Persecution of Minorities in Algeria: What Fuels the Maltreatment?

Abstract

Algeria, the largest country in Africa, has nearly a uniform population. Arab Sunni Muslims comprise fully 99% of the 42 million strong-populace. Why, then, does its government grapple with fears of separatist movements from its own Sunni population? Further, why does it use suppression and persecution to hold down its meager minority populations that includes ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic denizens whose combined numbers total just 1% and who pose no serious threat to the powerful and often highly corrupt government and military force? The answer may lie in the rise of fundamentalist Islam, a movement that strives to make theocracy and Sharia law replace the current democratic government system. This balance of pleasing and thus containing the fundamentalist movement, which has consumed much of the Middle East and North Africa, has made its mark felt in Algeria and could threaten to destabilize one of the continent’s most powerful nations.