Mohamed Aissa: “No place for political fundamentalism in Algeria and evangelization is a reality”

The Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Mohamed Aissa, said in Algiers that the future Grand Mosque of Algiers “is not only intended to serve to beautify the capital city or the sea-front but mostly to secure the intellectual and religious life of the Algerians”.

“The aim of this grand mosque, now under construction, is not the beautification of the capital or the beachfront but we want to secure the intellectual and religious life of Algerians”, replied Mr Aissa to a question about maintaining the building of this mosque despite dwindling state revenues owing to the current oil price slump.

“We do not want to have two levels of Islam,  an official level of Islam and an Islam for the opposition and resistance, and that is why we really need this grand mosque because it is emblematic and symbolic, “the minister added while taking the floor at the Liberté newspaper forum on Wednesday.

For Mr. Aissa, this outstanding place of worship and learning, will be “a lighthouse for the other mosques as it will host the board of the fatwa, the national orientation council of the holy Quran learning, the cultural reference center of Algeria, the Algerian referential religious library and the faculty of the Holy Quran that will train imams or religious preachers, stressing the need for a supreme authority that will illuminate and guide the other institutions”.

Mr. Mohamed Aissa said in this sense the need for a college of scholars “who are committed, patriotic and very well trained to handle religious matters in order to make the Algerians trust their religious authority.”

Asked about the option of a Mufti of the Republic, Mr. Aissa said his department “had never” defended the option of the Grand Mufti of the Republic, but rather the institutionalization of the fatwa (through an institution of the fatwa), managed by persons highly-skilled notably in the mastery of the holy Quran (exegesis), Arabic, and Hadith (Prophet’s Tradition) to ensure their entry into such an institution.

Asked about the Salafist trend in Algeria, the minister said that the Salafist trend “is not a problem because it has Algerian references, devoted to his nation and to his country.”

“What is not accepted is Salafism as a doctrine, a policy meant for the use of religion for political purposes and serving an ideology, which has external ramifications aimed at scuttling the choice of the ancestral Maliki rite in Algeria by imposing an alien way of life”, he pointed out.

Regarding Christian proselytizing in the Kabylie region, the religious affairs minister asserted the “real” proselytism is practiced on the southern frontier of the country as well as on its Eastern and Western borders in an attempt to strip Algeria of part of its authority under the banner of religious minorities.

“Our problem is not Christianity but proselytizing, the latter is spearheaded by shadowy channels abroad and having covert relays in Algeria,” he explained.