Headline News

Arab Spring Is Now Targeting Algeria

Algeria’s Islamists, in the political wilderness since their last attempt to win power dissolved into civil war, are now trying again, galvanized by the success of their brethren elsewhere in north Africa in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Published

15 years ago

December 8, 2011

Geoffrey Grider

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(Reuters) – Algeria’s Islamists, in the political wilderness since their last attempt to win power dissolved into civil war, are now trying again, galvanized by the success of their brethren elsewhere in north Africa in the wake of the “Arab Spring”.

Riot policemen clash with university students from marching during a demonstration in which they demand political change in Algiers May 2, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Zohra Bensemra

Most Islamists in Algeria have been excluded from political life since the conflict, but in the past few months they have shown renewed signs of activity, much of it conducted from exile to dodge the attentions of the Algerian state.

They have set up a satellite television station based in Europe, sent delegations to Arab countries that saw revolutions this year, and made tentative forays into anti-government protests.

Their chances of success are slim: they are divided into rival ideological camps, hemmed in by the powerful Algerian security apparatus, and, most importantly, discredited in the eyes of many people by a conflict in which they took part and which killed an estimated 200,000 people.

But they see an opportunity in the upheavals of the “Arab Spring,” which have this year unseated entrenched secularist leaders. In neighboring Tunisia, a previously outlawed Islamist movement has come to power, while in Egypt Islamists have taken a strong early lead in multi-stage parliamentary elections.

“Tunisia was an example and launcher of this (Arab Spring) revolution,” said Abdullah Anas, a London-based member of the leadership council of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which is banned in Algeria.

“It could be a very good example for Algeria.”

LEGACY OF VIOLENCE

Any Islamist revival in Algeria, an OPEC member and supplier of about a fifth of Europe’s imported gas, would have first to shed the burden of the country’s bloody history.

Twenty years ago, FIS was poised to win a legislative election, called after street protests forced the authorities to loosen their grip on power. FIS said it would impose an Islamic state.

The military-backed government stepped in to annul the election. The Islamists took up arms and Algeria slipped into a conflict of horrific violence. Civilians had their throats slit in the street; in the mornings, people woke up to find their towns littered with bodies.

A rump of Islamists, now operating under the banner of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, is still fighting. They periodically ambush security forces in the countryside, kidnap Westerners and stage suicide bombings.

But the violence has subsided considerably. A huge security crackdown has rounded up thousands of insurgents. Others have laid down their arms and been granted an amnesty, in exchange for an undertaking to stay out of politics.

This legacy is the biggest obstacle to any comeback by Algeria’s Islamists.

“Since then (the conflict), the Islamist was no longer seen as a hero who stands up against tyranny,” said Soheib Bencheikh, a theologian who used to be the chief cleric at the mosque in Marseilles, France, where there is a large Algerian community.

“On the contrary, he became, in the eyes of public opinion, accountable for the pain and suffering of the people,” Bencheikh told Reuters.

A fear of a return to violence helps explain why Algeria has this year remained relatively calm while neighboring countries have been convulsed by unrest.

TV STATION

But the Islamists still believe that Algeria is ripe for change, and are beginning to take practical steps.

Starting in November, a group of exiled Islamists with links to FIS set up a Europe-based television station, called Rachad TV. Carried by the Atlantic Bird 7 and Nilesat satellites , the station can be picked up in Algeria, where most homes have a dish.

It broadcasts political and social programs where opposition leaders and activists — most of them harshly critical of the government — are invited to comment on Algeria.

At the top of the station’s homepage on the Internet, there is a link to show viewers “how to free your country”, and a second link to help them “organize and participate in unrest.”

The exiles say they are also building contacts with other countries where “Arab Spring” revolts have propelled Islamists into a position of power.

Rachad says on its website that it sent a delegation to Libya in late September to meet officials in the new government, in which Islamists have a prominent role.

Abdullah Anas, the exiled Islamist in London, said there had also been contacts with Rachid Ghannouchi, the head of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party. Since an election in October his party leads Tunisia’s coalition government.

Tunisia’s experience had proved that it is possible to open up the political space in north Africa, said Anas.

“Everyone in Algeria must understand that Algeria has room for all … no matter what opinions you have,” he said, calling for a lifting of political curbs and the possibility of power-sharing between previously antagonistic groups.

SALAFISTS STIRRING

Inside Algeria, the most influential Islamist force are the Salafists, followers of an ultra-purist interpretation of Islam. Unlike the FIS, they are tolerated by the Algerian state because their creed forbids participation in politics.

When Algeria was shaken at the beginning of this year by protests sparked by a spike in food prices, the spiritual leader of the Algerian Salafists, Abdelmalek Ramdani, who lives in Saudi Arabia, issued a religious decree.

It said: “As long as the commander of the nation is a Muslim, you must obey and listen to him. Those who are against him are just seeking to replace him, and this is not licit.”

Nevertheless, there are stirrings of political activity by some Salafist preachers.

Sheikh Abdelfateh Zeraoui, a former FIS member and now a well-known Salafist preacher in the Algerian capital, issued a declaration in October saying the government had to enact urgent reforms.

“Political reforms allowing us to have free political activity are key to the stability of the country. Without reforms the country may explode,” the declaration stated.

The preacher has also tried to organize protest marches in the capital, but these have been blocked by the security forces. “We have been barred from politics,” he told Reuters.

The fact that Algerian Islamists are divided dilutes their ability to stage a comeback, said Mohamed Mouloudi, an editor and specialist on Islam.

“They are no longer speaking with one voice,” Mouloudi told Reuters.

“You have the Salafists, the Muslim brotherhood, and the Djaz’airists,(who give priority to Algerian religious traditions) among others,” he said. “You have those who are for a political action, and those who consider political action as illicit.”

SUCCESSION DEBATE

Even so, a debate is now under way in earnest within the Algerian ruling elite, for the first time since the conflict began 20 years ago, about giving Islamists a role in politics.

The focus for that debate — which, like much of Algerian politics, is conducted behind closed doors — is the question of who will succeed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika when his final term ends in 2014.

One camp within the elite is backing Abdelaziz Belkhadem, a former prime minister and secretary general of the ruling FLN party. He is a secularist but is trusted by the Islamists. Opposing him is a camp of hardline secularists who have backing from the powerful security forces.

Friction spilled out into the open when a group of Belkhadem opponents inside the FLN launched a campaign to have him removed from the party leadership.

“It will be wise to promote a man like Abdelaziz Belkhadem who has good ties with Islamists as well as with decision makers inside the regime,” said Mohamed Lagab, a secularist academic at Algiers university.

“Decision makers should take into account that North Africa will be ruled by Islamists ,” said Lagab. source – Reuters

Related Topics:Algeria arab Islamists spring

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China

Here On Day 151 Of World War Trump, China Is Now The Official Supplier Of Shoulder-Fired Air Defense Missile Launchers To Iran As The Conflict Greatly Expands

Published

1 day ago

July 29, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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China Moves To Rearm Iran With 400 Shoulder-Fired Missiles As World War Trump Widens Into A Dangerous Global Confrontation With America In The Crosshairs

What you are watching is no ordinary weapons sale, it’s the widening of the Middle East war into a confrontation between the world’s great powers. According to Reuters, Iran could soon receive as many as 400 Chinese-made QW-12 and FN-16 shoulder-fired air-defense systems in a deal worth up to $70 million. America and Israel spent months blasting holes through Iran’s defenses, and now Communist China appears ready to help Tehran fill those holes with hundreds of portable, heat-seeking missiles. Washington drops the bombs, Beijing replaces the weapons, and Iran prepares for the next round. This is how a regional war begins mutating into something much larger and infinitely more dangerous. Welcome to World War Trump where things have been going very badly, and getting worse by the day.

“Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:” Ezekiel 38:5 (KJB)

Do not underestimate these weapons because they are carried on a man’s shoulder. A fixed radar installation can be photographed by satellites, targeted by coordinates and destroyed with a precision strike. A MANPADS team, or Man-portable air-defense system, can hide inside a building, travel in an ordinary vehicle, emerge without warning and disappear immediately after firing. These missiles will not make Iran’s airspace impenetrable or bring down high-flying B-2 bombers, but rather transform the lower skies over Iran into a deadly ambush zone for helicopters, drones, surveillance platforms and low-flying aircraft. Every airbase, missile facility, refinery and command center could suddenly be protected by launchers that American planners cannot easily locate or eliminate.

This is the terrible arithmetic of America’s unfinished war, otherwise known as World War Trump. The United States expends million-dollar missiles and billion-dollar aircraft to destroy Iran’s defenses, while China helps Tehran replace a dangerous layer of those defenses for a comparatively modest $60–70 million. Iran does not have to defeat the United States in the air; it merely has to make every mission more expensive, every flight more dangerous and every strike more politically costly. Tehran is learning from every American attack, dispersing its weapons, hardening its facilities and purchasing exactly the systems needed to complicate the next assault. The longer this war continues, the less Iran resembles the vulnerable target struck at its beginning.

YOU WILL LOVE THIS AFFORDABLY ELEGANT AND BEAUTIFULLY-DESIGNED KING JAMES BIBLE WITH THUMB INDEX AND ZIPPERED CLOSURE, CLICK TO ORDER!!

Then comes the China factor. Beijing does not have to fire directly upon American forces to wage war against American power. It can arm Iran, supply dual-use technology, sustain Tehran’s military industry and force Washington to drain its own stockpiles thousands of miles from home. If the reported shipment travels through Pakistan and into Iran, it would reveal the emergence of an eastern military-supply corridor operating beyond Washington’s control. China, of course, has denied the report and Pakistan denies involvement, but if the delivery occurs, the strategic message will be unmistakable: America’s enemies are beginning to replenish one another, the nightmare does not end at Iran’s borders. Portable missiles can be hidden, transported and transferred far more easily than large air-defense batteries. If even a fraction of these weapons eventually reached Iranian proxy forces, American troops, Israeli aircraft and civilian aviation throughout the region could face a whole new level of danger. Once these systems are dispersed, tracking every launcher will become virtually impossible, and Iran will have gone from surviving to thriving. How can that be? Because your King James Bible declares that Iran is a major power in the last days, that’s how.

Jesus warned that the closing days would be marked by “wars and rumours of wars,” and we are watching the machinery of those wars being assembled before our eyes. America strikes Iran. China rearms Iran. Russia strengthens its relationships across the East. Israel prepares for another attack, while every ceasefire becomes merely a pause to reload. These are not isolated headlines anymore, they are pieces of a rapidly forming global alignment. World War Trump has lit the end times fuse, the weapons are moving, and the nations, and the kingdoms, are busy choosing their sides. Exactly how the prophets say that it will be in the last days.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Donald Trump

The Terrible Truth That Donald Trump Won’t Tell You Is That His Department Of War Has Fired Years Worth Of Munitions In Weeks, Leaving America Exposed

Published

2 days ago

July 28, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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Donald Trump Says America Is Stronger Than Ever, But The Pentagon’s Emptying Missile Stockpiles Tell A Far More Dangerous Story About The Nation’s Readiness For A Larger War

The United States may still possess the most technologically advanced military force on earth, but advanced weapons mean very little when the magazines holding them are being emptied faster than American factories can refill them. That is the terrifying reality behind America’s growing munitions crisis. Patriot interceptors, Tomahawk cruise missiles, air-defense weapons and long-range precision munitions can take months—or even years—to replace, yet they can be fired by the hundreds in a matter of days. America has built a military designed to win spectacular opening battles, but it is increasingly questionable whether that military has the industrial depth necessary to sustain a long and brutal war.

“There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.” Psalm 33:16 (KJB)

For decades, Washington behaved as though the United States would always have unlimited time, unlimited money and uncontested access to the global supply chain. Factories were closed, production lines were reduced, skilled workers disappeared and critical components were outsourced overseas. Meanwhile, politicians continued sending weapons around the world while assuring the American people that our own stockpiles remained strong. Now the wars in Ukraine, Israel, the Red Sea and Iran have exposed the truth: America has been spending missiles like they are bullets, while manufacturing them like they are handmade luxury automobiles. Trump’s promise to “rebuild the military” remains, as of this writing, largely unfulfilled. Posting about it on social media is not the same as actually doing it.

President Trump inherited much of this industrial weakness, that’s is true, but it is also true that he cannot, and will not, escape responsibility for what happens next. His administration has projected overwhelming strength while simultaneously acknowledging that replenishing America’s most valuable weapons will take months and years. You cannot boast that the arsenal is overflowing while urgently requesting tens of billions of dollars to prevent critical shortages. The public rhetoric says America is stronger than ever, but the frantic scramble to reopen plants, expand production and rebuild inventories tells an entirely different story.

The greatest danger is not merely another confrontation with Iran. The nightmare scenario is that America becomes trapped fighting multiple wars while China makes its move against Taiwan. Every Patriot interceptor fired in the Middle East, every Tomahawk launched against Iran and every missile transferred overseas is one less weapon immediately available in the Pacific. You better believe that Beijing is watching the numbers, that Moscow is watching the numbers, and that North Korea is watching the numbers as well. Every enemy of the United States is calculating how long America can fight before its launchers remain loaded but its ammunition bunkers stand empty. And if we are where I think we are on the end times timeline, it’s just about time for them to take their shots.

A modern war between major powers would consume munitions at a rate the American people have never witnessed. The United States could expend years of production in the opening weeks. Once those weapons are gone, money alone cannot instantly replace them. Congress can appropriate another $100 billion overnight, but it cannot manufacture a missile overnight. It cannot instantly create rocket motors, guidance systems, explosives, rare-earth components or trained industrial workers. The weakness is not merely financial—it is physical, industrial and strategic.

America has spent decades financing the image of military supremacy while neglecting the machinery required to sustain it. That illusion is now colliding with reality. The United States remains extraordinarily powerful, but power without endurance is a dangerous deception. A nation that prepares for war through speeches, slogans and televised airstrikes—but not through factories, stockpiles and production capacity—is a nation gambling with its own survival.

The lesson should be unmistakable: America cannot continue attempting to police every conflict, arm every ally and confront every enemy while assuming its arsenal will never reach the bottom. The munitions crisis is not simply a Pentagon bookkeeping problem. It is a warning that the world’s greatest military power may be entering the most dangerous period in generations with fewer arrows in its quiver than its leaders are willing to admit. America right now is in an incredibly tenuous position, and Donald Trump is the one who put us there. World War Trump just might be about to run out of gas and nowhere near the finish line.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Headline News

From Sickness And Scarcity To Fresh Water And Hope, Operation Africa! Finishes Kenya Well Project And Watches God Turn Desperate Need Into Lasting Miracle

Published

3 days ago

July 27, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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Operation Africa! Completes A Life-Changing Well In Kenya, Bringing Clean Water, New Hope And A Powerful Testimony Of God’s Faithfulness To Pastor Dancan’s Children

What began as a burden for children suffering without dependable clean water has now become a finished well, standing in the soil of Kenya as a testimony to answered prayer, faithful giving, and the goodness of God. Those children gathered around it are not looking at concrete and stone; they are looking at life, health, hope, and a future that has been changed because God moved through His people. Pastor Dancan wrote to me this morning and said “the children are shocked at how much life has now changed for the better, something they never could have imagined.” To tell you the truth, I am a little shocked, too, at how quickly the LORD brought all this to come to pass.

“I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.” Isaiah 41:18 (KJB)

Pastor Dancan carried the burden on the ground, Operation Africa! carried the need before NTEB’ers, and the Lord brought everything together in His perfect timing. Every prayer offered, every dollar given, every obstacle overcome, and every foot drilled into the earth became part of a miracle those children will remember for the rest of their lives. Long after the excitement of the project fades, that well will continue giving water day after day, becoming a silent preacher declaring that God sees the forgotten, hears the cries of the needy, and rewards those who act in faith.

THE KENYA WELL PROJECT UPDATE: Operation Africa! is thrilled to report that we have now successfully completed the drilling and installation of a well at the Glory Fellowship Orphanage in Kisii, Kenya. All glory to the Lord Jesus Christ for this incredible lifechanging miracle!! pic.twitter.com/0VvWz1ZRfv

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) July 27, 2026

This is what we have accomplished together so far. We’ve given them over 1,100 Bibles, enough medicine to heal 81 children of malaria and typdoid, a 10,000 liter permanent water tanked, filled it twice with fresh water, and now a beautiful, amazing, incredible and permanent 60-foot well complete with charcoal filtration system that connects to the water tank. The “cherry on the sundae” was sending them, this morning, 20 wash basins to bathe in and 20 jerrycans for water transport. Thank you all so very much for your prayers and faithful giving, this entire project is now 95% paid for. If you would like to help us get the last 5% in, right around $1,200, please click the donation link below.

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

If God has prospered you, please take a moment to click on the donate button to help us in this overwhelmingly urgent task of providing the children of Glory Fellowship Orphange with medicine and clean drinking water. We need your prayers, we need your generous financial support, and we need you to stand with us in the closing days of the Church Age. Thank you so very much, TO THE FIGHT!!!

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