You want an urgent law .. Why did the hate speech grow in Algeria?

Abdel-Hakim Hadaqa - Algeria

In an unprecedented incident in Algeria, the investigating judge at the Messila court (237 km southeast of the capital), a few days ago, sent the poet Rabih Zarif in custody, due to a Facebook post accusing a prominent leader of the revolution of treason and labor for France.

Earlier this week, the authorities ended the duties of al-Ma’ni, as the city’s director of culture, before the judge directed him to a misdemeanor to harm the national interest and prejudice the integrity of the nation’s unity.

The incident, which sparked great controversy, comes in the context of a very noticeable escalation of the hatred indicators that emerged within the differences of the course of the popular movement in its last months, until the date of the electoral elections on December 12 last.

It finally crystallized in the form of regional and racist speeches through communication sites, preparing for past struggles, symbols of history and questions of identity and geography in an existential manner, according to the dualism of Arabs and Berbers.

The matter called for the intervention of Algerian President Abdel Majid Taboun, who instructed the government to prepare an urgent bill to criminalize, and the presidential statement stated that "the action comes after an increase in hate speech and an incitement to sedition is noted."

Echo of the initiative
The reactions among the elite differed with regard to the President’s initiative, as the journalist bin Ammar wrote on Facebook, “The problem was never in laws but in their use and how to implement them. Justice".

The writer Lakhdar Rabhi considered that "enacting a law to reduce hatred is wrong, because some anomalies do not represent the Algerian people," hoping that "it will be abolished, as it is an insult to Algeria and its history."

However, Hassan Ali Lakhal appeared as a precursor to the initiative, so he wrote, "The proposed anti-racism law is the first step to combating hatred and increasing (and enriching) coexistence, (and) it will lift the protection of those who continue to sow discord among the people of the homeland."

French project
In the approach of the phenomenon historically and sociologically (and socially), the historian Hussein Boubidi said that the French occupation worked to create regional differentiation based on the linguistic background, to establish the illusion of ethnic division, by forming a class with a foreign culture that adopts these concepts.

He explained in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, that this trend remained weak at the time due to the ability of the Islamic discourse of the mosque and the Zawiya institutions, and the efforts of scholars and the struggle of the men of the national movement in framing the Algerian people.

After independence, the discourse of the revolutionary legitimacy of the emerging state gradually shifted into producing categories that triumphed over narrow affiliations, in order to highlight its revolutionary effectiveness in order to qualify the authority, "until the identity contest has turned into a political fold and a struggle between the components of identity, and transcending the universal foundations towards disjointed peculiarities," according to Pobedy.

He considered that the identity speeches of politicians and intellectuals for positioning gradually transferred the crisis to the general public, as some of them adopted the idea of ​​multiple races and identities, which was a destructive (not colonial) starting point that France was unable to achieve, so that it could be adopted by the victims of illusion in independent Algeria, as he put it.

The collective self
However, sociologist Youssef Hantabli confirms that hate speech in the Algerian public debate is more present and prominent on communication sites than in direct social reality.

In a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, he said that the identity debate brings with it squabbles, convulsions and even slipping towards denial of the other with a surgical speech, highlighting the motives of hate and rejecting the difference.

He considered this "the result of digging into the collective memory and the social (interpretation) imagination that appears on the surface whenever opportunities for public debate are created, especially on communication sites that have become a substitute for university spaces and public squares."

The speaker noted that the traditional spaces of the citizen are more tolerant in the nature of their discussions with the other than virtual means that are not controlled by direct real values, such as entering the individual with a borrowed personality or his lack of legal responsibility.

Whatever it is, the matter does not cause concern for social cohesion - according to Hantabli - as "the movement demonstrated this by accepting the other in public rallies and peaceful demands, although each group may have its own perception about the course of the political process."

And he added that Algeria is going through a stage of sensitization to its social (self-identifying) and the discovery of its regional, ethnic and cultural intolerances (through its retrieval and updating of its memory), and therefore "it is natural that this be accompanied by appearances that may appear negative, but it will turn after the stability into a balance to establish the collective self We enter into the battle of future bets, "he added.

law enforcement
On the other hand, Hassan Brahimi, a human rights defender, attributed the spread of the phenomenon to the atrophic role of the state in directing, as well as the lack of control over the new media.

Brahimi accused the regime of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of collusion, as government agencies continued to play the role of observer, which made social networking sites a platform for spreading and inciting hatred among various parties, until the situation reached discord among the population, as happened in the events of the city of Ghardaia.

On the feasibility of the prospect of the president, Brahimi explained that previous Algerian legislation - that appeared in 2001 and was tightened in 2006 - did not have the power of deterrence to eliminate and combat the phenomenon.

In a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, he indicated that the penal code criminalizes defamation because of belonging to an ethnic or sectarian group or a specific religion, as well as punishing the offense to the Messenger (peace and blessings of God be upon him) and all the prophets (peace be upon them) or mocking the knowledge of religion necessarily, or by any A ritual of Islam, whether by writing, drawing, or others.

Brahimi added that Algeria also criminalizes discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, descent, national or ethnic origin or disability, but - according to him - "we have not heard of the application of these laws rarely."