The Bureaucratization of Islam in Algeria: The State as the Only Controller of Religion

Abstract

Since its independence in 1962, Algeria used Islam to strengthen the sense of national identity or as a tool of self-legitimization. The Algerian political elite not only legitimized governments in the shadow of Islam, but institutionalized it through different organisms, represented by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments (Awqaf), the Islamic High Council, and more recent institutions, such as those gravitating around the Great Mosque of Algiers with important cultural, social, and administrative tasks. This bureaucratization of Islam represented the cornerstone of the state fight against radicalization and the crystallization of an Algerian national Islam that has been vital for the stabilization of the country.