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THE FRONT ISLAMIQUE DU SALUT AND THE DENIAL OF LEGITIMACY Myles O’ Byrne B.C.L., M.A. A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in French Studies University of Warwick, Department of French June 2010 Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 4 Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 5 List of acronyms ...................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 7 Locating my research: bibliographical choices and research contributions ........................... 10 Review of the literature ..................................................................................................... 11 Contributions to the field .................................................................................................. 16 Thesis structure ...................................................................................................................... 18 Chapter I ........................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter II .......................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter III ........................................................................................................................ 27 Chapter IV ........................................................................................................................ 32 Chapter I: Nation-Building, Politics, Religion and the FIS ............................................. 38 Section 1 – Theories of nation-building and post-independence Algeria .............................. 39 Section 1.1 – Smith and the nation.................................................................................... 41 Minimally modernist: under-emphasising the role of the state.................................................................. 42 Vertical and lateral ethnies ........................................................................................................................ 46 FIS as agent in nationalism ....................................................................................................................... 49 Section 1.2 – Post-independence nation-building ............................................................ 52 Inadequacy of economic analysis .............................................................................................................. 52 Teething problems ..................................................................................................................................... 55 Self-determination: state or nation?........................................................................................................... 59 State-sanctioned history ............................................................................................................................ 62 Military politics ......................................................................................................................................... 65 Section 2 – Politics and religion ............................................................................................ 71 Section 2.1 – Fundamentalisms ........................................................................................ 71 Secular fundamentalism? .......................................................................................................................... 72 Fundamentalism and Islamism .................................................................................................................. 76 Section 2.2 – Religion in politics ...................................................................................... 82 Islam and the Muslim state ........................................................................................................................ 82 Reformism, nationalism and Islamism in Algeria ..................................................................................... 85 Reconciling public practice and private belief .......................................................................................... 92 Chapter II: Islamism and Challenges to the Democratic Paradigm ............................... 96 Section 1 – Democratic theorising ......................................................................................... 98 Section 1.1 – Democracy: some history and problems of definition .............................. 100 Section 1.2 – Communitarian-liberal debate .................................................................. 103 Section 2 – Assessing Islamism: some perspectives from metropolitan France .................. 113 Section 2.1 – Lahouari Addi ........................................................................................... 114 2 Section 2.2 – Olivier Roy ................................................................................................ 119 Section 2.3 – François Burgat ........................................................................................ 126 Section 3 – Sovereignty, Islamism, legitimacy: potential incompatibilities? ...................... 139 Section 3.1 – Popular sovereignty and Islamic governance ........................................... 139 Section 3.2 – Legitimacy: are we asking the right questions? ........................................ 145 Chapter III: Islamist Uncertainty, Politicking, Legality and the FIS ........................... 151 Section 1 – Emergence of the Islamist movement: early uncertainties................................ 153 Section 1.1 – A distinct politics? ..................................................................................... 153 Section 1.2 – Islamist diversity ....................................................................................... 158 Section 1.3 – Rise of the Djaz‟ara .................................................................................. 162 Section 1.4 – FIS du FLN ? ............................................................................................. 167 Section 2 – Strategic cooperation ........................................................................................ 171 Section 2.1 – Black October: manipulation but by whom? ............................................. 174 Section 2.2 – Post-‟88: concessionary politicking .......................................................... 178 Section 3 – An end to the cooperation ................................................................................. 184 Section 3.1 – La « grève générale » ................................................................................ 186 Section 3.2 – Post-January ‟92: Islamist violence but from where? .............................. 191 Section 3.3 – Attempted negotiations .............................................................................. 196 Section 3.4 – Sant‟Egidio: the definitive rejection of compromise ................................. 198 Chapter IV: Islamist Violence, State Violence and the Distortion of the FIS .............. 205 Section 1 – Souaïdia: La sale guerre .................................................................................... 209 Section 1.1 – Military designs on power ......................................................................... 211 Section 2 – Boudiaf and the search for legitimacy .............................................................. 216 Section 3 – Martinez on the instrumentalisation of violence .............................................. 222 Section 4 – The dirty war in Bentalha ................................................................................. 227 Section 4.1 – What makes these claims credible? ........................................................... 238 Section 5 – Nezzar v Souaïdia ............................................................................................. 244 Section 5.1 – François Gèze and the „conspiracy theory‟ .............................................. 249 Section 6 – Resisting UN pressure ....................................................................................... 257 Section 6.1 – Deflecting responsibility ........................................................................... 257 Section 6.2 – Concluding observations of the UN Human Rights Committee ................ 261 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 263 Future research perspectives ................................................................................................ 270 Appendices .........................................................................................................................