Have the Islamists won in Algeria?

By Olivier Guitta

For the past month, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has perpetrated numerous terror acts including two major attacks against Algerian policemen: one that killed 24 on June 18 and another one that killed 6 on June 22.
While the military aspect of the Algerian regime's fight against Islamists has been well covered, another aspect of this fight has been left in the dark.
In a piece in today's Examiner I make the point that the Islamists have widely penetrated Algerian society.
You can read my whole article here.
Here is an excerpt:

Algeria may be winning the military battle against Islamists, but it’s losing the ideological war. Over the last 10 years, Algeria’s efforts to root out terrorist elements have been undermined by Algerian society’s increasing tolerance of Islamists’ intolerance.

A March 2009 study by the Algiers-based women’s rights group Ciddef documents the regression of Algerian society especially when it comes to the condition of women.

For example, today only 16 percent of Algerians favor the equality of sexes, compared with 27 percent in 2000. And 70 percent of Algerians would like every Algerian woman and girl alike to wear the hijab. Nadia Ait Zai, Ciddef’s founder, explains, “Women are paying the price of ten years of Islamist pressure.”

The proof of this pressure can be seen in the soaring number of young girls throughout Algeria wearing the hijab. For example, the mother of a 6-year old girl in Dergana explained that at the beginning of the school year, her little girl came back from school with a hijab.

When asked by her mother, who does not wear the hijab, why she was doing this, the child replied, “But it’s a duty! God asked us to do so! … And you are a kafra [infidel], God will make sure you will suffer in hell.”