Religion in Algeria is dominated by Muslims at about ninety-nine percent of
the population. The vast majority of Muslims in Algeria adhere to Sunni Islam
of Maliki school of jurisprudence. There are also almost 100,000 Christians,
mostly Pentecostal Protestants. There are nearly 2,000 Jews still living in
Algeria, according to the US department of State.
Islam Islam, the religion of almost all of the
Algerian people, pervades most aspects of life. It provides the society with
its central social and cultural identity and gives most individuals their basic
ethical beliefs. Since the mid-20th-century Algerian War,
also called the Algerian Revolution, regimes have sought to develop an
Islamic Arab socialist state, and a cabinet-level ministry acts for the
government in religious affairs. Although the Boumediene regime
consistently sought, to a far greater extent than its predecessor, to increase
Islamic awareness and to reduce Western influence, the rights of non-Muslims
continued to be respected. The Bendjedid government pursued a similar policy.
= Early history = During the 7th century, Muslim
conquerors reached North Africa, and by the beginning of the 8th century the
Berbers had been for the most part converted to Islam. Sunni Islam, the
larger of the two great branches of the faith, is the form practiced by the
overwhelming majority of Muslims in Algeria, while there is a small Ibadi
minority. There is no significant Shia presence.
Before the Arab incursions, most of the Berber inhabitants of the area's
mountainous interior adopted traditional Berber mythology. Some had adopted
Judaism, and in the coastal plains many had accepted Christianity under the
Romans. A wave of Arab incursions into the Maghreb in the latter half of the
7th century and the early 8th century introduced Islam to parts of the area.
One of the dominant characteristics of Islam in North Africa was the cult of
holy men, or maraboutism. Marabouts were believed to have barakah, or divine
grace, as reflected in their ability to perform miracles. Recognized as just and
spiritual men, marabouts often had extensive followings, locally and
regionally. Muslims believed that baraka could be inherited, or that a marabout
could confer it on a follower. The turuq, meaning way or path, or
brotherhoods, were another feature of Islam in the Maghreb from the Middle
Ages onward. Each brotherhood had its own prescribed path to salvation, its
own rituals, signs, symbols, and mysteries. The brotherhoods were
prevalent in the rural and mountainous areas of Algeria and other parts of
North Africa. Their leaders were often marabouts or shaykhs. The more orthodox
Sunni Muslims dominated the urban centers, where traditionally trained men
of religion, the ulema, conducted the religious and legal affairs of the
Muslim community. = Islam and the Algerian state =
Jews and Christians, whose religions He recognized as the precursors of Islam
and who were called "people of the book" because of their holy scriptures, were
permitted to continue their own communal and religious life as long as they
recognized the temporal domain of Muslim authorities, paid their taxes, and did
not proselytize or otherwise interfere with the practice of Islam.
Soon after arriving in Algeria, the French colonial regime set about
undermining traditional Muslim Algerian culture. The French ideas, however,
vastly differed from the Islamic way of living. For this reason, Islam was a
strong element of the resistance movement to the French.
After independence, the Algerian government asserted state control over
religious activities for purposes of national consolidation and political
control. Islam became the state religion in the new constitution and the religion
of its leaders. No laws could be enacted that would be contrary to Islamic tenets
or that would in any way undermine Islamic beliefs and principles. The
state monopolized the building of mosques, and the Ministry of Religious
Affairs controlled an estimated 5,000 public mosques by the mid-1980s. Imams
were trained, appointed, and paid by the state, and the Friday khutba, or sermon,
was issued to them by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. That ministry also
administered religious property, the habus, provided for religious education
and training in schools, and created special institutes for Islamic learning.
Those measures, however, did not satisfy everyone. As early as 1964, a militant
Islamic movement, called Al Qiyam, emerged and became the precursor of the
Islamic Salvation Front of the 1990s. Al Qiyam called for a more dominant role
for Islam in Algeria's legal and political systems and opposed what it
saw as Western practices in the social and cultural life of Algerians.
Although militant Islamism was suppressed, it reappeared in the 1970s
under a different name and with a new organization. The movement began
spreading to university campuses, where it was encouraged by the state as a
counterbalance to left-wing student movements. By the 1980s, the movement
had become even stronger, and in November 1982, bloody clashes erupted at
the University of Algiers in Algiers. The violence resulted in the state's
cracking down on the movement, a confrontation that would intensify
throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. The rise of Islamism had a significant
impact on Algerian society. More women began wearing the veil, some because
they had become more conservative religiously and others because the veil
kept them from being harassed on the streets, on campuses, or at work.
Islamists also prevented the enactment of a more liberal family code despite
pressure from feminist groups and associations.
Religious minorities Christianity came to North Africa in the
Roman era. Its influence declined during the chaotic period of the Vandal
invasions but was strengthened in the succeeding Byzantine period, only to
disappear gradually after the Arab invasions of the seventh century. There
is also a small growing Pentecostal and evangelical community.
The Roman Catholic Church was reintroduced after the French conquest,
when the Diocese of Algiers was established in 1838. Proselytization of
the Muslim population was at first strictly prohibited; later the
prohibition was less vigorously enforced, but few conversions took
place. The several Roman Catholic missions established in Algeria were
concerned with charitable and relief work; the establishment of schools,
workshops, and infirmaries; and the training of staff for the new
establishments. Some of the missionaries of these organizations remained in the
country after independence, working among the poorer segments of the
population. In the early 1980s, the Roman Catholic population numbered about
45,000, most of whom were foreigners or Algerians who had married French or
Italians. In addition, there was a Protestant community. Because the
government adopted a policy of not inquiring about religious affiliation in
censuses or surveys to avoid provoking religious tensions, the number of
Christians in the early 1990s was not known.
The Bahá'í Faith in Algeria dates from 1952. Though the religion achieved some
growth and organization through 1967 including converts, the period of the
independence of Algeria when the country adopted Islamic practices in rejection
of colonial influences and subsequently the religion was effectively banned in
1968. However more recently the Association of Religion Data Archives
and Wolfram Alpha estimated the population of Bahá'ís at 3.3–3.8
thousand Bahá'ís in 2005 and 2010. The Jewish community of Algeria is of
considerable antiquity, with some members claiming descent from immigrants
from Palestine at the time of the Romans. The majority are descendants of
refugees from Spanish persecution early in the fifteenth century. They numbered
about 140,000 before the Algerian War, but at independence in 1962 nearly all
of them left the country. Because the 1870 Crémieux Decrees, which aimed at
assimilating the colonists of Algeria to France, gave Jews full French
citizenship, most members of the Jewish community emigrated to France. The small
remaining Jewish population appeared to have stabilized at roughly 1,000. It was
thought to be close to this number in the early 1990s. Although no untoward
incidents occurred during the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, a
group of youths sacked the only remaining synagogue in Algiers in early
1977. A 2015 study estimates some 380,000
believers in Christ from a Muslim background in the country, most of whom
subscribe to some form of evangelical Christianity.
See also Religious freedom in Algeria
Ministry of Religious Affairs References