THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 162, August 18, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
DISSIDENT WATCH: FERHAT MEHENNI
By Dr. Denis MacEoin
ALGERIA: ARABIZATION, ISLAMISM, & THE STRUGGLE FOR KABYLE AUTONOMY -- THE ALGERIAN GOVERNMENT'S
ENDEAVOR TO RESTRICT USE OF THE KABYLE LANGUAGE & SUPPRESS THE MOVEMENT FOR POLITICAL AUTONOMY IN THE
KABYLE REGION -- THE ISLAMISTS AS ENEMIES OF THE KABYLE PEOPLE & THEIR STRIVING FOR ETHNIC OR REGIONAL
SELF-GOVERNMENT -- FERHAT MEHENNI AS LEADER OF THE MOVEMENT ADVOCATING LANGUAGE RIGHTS FOR THE PEOPLE
OF KABYLE, AUTONOMY FOR KABYLE, & TURNING ALGERIA INTO A FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
BASED ON THE AMERICAN MODEL
FULL STORY:
In the West, since the Eighteenth Century, political change has often been stimulated by protest songs. In recent decades,
Joan Baez made "We Shall Overcome" into the American civil rights movement's anthem. In Portugal, the singer-songwriter
Zeca Afonso became the mouthpiece for opposition to the Salazar regime. In Poland, Jacek Kaczmarski, a singer and poet,
became the voice of the Solidarity movement.
This sort of protest has been limited in the Muslim world, where authoritarian regimes harshly repress public challenges.
However, one outstanding example of a dissident singer-songwriter comes from Algeria. Ferhat Mehenni (1951-), a Kabyle
musician and politician, is Cofounder (2001) and President of the Mouvement pour l'Autonomie de la Kabylie (MAK), the
only large-scale secular party standing in opposition to the current Algerian regime and calling for a federal democracy
based on the U.S. model. Kabyle activists describe Islamism as a totalitarian movement and argue that the most effective
response to it is the creation of a free and democratic society. [1]
Almost from the moment of Algerian independence in 1962, the northern region of Kabyle has been subjected to
heavy-handed repression by successive governments. From the late 1960s, President Houari Boumediène banned its
language -- the Berber Tamazight, or Taqbaylit -- as part of his government's official Arabization program, and it remained
suppressed by the country's ruling National Liberation Front until 2002, when a constitutional amendment put it on the
same footing as Arabic. [2]
Mehenni earned a degree in political science before embarking on a musical career in 1973. He quickly acquired a reputation
as a protest singer, turning his wrath on both the government and the Islamists. For his pains, he was arrested thirteen
times, imprisoned for three years, and tortured by government operatives. Like the internationally famous Kabyle singer,
Souad Massi, he has frequently been the object of death threats from Islamists. In 1994, his Air France flight to Paris was
hijacked by an Islamist commando: He had been targeted for assassination but escaped because he was not recognized. In
that year, Raï singer Cheb Hasni was gunned down in Oran, and in 1998, a Berber protest singer Matoub Lounés, "the Bard
of Kabylia," was assassinated, both, in all likelihood, by Islamists. Mehenni's 19-year-old son Améziane Mehenni was
assassinated on a street in Paris in 2001, seemingly because he was mistaken for his father. [3]
Despite these attempts to restrict his advocacy of Kabyle autonomy, Mehenni has acquired an international reputation. In
May, 2009, he spoke before the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, where he condemned Algerian
policy outright and asked, "Is there a genocidal intention against the Kabyle people at the top of the Algerian state?" [4]
Although Kabyle autonomy has been a primary focus for Mehenni, his political vision is more expansive than that of many
Middle Eastern dissidents. After 9-11, when Arab governments mostly expressed stiff formal condolences, the Kabyle
citizens' committee, which had been battling Islamist terrorism for more than ten years, warmly grieved for Americans. [5] In
March, 2003, Mehenni wrote, in agreement with President George W. Bush's Middle East strategy:
"The idea is to democratize all Middle Eastern states in
order to eradicate the sources of terrorism and preempt
a future 'clash of civilizations.' Given time, this should
lead to much greater respect between people, on the
basis of democracy and liberty. It may be naïve of me
to say so, but the Americans can, at least, be thanked
for laying out their goal forthrightly, so surely it's
worth our giving it a shot." [6]
If Mehenni's support for the United States is exceptional in a region given over to anti-American rhetoric, even more
impressive is his open espousal of Israel as a legitimate and democratic state. In 2009, he held a meeting with the Israeli
political counselor at the Embassy in Paris. Two years earlier, answering a question on an online forum for the Algerian
newspaper Le Matin, he said:
"I have no connections with Israel, but I hope that
my country will stop dramatizing relations with this
state … Algeria has very normal diplomatic relations
with countries who behave much more scandalously
than Israel in the field of human rights and that
doesn't [need] to shock anyone among us. … It is
time that we knew, even ourselves, that on an
international level we have neither friend nor enemy,
only interests." [7]
NOTES:
[1] Roger Kaplan, "Democracy in Algeria," The Weekly Standard, June 16, 2003.
[2] "Arabization," Country Studies (Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, U.S. Department of Army), accessed Jan. 25, 2010; "Le colonel Houari Boumediene," Amazigh World.Org, accessed Jan. 25, 2010, excerpted from Ali Guenoun, Chronologie du mouvement berbère, un combat et des hommes (Casbah, Alger, 1999).
[3] "Ferhat Mehenni Imazighen Imoula," La Kabylie.com, accessed Jan. 25, 2010.
[4] Ferhat Mehenni, speech before the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Kabylia Info, May 26, 2009.
[5] "Singer-activist Ferhat Mehenni's campaign for liberal self-government," Kabylia Info, June 22, 2009.
[6] Kaplan, "Democracy in Algeria."
[7] "Forum Le Matin: Ferhat Mehenni répond á vos questions," Oct. 24, 2007.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
North Africa -- The Arab States of Islamic North Africa
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Denis MacEoin, an Irish specialist on Islam and Iran, is Editor of the Middle East Quarterly. MacEoin holds a Master of Arts
degree in English Language and Literature from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; an M.A. degree in Persian, Arabic, and Islamic History
from Edinburgh University, Scotland; and a Ph.D. degree in Persian and Islamic Studies from King's College, Cambridge, England.
Currently, he writes a blog, A Liberal Defense of Israel; teaches a short course in Creative Writing at New Castle University,
England; and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Centre for Social Cohesion, an offshoot of the Civitas think tank in the United
Kingdom.
Dr. MacEoin has published extensively on topics and issues relating to Islam. In recent years, he has done extensive research on the
threat posed by the Islamist movement operating in the United Kingdom.
The foregoing article by Dr. MacEoin was originally published in Middle East Quarterly, Spring, 2010, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/2722/dissident-watch-ferhat-mehenni)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
August 18, 2010
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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