From [1] Reuters, "Islamic studies battle tests Algerian govt resolve"

ALGIERS - Algerian conservatives are mounting an aggressive campaign against removing Islamic studies from the high-school curriculum in what is seen as a test for a government trying to modernise the civil strife-torn country.

The North African Muslim state is emerging from more than a decade of a civil war that has cost the lives of up to 200,000 people and over $30 billion in damages.

Conservative scholars, politicians and religious leaders were taken aback this month when news emerged that the government would for the first time remove Islamic studies as a speciality at high-school.

A powerful students' union close to the country's legal Islamic parties said on Saturday such a decision was unconstitutional as Islam was the religion of the state...