From 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...
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CONSERVATIVES FEAR LOSS OF INFLUENCE
Political analysts say moderate Islamists fear that modernising the poorly run educational system will chip away at their already reduced influence over a society increasingly adopting Western habits.
Algeria's legal Islamic movements are trying to regain lost ground after many inhabitants appalled by the violent conflict of the 1990s turned against them.
Tens of thousands of Algerians answered a call for a holy war or "jihad" after the army cancelled legislative elections a now-banned Islamic Salvation Front party was set to win in 1992.
The authorities feared an Iranian-style revolution.
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Wait a minute.....MODERATE Islamists???
ITEM OF INTREST>>>>>>>
"fear that modernising the poorly run educational system will chip away at their already reduced influence over a society increasingly adopting Western habits."
END,ITEM OF INTREST>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
So MODERATE islam is totally at odds with western influence and filthy infidel LifeStyles as well as the small minority of extreemists?? Um ...is that a typo?? i thought MODERATE islam wants peace and prosperity...This little tidbit seems to me to point to moderate Islam hating the west just as much as the extreemists....
Mebbie Moderate Islam just means they are more carefull not to hurt thier own (Muslims) while chipping away at the dirty kuffarine pigs apes and donkeys........hmmmm...
AverageJoe-
"Moderate", in this instance, means sawing the infidel's head off with a sharp as opposed to a dull knife.
That's their idea of kindness.