Egypt could plunge into Algeria like scenario of bloody violence: Algerian Islamists

Egypt could plunge into an “Algeria like scenario” of bloody violence after the ruling military council executed a court order to dissolve the country’s elected parliament, Algerian Islamist leaders warned on Sunday.

Former Islamic Salvation Front founder el-Hachemi Sahnouni. (File photo)

Algeria experienced a decade-long civil war which witnessed exceptional savagery and bloody violence when the military intervened in 1992 to unseat President Chadli Bendjedid and cancel the second round of an election after the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won the first round.

Former FIS founder el-Hachemi Sahnouni described events in Egypt in the past few days “as an explicit coup against the people’s will, and it would only bring about evil regardless of what the military council says.”

Sahnouni told Al Arabiya that he was “worried that the biggest Arab country might plunge into violence similar to what occurred in Algeria.”

“If this happens, it will be a catastrophe not only for Egypt but for all of the Arab countries.”

Sahnouni added that the dissolution of Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament was “similar to what happened in Algeria in 1991.”

Abdallah Djaballah, the founder of Algeria's Justice and Development Front. (File photo)

Abdallah Djaballah, the founder of the Justice and Development Front, meanwhile, said that the Egyptian military was receiving “outside” instructions to stop Islamists from taking power.

“The dissolution of Egypt’s People’s Assembly clearly indicates the presence of a strong will within the military council and among influential individuals, with foreign instructions, to stop the Muslim Brotherhood, in particular, and the Egyptian revolution, in general.”

But Abu Jarra Sultani, the leader of the Algerian Movement for the Society of Peace, ruled out the possibility of an armed confrontation between Egypt’s Brotherhoods and the ruling military.

“For more than 70 years, the Brotherhood was victims of violence and I do not think it would resort to violence. The battle will be political,” Algeria’s Brotherhood leader Sultani said.

Abu Jarra Sultani, the leader of the Algerian Movement for the Society of Peace. (File photo)

Before it announced running for presidential elections, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement warned in March 2012 that the country could experience an Algerian like scenario if “other forces” tried to “block the Islamic trend.”

“If the Islamic trend tries to become dominant in positions of authority, we could encounter big problems,” said Mohamed el-Beltagi, Brotherhood leader, according to Egypt Independent.

“If the other forces strive to block or censor the Islamic trend we will encounter a bigger problem,” he added.

(Translated from Arabic by Mustapha Ajbaili)