Association des oulémas musulmans algériens

Members of AUMA in the late 1950s

The Association of Algerian Muslim Legal Scholars ( German for Association des oulémas musulmans algériens ; often abbreviated to AOMA, more rarely AUMA) was a religious and political organization that existed in Algeria from 1931 to 1957 . It was an association of Muslim legal scholars and developed into the nucleus of the Algerian national idea.

history

The organization was strongly influenced by Algeria's leading reformist legal scholar Abdelhamid Ben Badis , who founded the association in 1931. Ben Badis and his followers called for a reformist turn in the country's religious practice and turned against the ancestral religious structures of the Sufi order and maraboutism . According to its statutes, the organization presented itself as strictly apolitical.

The French colonial administration saw the AUMA as a potential threat to the political status quo, as it was feared that it could oust the traditional religious institutions cooperating with France. It had around 1,500 members in the early 1930s and operated around 100 institutions in the country. In 1933, the organization was banned from accessing the official, state-sponsored mosques. In 1934 numerous publications of the association were closed. Then several thousand supporters of AUMA held demonstrations in Constantine and Tlemcen . In 1936 Tayyib Utbi brokered a modus vivendi with the colonial authorities. The organization should enjoy the neutrality of the authorities in relation to the political reluctance of the legal scholars. In the same year, the organization joined the call for legal and economic equality between Algerian Muslims and the Algerian French . In 1938 another attempt was made to curb the growth of AUMA through repressive laws for denominational schools. During the Second World War , several cadres of the organization were arrested because the French authorities feared their collaboration .

In 1954 the organization ran 181 madāris with around 40,000 students. After the start of the Algerian War, the organization was banned by the French authorities and its assets were confiscated. AUMA contributed to the struggle of the National Liberation Front through logistical and political support and was absorbed into it after it was banned in 1957. After the country gained independence, many former AUMA managers shaped the country's schooling and education system.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John Ruedy: Modern Algeria - The Origins and Development of a Nation , 2nd edition. Bloomington, 2005, pp. 134-136
2. ↑ Michael Willis: The Islamist Challenge in Algeria - A Political History , Reading, 1996, pp. 13-23
3. ↑ Michael Willis: The Islamist Challenge in Algeria - A Political History , Reading, 1996, p. 24
4. ↑ Mahfoud Bennoune: The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 1830 - 1987 , Cambridge, 1988, p 236