Mahfoud Nahnah ( ar, محفوظ نحناح; 27 January 1942 – 19 June 2003) was an Algerian politician who served as the leader of the Islamist political party Movement of Society for Peace (commonly referred to as ''Hamas'') in Algeria. Nahnah was born in Blida and later studied literature at the University of Algiers. He became a teacher of Arabic after Algeria achieved independence in 1962. Influenced by Egyptian professors, he joined the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

. In 1976, Nahnah was sentenced to 15 years in prison for cutting telephone wires in an act of opposition to the National Charter of that year. After being freed four years later, he helped found the

El Islah Oual Irchad EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American ...

(Reform and Guidance) charitable association with

Mohammed Bouslimani Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monothe ...

, as well as the

Islamic Preaching League Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the main ...

with

Ahmed Sahnoun Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

, uniting major figures of the Algerian Islamist movement such as Abbassi Madani and Mohammed Said. However, he decided not to join the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) because he was opposed to its founding principles. On 6 December 1990, after the FIS was successful in local elections, Nahnah established his own party and called it Hamas (later renamed Movement of Society for Peace, or MSP). Seeing FIS as overambitious to the point of hubris, he emphasized the importance of gradual, step-by-step change and reform from within. He felt that the military and the West were not ready to allow Algeria even to become a full democracy at that time, much less an Islamic state. Because of Nahnah's cautious practices, his party remained legal after the military coup of 1992, and in November 1995 he ran for president (with FIS banned) and finished second to General Liamine Zeroual with about 25% of the vote. He attempted to run again in 1999, but was disqualified by the courts for not having fought in the Algerian War of Independence, despite being born before July 1942 (which was an allowed exemption according to the Algerian Constitution, article 73). Nahnah died of leukemia on 19 June 2003 at 61 years of age. He was succeeded as head of the MSP by Bouguerra Soltani. He was buried at the El Alia Cemetery.

External links

European Institute for Research on Mediterranean and Euro-Arab Cooperation (Medea)

1942 births 2003 deaths Algerian dissidents People from Blida Movement of Society for Peace politicians Deaths from leukemia Algerian prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Algeria Deaths from cancer in Algeria University of Algiers alumni 21st-century Algerian people {{crime-bio-stub