Mohamed Aissa: “Terrorism Plague Adapts To Changing Societies”

The Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Mohamed Aissa, said on Monday that “terrorism pursues a “scorched earth policy” and does everything to distort the lofty Sunna or Tradition of noble Prophet Mohamed, God’s peace and blessings be upon him”.

“I bow before the tens of thousands of Muslim victims who have fallen wrongly in the homelands of Islam in order to defend Islam and before the innocent blood that is shed daily by armed extremists,” Mr. Aissa said in his speech at the conference that took place Monday in Cairo (Egypt) under the theme: “the industry of terrorism, its dangers and the imperative to confront it” .

During this broad-based meeting, the Algerian Minister expounded a presentation on the telling experience of Algeria in the “fight against terrorism and its contribution in promoting the culture of peace, moderation and the middle ground”.

“Terrorism is not an automatic act and there is no evidence of it in any legislative text, but it is an industry that is forged while neglecting the nation’s elite. The notepad starts with an idea, then becomes a creation and then ends with a destructive behavior that derives from nefarious symptoms and the lure of money”, the minister underlined. 

He added that “the terrorism scourge has become a real danger and that these misguided extremist groups desecrate the sacred text to achieve their vested political interests”.

Mr Mohamed Aissa also stressed that “Islam is the religion of mercy and tolerance and the living without fear,” noting that “terrorism made Algeria lag behind the rest of the countries,” noting however that “Algeria today, with the retrieval of peace and security, differed from before”.

A host of prominent personalities also took part in this meeting initiated by the Egyptian Minister of Religious Affairs including the President of the Council, Mohamed Mokhtar Jomaa, and several ministers, intellectuals, scientists and thinkers from different Islamic countries.

Egypt, like Algeria in the 1990s, is hit by a wave of violence, fueled by a radical religious discourse.

Algeria organizes and participates regularly in meetings where it expounds its experience in the field of de-radicalization.

Algeria is also active on several fronts, including in the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum (GCTF) of which it is a founding member, and co-chairs with Canada the Sahel Working Group.