The first Maghrebi country I will consider in some detail is Libya. Libya is significantly larger than Egypt to its immediate east but has less than a tenth of Egypt’s population. It is also bordered by Tunisia (which is much smaller in size but also has a larger population) and Algeria to the West and Niger, Chad and another Arab/Islamic country, Sudan, to the South (see the map below).
In common with other countries of the Maghreb, Libya is Arab, African, Muslim and Mediterranean. In common with most, it has also been an official European colony. The pretext for colonisation was, in part, that it harboured Mediterranean and other pirates. Its recent modern history includes both dealings with and confrontation with the US (over the pirate issue) and Italian colonisation before the First World War (in 1911). Virtually all of the rest of the continent had already been occupied by other European powers by this time. In this colonial period and the immediate aftermath, the Sufi Sanusiyya movement achieved the greatest political support as an interior opposition to essentially coastal Italian (1911-12 to 1943), British (1943 and until 1951) and even the post-war regal control of the Sanusiyya King Idris I until Qaddafi’s 1969 coup and still retains a degree of support. From 1919 to 1922 there was even an independent Islamic state (perhaps the world’s first modern one) under the Sanusiyya on the coast. Their base of support has tended to be in Cyrenaica in the East rather than in the capital, Tarablus (Tripoli), in the West.
Muammar Qaddafi led a coup on 1 September 1969 and has since remained the effective ruler of what he claims to be a socialist democracy. By an elaborate system, he ensures that his decisions appear to have been made by certain popular bodies. He has expressed his individuality by the unusual name he has given Libya and in several other ways. He has been criticised as a religious heretic as a result but given the actual diversity of Islamic sects this criticism may be regarded as relatively meaningless. We have discussed a number of rulers and their different sects (such as the ‘Alawite rulers of Syria or the other Shi’a rulers of Iran who would probably be considered at least as heretical by most orthodox Muslim scholars). One of his unusual religious ideas in Sunni terms is that the body of the Hadith should have less influence than it has heretofore in Islamic law. He also allegedly dates his personal calendar from the year of Muhammad’s death rather than the more conventional year of the Hijra.
Qaddafi’s rule has been somewhat similar to the rule of other desert tribal-based rulers, however. He has cracked down on any criticism and rules according to his idiosyncrasies. Although he is not officially creating a ruling dynasty, it seems likely that that is his current intent. As also in the eastern Christian world the idea of the separation of “church” (or mosque) and state is relatively meaningless. Iran stands out in the Islamic world, however, as the model of (while formally not admitted) rule of the clergy as a theocracy. More typically, a ruler such as Qaddafi claims to rule in an Islamic manner and seeks to claim authority on that basis using Islamic symbolism for his secular purposes. As in much of the Arab world, however, the Islamic clergy in Libya is as limited as anyone in its effective power and in its criticism of the leadership (probably much more than in the West). Mere lip service is in fact paid to religion in Libya.
Qaddafi’s famed Green Book, which was written in 1976, might be compared to Mao’s Red Book of somewhat random thoughts and was probably actually written by Qaddafi although there is some doubt but is probably more appositely compared with Hitler’s Mein Kampf especially given its anti-Semitic tendencies. It illustrates the attitude to religion of many Arab leaders in the time it was written. It never mentions the words Muslim or Islam and rarely mentions God. Timed as it was just before the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, it is much more concerned with relatively old Arab nationalist ideas such as Nasserism. Today he certainly talks more of Islam as he asks for his people’s trust and apparently grooms one of his sons to replace him. Libya has created a pseudo-academic industry of allegedly serious study of the much over-rated Green Book. Qaddafi has certainly promoted a personality cult using similar methods to ones adopted by Mao’s supporters around the time of the then recent Cultural Revolution. Nasser was also a writer and in fact was a considerably better philosophical writer (and a more practically programmatic one) than Qaddafi. Qaddafi’s main theme appears to be that the two current world currents of capitalism and Communism should be replaced by his own better ‘third way’.
Algeria
Algeria is a country that has been influenced (probably especially by a brutal process of colonisation by and separation from France) to resort to faith and Islam. It was certainly the most directly ruled colony of the French in the Maghreb, more than a million essentially non-indigenous colons were also settled there and the French language also generally dominated Arabic. Arabic is now gaining ground again following independence.
Geographically, Algeria is the largest of all the Arab countries and has land borders with seven other countries. The bloody war for independence lasted from 1954 to 1962. As with Morocco and Libya, Algeria now has significant dialogue and trade with especially southern European countries such as France, Italy and Spain. As with especially Morocco, Algeria has also proved to be a portal for migration from Southern Africa to Europe. Algerians themselves have tended to seek opportunities especially in the country of their former colonial masters, France.
Algeria’s long history has included hosting Ibn Khaldoun in a remote castle while he wrote his classic historical work known as the Muqaddima and providing him employment in its government as he travelled through the country. When the French first invaded, the rulers were a dynasty loyal to the Ottoman Empire. Algeria has never been a major intellectual centre of the Arab world, however. Nevertheless Arabic culture continued to exist along with a significant and mainly oral Berber culture and the dominating French influence.
The entire period of colonisation was characterised by a degree of resistance but the war for independence was especially bloody with the killing of more than a million people. Algerians became especially disillusioned with the French after having assisted them in two world wars (especially the first) when they appeared willing to offer independence to other countries much earlier (and without the necessity for nearly as much struggle) than they were prepared to offer to loyal Algerians.
The party of resistance was called the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) and upon De Gaulle’s admission of defeat in the Evian agreement of 1962 formed the first independent government. It had largely worked in exile in Tunisia and with the support of Nasser’s Egypt. A million odd colons virtually immediately evacuated when there was no prospect of further French support. Shortly afterwards (in 1965), the first Ben Bella government was overthrown by the former FLN Defence Minister, Houari Boumédienne, who proposed a more urbanised socialist agenda. His plans for rapid planned industrialisation were not successfully implemented. Nevertheless, Algeria began from 1973 to benefit from gas revenues (especially until around 1985 when production was curtailed sharply as reserves were reduced and oil prices also fell – in the meantime Boumédienne died in office in 1978). The lull in revenues exacerbated problems caused by rapid population growth as unemployment and overcrowding became problems in the cities.
The prestige of the FLN was thus becoming tarnished as it became fragmented by the relative material difficulties and social issues of the late 1980s. Some of the new opposition had a religious flavour. When a youth revolt occurred, the population supported it because of the poor conditions. The FIS came into being in this time as a four-way coalition of western educated Islamic radicals, recently victorious and returned veterans of the war against the USSR in Afghanistan, the naturally pious traditional urban classes and youth disillusioned with the FLN. The involvement of large numbers of male youths in particular is well documented but it is likely many females are also supportive of the FIS movement.
In October 1988, the new president, Chadli Bendjedid, promised more political openness and elections. Municipal elections in 1990 were a large success for the FIS which won most seats and failure for the party of President Bendjedid. He also failed in his attempt to benefit himself personally in the first stage of the 1991 presidential election by playing off his party against the FIS.
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