It became a mantra amongst those nostalgic towards Algeria’s colonization to say that France civilized the country and gave it schools, roads, and hospitals – all to the benefit of the Algerians.
These contributions are meaningless to us. The schools they opened will never replace the madrasahs that they closed. They erected hospitals only to bandage the blood that they poured. And they made highways to connect cities while diverting away from the roads towards heaven.
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Yet, there is still a tiny community in the French nation that is not regretful of Algeria. They used to live unnoticed, hiding from the majority of the French that hypocritically feigned remorse for the past while indulging in many ongoing crimes. The recent far-right surge within France seems to have strengthened and emboldened them.
With the 60th anniversary of Algeria’s independence approaching, some of these nostalgics finally felt brave enough and decided to express glory for the French action in Algeria.
Last week, Perpignan Mayor Louis Aliot organized a memorial for French Algeria. During this festival, he held circles of reflection and concerts and even gave titles to past war tormentors. This event was an official ceremony, paid for by French taxes on French soil, glorifying the pain of the Algerian people.
The menu is plentiful and indigestible. For three days, the city of Perpignan, which paid 100,000 euros for the occasion to the algerianist circle, an association of nostalgics for French Algeria, is organizing an event until Sunday, June 26, where it proclaims itself the “capital of the French from Algeria. “
On the program: a celebration of the colonizing and “civilizing” work of France, honoring the leaders of the Secret Army Organization (OAS) and putschist generals… All under the tutelage of the mayor of Rassemblement National (the most prominent French Far-right party), Louis Aliot. On the occasion of a “dinner of 60 years” [of the departure of the French from Algeria – editor’s note], the city councilor, from a family of black foot, “will raise to the rank of honorary citizen of the city” three leaders of the Algiers putsch.
After a relatively modest exhibition last year on “the forgotten victims of the Algerian war” in a room adjoining the town hall, the far-right mayor this time wanted to do it big. The event takes place at the Congress House, with nineteen exhibitions in five locations in the city.
Doesn’t this make you shiver? Lo and behold, the very individuals who complain night and day about Muslim immigration are not true nationalists. They certainly try to hide their plan behind grandiloquent philosophical principles of peace and community, when in fact they are just feeble imperialists that are scared to reveal their true intent.
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No surprise then, to see that most of their members are closet Islamophobes that detest Islam. Both the priest’s father, Kalka, and the singer Jean-Pax Mefret were invited and are ostentatious enemies of our din.
France is polarizing, and masks are falling. You may think this event is a random isolated incident but it isn’t. During the very same week, the new dean of the legislative assembly of France, Jose Gonzales, made a speech where he expressed his nostalgia for his home country: French Algeria.
He declared:
We, the returnees from Algeria (…) we, left a part of France that we loved there. It was important to say that we loved France from there and that we love France from here. We are true patriots.
It is difficult to see where this will lead us from here on out. The French population is divided between the repentant and the nostalgic. But one thing is crystal clear – they both antagonize Islam equally, and we must stand as a third pillar.
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When the then French empire conquered the land, they razed the villages of the muslim farmers and expelled them from their farm lands , pushing all those people into absolute hunger, misery and poverty ; the french stole the best lands with all the water and fertile land, and the french soldiers brought their families to settle there first (later on European settler inmigration from France, Spain and Italy also occurred later on).
Then the french state imposed an apartheid state equal to the one in Palestine today, native muslims had less civil rights than the christian and atheist settlers.
The schools, roads and hospitals they build was all for the settlers, never for the locals, the locals were in most cases separated and treated as second class citizens like the palestinians are today, they were left in a state of absolute misery.