ABSTRACT
Algeria, with its population of some 35 million people, is a global player on the energy markets for oil and gas. The political development of the country after independence illustrates how religion may collide with a major secular force in many Muslim countries, namely the military. The Islamic movement in Algeria before the confrontations with the army began in the 1970s and was mainly reform-oriented. The background of the new organisation of radical Islamists was the attempt of the Algerian president to introduce democracy. President Benjedid made a number of reforms aiming at the separation of the state and the military. The military intervened, suppressing the rebellion, but it was decided to hold general elections in 1992, despite the arrest of several Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) leaders. The Algerian regime, condemned to counteract the FIS on all sides, found itself caught in a dilemma vis-à-vis the occidental image of the FIS.
