Algerian Muslim Scholars’ Association: “Islam is not a property of Daesh”

The President of the Association of Algerian Muslim Scholars or Ulemas, Abderrazak Guessoum, regrets the untoward misinterpretation made by some French-speaking journalists of the Association’s declaration entitled: “The Call on the Nation.”

As a matter of fact, some of of these journalists dubbed such a call as part of a “Baathist” rhetoric and other as pro-“Daesh”, prompting a reaction from the president of the Algerian Ulemas, who stated in a press conference held on Wednesday in Algiers that there is no cell “Baathist” cell left in Algeria and promoting and defending Islam is not the responsibility of “Daesh”, stressing to this effect that this nefarious terrorist organization has no monopoly on the matter.

The President of the Ulemas’ Association further said that the recent appeal was launched to the nation by the relevant Association for the purpose of raising the people’s awareness about the manifold dangers that threaten our national unity and cohesion.

Such a move is dictated, he said, by the presence of external threats to our borders while calling for the mobilization of all means to fight against violent extremism that tarnishes the lofty image of Islam, and expressing the Algerian Muslim Scholars’ firm condemnation of all violent acts committed in the name of Islam which are in reality totally foreign to our religion.

He added that these threats are also internal notably when they attempt to lead to the dislocation of the Algerian family and the national educational system by wantonly obfuscating the Arabic language.

Mr Guessoum also harked back to the contentious reforms initiated by the Education Minister, Nouria Benghebrit, and the outcry they generated and in order to dispel any ambiguity, he advocated, in this sense the activation of the Higher Education Council to seriously address this vexed issue.

To recall, the Education minister lately suggested the teaching of Algerian dialect in the early years of schooling in a bid to reduce too frequent school failures due to the difficulty of the Arabic language for school beginners.

Some experts had recommended the use of Algerian dialect, a mixture of Arabic, French, Berber and Spanish, for the benefit of small pupils to better ensure the transition to classical Arabic. But the education minister, a sociologist herself, made this recommendation her own, but she was blasted in a bitter reaction by the Conservatives who accused her of seeking to scrap the language of the Holy Koran.