Page 143 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

HARUN YAHYA (ADNAN OKTAR)
141

came under French rule. SPAIN
Gibraltar
Algeria was of great impor-
tance to the French with its TUNISIA
MOROCCO
rich oil reserves and strate-
gic position as a port on the
ALGERIA
Mediterranean. The coun- LIBYA
try officially became part of
France in 1830, and re-
mained under the French MALI
colonialist thumb for the NIGER
next 132 years.
In line with the colo-
nialist view, the French
saw the people of nations
besides themselves as sec-
ond-class human beings, and so established a system based on pressure
and violence, as in all the other lands they occupied. A campaign of cul-
tural assimilation was begun. Firstly, speaking and teaching Arabic was
banned. French became the only official language. This policy was
aimed at destroying the people's national identity and cultural heritage.
Later on, Algeria was made totally economically dependent on France,
and the country's political structure was reshaped in line with French
interests.
The first Algerian resistance to French occupation came from Abd-
el-Kader, the governor of Mascara, in 1832. Thousands of Muslim
Algerians were killed in the struggle, and the French took over the whole
of the country. Throughout the period that followed the uprising, there
was no force able to coordinate the anger that people felt towards the col-
onizers. A number of moves for independence inspired by the policies of
violence and repression were savagely put down. That remained the
state of affairs in the country until the mid-twentieth century.
With the outbreak of World War II, a new era dawned in Algeria.
Nazi Germany first occupied France and then Algeria. Many Algerian
patriots were detained by the Germans, most of whom were either