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5/1/1993 - Things in Algeria are seldom what they seem by Katherine L. Roth

KLR INSTITUTEOFCURRENTWORLDAFFAIRS May Cairo Egypt Peter B Martin Institute Current World Affairs West Wheelock Street Hanoverr NH 03755 USA Dear Peter Things Algeria seldom Those perceive themselves modernists funny sounding fashioned traditionalists starting flower children 1960s Terms liberal conservative beginning their meaning disturbingly hollow Welcome planet Algiers What I modernist resists change struggling protect status What I traditionalist would change untried alternative solution problems country Even terms would describe situation general misplaced empty How civil everyone I against sides Hardly anyone supports principle violence Is neither support forces It seems Algerians caught battle between extremists neither represent average citizen It doesn sound civil Because terminology assumptions describing struggle often skewed I myself comparing I around familiar movements trends attempt things context One parallel keeps coming conversation Algerians I would least expected From inside feels strangely Muslim Katherine Roth Fellow Institute studying tradition modernity Arab world Sinc Institute Current World Affairs Crane Rogers Foundation provided fellowships enable outstandingyoungadultstolivoutsidtheUnitedStatesandwritaboutinternationalareasandissues Endowed bythlateCharlesR Crane theInstituteisalsosupportedbycontributionsfromlike minded ndividuals foundations movement Although bizarre Western perspective doesn fetched storm After significant about Islamist movement political social Hanging traditionalists would country Middle Ages striking sense brotherhood sisterhood togetherness communal utopia There Islamic herbal remedies health stores Ethnic It Islamist It moralis dream world rigid power structure which nobody including moderns agrees Back Garden Eden The people unite It spontaneous natural uprising taking place everywhere Arab world West 1960s As movement realstrength started socially filtered politics While idealism among Islamists certainly great social movement mobilized masses given voice unemployed alienated certainly positive Of course there differences Arab Muslim variation theme cannot expected mimic Western version The religious discourse preferences dress exotic Asian Cultures U close And remember governments involved hardly position strength stability which American government found itself during social upheaval So surprising ramifications trend greater those West during periods social reform rethinking I beginning pieces together seems probablemodels todraw coming understanding struggle As unlikely sound outside parallel feels accurate interior It something about involvement stirrin idealism politics somehow secondary symptom cause But course planet Algiers Things seldom I fully expect impressions images transform themselves again again before journey Best regards Received Hanover May