The Algerian Elite and its Connection to a Reform Movement

This paper attempts to illustrate a political and cultural reality witnessed by Algeria during French rule, beginning in the 1930s, following the establishment of the Algerian Muslim Scholars Association in 1931. Reformist discourse at the time prevailed and was adopted by all kinds and varieties of political formations and civil organizations. The colonial authority also dealt with the Algerian Muslim Scholars Association as a party, with public power and influence in Muslim social and community circles, and nominated it as the groundings and intellectual reference for the Algerian political and cultural elite. Algerian elites and groups communicated with the reformist movement to complement what it lacked,  especially their knowledge of religion and the use of the Arabic language in order to reveal and form identity in the context of a grave colonial situation.

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This paper attempts to illustrate a political and cultural reality witnessed by Algeria during French rule, beginning in the 1930s, following the establishment of the Algerian Muslim Scholars Association in 1931. Reformist discourse at the time prevailed and was adopted by all kinds and varieties of political formations and civil organizations. The colonial authority also dealt with the Algerian Muslim Scholars Association as a party, with public power and influence in Muslim social and community circles, and nominated it as the groundings and intellectual reference for the Algerian political and cultural elite. Algerian elites and groups communicated with the reformist movement to complement what it lacked,  especially their knowledge of religion and the use of the Arabic language in order to reveal and form identity in the context of a grave colonial situation.

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