The French began their occupation of Algeria in 1830. On May 8, 1945 while Europe was celebrating V.E Day, 8,000 Algerians were marching for freedom. For the first time, protestors marched with the green and white flag of Algeria chanting the slogans, “For the liberation of the People, Long Live Free and Independent Algeria!” The significance of this march rests in the violence that erupted in suppressing the march. During the march a shot was fired in the crowd. As a result protestors were wounded and killed. In order to take revenge, any European seen on the streets was massacred. For five days, the massacres continued. The end death toll was 103 Europeans murdered and another hundred wounded. The significance of the Setif Massacres was the French military began a campaign of massive repression. While French repression was common, it wasn’t deployed to such an extent. The French committed summary executions and aerially bombarded villages. The resulting massacres by the French military took the lives of thousands. This protest erupted in the Algerian Revolution that lasted from 1945-1962. For France the continuation of their occupation of Algeria was rooted in shouldering the white man’s burden and constant belief that Algeria was French. In 1962, Algeria won its independence. The resulting casualty rate for Algerians was more than 1 million people killed. The country then slipped into a civil war. Many Algerians left to France where they live in the ghettos of France, and along with other Northern African Muslims, make up the largest segment of people incarcerated in Frances prison system. To this day, there have been no official apologies offered by the French, no forms of restitution or compensation. The French also wrote the book on the use of torture by Western democracies. Unlike any other anti-colonial struggle from the twentieth century, Algeria was a major evolution of the use of terrorism. The irony was France had passed laws banning torture and signed on to international treaties. The irony hasnt ended today. They preach to be the beacon of democracy and freedom, yet have led the institutionalization of Islamophobia and have silenced free speech. This history is important. Context is important. Cherif and Said Kouachi, the men who murdered 12 individuals at a newspaper that mocks Islam, the prophet (PBUH), and pushes art that is racist and Islamophobic mocked this history and structural reality. While murder is never justified in my eyes, Prime Minister Manuel Valls created a false equivalency by stating what these 3 men engaged in was terrorism. France has no moral ground to tell Muslims or Algerians what terrorism is when their terrorism was perpetrated on Algerians for 115 years.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 06:36:32 +0000
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