Algeria Islamic scholar Ahmad Sahnoun dies at 97

One of the most prominent Islamists leaders and former leader of the Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brothers Movement) in Algeria, Ahmad Sahnoun, died yesterday at 97 year old.

Sheikh Sahnoun led the Muslim brothers movement in Algeria between 1953 and 1954 during the French colonialism. Sahnoun who lead the revival of the Islamic upsurge was detained in December 1982 after a students' strike in Algiers.

Then he collaborated with Abbasi Madani who led later the Islamic Salvation Front, and this front was desolved later, after it submitted a patition to former Algerian President Chazli Bin Jdeid to implement the Islamic Sharia principles as law.

In 1989, Sahnoun formed with other figures in the Islamic trend like Abbasi Madani and Mahfouz al-Nahnah the Rabitat al-Dawa al-Islameyah (v). The league, which was not a political party, tried to lessen the supervision of the state on religion, especially on mosques. The government banned its activities in 1992 with the Islamic Front for Salvation.

Sheikh Sahnoun was behind the largest Islamic demonstration in Algeria. This demonstration gathered together in June 1996 300,000 Algerians in Algiers.

In July 1996 he was attacked in Algiers in front of a mosque he was running. he composed a [poetry book under the name " Divan" and a book under the title " Islamic studies and directives." N.