Abdelbaki Sahraoui (Arabic: عبد الباقي صحرواي) was a co-founder of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria.
He was born in 1910 in Constantine, Algeria. In 1926, he joined the circle of Sheikh Mubarak el-Mili. Five years later, he was conscripted by the French army, where he spent two years. He then moved to Algiers, where he was involved with the Muslim Scholars' Society. In 1990, he helped found the FIS; after the Algerian Civil War began, he fled to Paris, from which he preached in favor of armed struggle—jihad—against the Algerian government. However, he opposed the extension of the jihad to France,[1] and was assassinated because of this in Paris, on 11 July 1995, by the Armed Islamic Group.[1] His death was followed by a series of bombings in France.
References
- ^ a b "Rachid Ramda jugé pour l'ultime procès des attentats de 1995," in Libération, October 1, 2007 read on-line (in French)