, according to organizers.
• Historians, thinkers and researchers from Algeria and other Arab countries will attend the meeting to largely introduce Al amir Abdelkader’s political and civilizational ideas.
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• Organizers say the meeting will be an opportunity to invite interested translators to work on those ideas in global languages.
• The meeting will also deal with the creation of a research center on Al Amir Abdelkader’s legacy at the University of Oran.  
• Al Amir Abdelkader led a popular revolution against the French occupation in  Algeria in the mid-nineteenth century. He was exiled to Syria in 1855 where he devoted himself to theology, poetry and philosophy.
• Algeria has built the Emir AbdelKader University and a mosque bearing his name as a national shrine in Constantine in the east of the country.
• Abdelkader is also venerated in other countries and among other nations for his humanitarian deeds. He is known for providing protection the christian community in Damascus while exhiled in Syria.
• Recently the government of Mexico erected a statue of Adelkader in the capital city to celebrate his contribution to the human civilaization.
• Elkader town, an American recognition to the Hero
• With 1,500 residents, the town of Elkader, northeast of Iowa, was the only town in the United States named after Al Amir Abdelkader who is seen as the “George Washington of Algeria.”
• In 1996, over 400 Algerian-Americans converged on the town for the “Sweet Corn Parade.”
• Earlier in 2008, Algeria sent $150,000 of assistance to Elkader following heavy floods damage.