Secularization of the Islamic Movement in Algeria/// Cezayir’deki slami Hareketin Laikle tirilmesi

When observing the Algerian Islamic movement during the last two decades, one is stunned by the transformations in the initial projects of this movement. At the beginning the main concern was the return to traditional forms in order to reorganize Algerian society, but the result was very different. This movement managed to assimilate the very modern system of organizing societies that is the democratic system. This movement is structured into legal parties and participates regularly in democratic elections, and forms coalitions with national parties.Those political parties, whose programs advocated Islam as a solution, are now the defenders of secular solutions to political and economical problems, far from the idealistic project they first held. The international, geopolitical changes and the evolution that Algerian society has gone through, forced the Islamic movement to make concessions, according to the traditional political agenda announced by this movement and after multipartism was recognized by the Algerian constitution. The modern state was substituted for the Islamic state, and the call for an Islamic Caliphate was made less important than a nationalistic presidency.In this essay, I will discuss the avatars of the Islamic movement in Algeria. By avatars I mean the contradictions between what was claimed in the first projects of this movement, and the reality of this movement today. The first part of the article sheds light on the Islamic movement in order to prove its deep attachment to the traditional Islamic heritage. I will then focus on the political practices of this movement which is the new secularization of the Islamic movement in Algeria.