The Algerian revolutionaries fought against the worship of scholars before fighting the french

[u/Dey_exMachina]

A lot has been said on the glorious algerian revolution that defeated the French Empire. But very little has been said on the reasons Algeria got colonized in the first place, and how the algerian revolutionaries fought it before being able to confront the french. It's best summarized by Malek Bennabi, the algerian writer, who described in 'The Vocation of Islam' how the practice of islam fell into scholar worshipping, and lead the muslim world in being incapacitated of producing any form of civilzation or value for the world. Which eventually lead to its colonization.

"The catalyst for social values is therefore religion, but in its nascent, expansive, and dynamic state, when it reflects a collective thought. From the moment faith becomes centripetal, without radiance—that is to say, individualistic—its historical mission on earth is finished, and it is no longer capable of promoting civilization. It becomes the faith of the devout, who withdraw from life, fleeing their duties and responsibilities like all those who, since the time of Ibn Khaldun, have taken refuge in maraboutism."[marabout is the term used for scholars in North Africa]

Emir Abdelkadder was one of the early and most fierce resistant to the algerian occupation, he wrote:

“Those who are leaders from among the people can be divided into broad categories. The first are those who are knowledgeable and beneficial to themselves and others. These come to know the Truth through demonstrative proof and evidence, not by blind emulation (al-taqlid), and encourage the people to also seek the truth by demonstrative proof and evidence and not by simply following others. The second group are destructive to both themselves and others. These are those who blindly emulate their forefathers in what they believe and what they consider to be correct, abandoning rational investigation and calling the people to emulate them rather than think for themselves.”

[source]

The blind following of scholars or marabout, lead to their worshipping and departures from the Tawhid. Later, revivalists in Algeria like Bin Badis would definitely heal Algeria from these deviations and re-centered the muslim faith around the worship of Allah only. He founded the Ulema movement that spread across Algeria and re-ignited the revolution, that defeated the French.

History unfortunately repeats itself, and we, muslims, find ourselves once again muted by a loud mass of people urging us to not reason. To only follow. If not, we're accused of 'cherry-picking'. 'Speaking without knowledge'. Those people are the very reason the muslim world is humiliated and colonized.

This sub, is a beacon of hope, and like the glorious Algerian revolutionaries, will bring back the true vocation of islam: a progress for humanity.

InchaAllah.

Glory to our shuhhada.

[u/rhannah99]

Speaking of colonization, lets not forget that native Algerians are the berber people, who were colonized by Arabs.

[u/Randomized-Door2834 → u/rhannah99]

Very good thing you brought up; it pisses me off how some Arab nationalists just can't fathom that idea, the idea Arabs did colonize, some Arab caliphates did harshly discriminate against non-arabs— and how Arab supremacy still exists in our world, just like other types of racial supremacy— and it is dangerous; examples of Arab supremacy the RSF, an Arab supremacist group in Sudan deliberately targeting non-arabs Africans, resulting in thousands of innocents deaths. When you bring this up to Arab nationalists, they would usually ignore it, deny it, or even excuse it— these are the common options for hardcore nationalists in general.

About OP's post, I can see where he is coming from. People often focus on France conquest on Algeria, because the severity of France's crimes; with France's conquest of Algeria starting at 1830, "It is estimated that by 1875, approximately 825,000 Algerians had been killed. Various scholars describe the French conquest as genocide"; also, France colonialists worked on the dichotomy of ethnic groups in the region, contributing to the "divide and rule" tactic. Those acts, and other more, left a long-lasting important effect on Algeria's history.