In comparing Middle-Eastern and Algerian Ulama’s reactions to some important sociopolitical questions, this study seeks to clarify the originality of political thought within the Association of Algerian Ulama (founded in 1931) before the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62).
Although being strongly influenced by the Egyptian Islamist school of
al-Manār, the Algerian Ulama showed some creativity of thought and method when they reacted to two major problems of the colonial period: the polemic about naturalization of a Muslim “indigenous” person as a French and the question of application of the law of separation of church and state. The difference in opinion between
al-Manār and the Algerian Ulama came mainly from the particularity of the Algerian situation under direct colonial rule. Struggling with the political/economic/cultural illegalities, the Ulama began to call for their collective identity as Algerian Muslims, a newly discovered agency in both cultural and political terms.
The Ulama conceptualized their nationhood or “Algerian Muslim
Umma” as follows. They assumed that there was a distinct religious community (
umma) composed only of Muslims on the Algerian homeland (
waṭan), and they distinguished this “Algerian Muslim
Umma” from the French
Umma, claiming the Algerian Muslim
Umma’s ethnic affiliation (
jinsīya qawmīya) as distinct from its political affiliation (
jinsīya siyāsīya), which was French. The Ulama insisted also on the Algerian Muslims’ affiliation to both their homeland (
waṭan) and the worldwide Islamic
Umma, guaranteed by their juridical Muslim Status. Thus, the Algerian Ulama succeeded in combining the worldwide Islamic framework and the idea of Algerian nationhood without any conflict.
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