History has often attempted, through odious processes (omission, falsification, amnesia, etc.) to erase the names of men and women whose action and fight in the service of just causes deserved to be honored by history textbooks. Despite these “efforts” made to suppress the truth, the memory of these “heroes” of bygone eras emerged almost naturally, emerging from the depths of the grave to display all its splendor.

This is the fate experienced by the late Sheikh al Bachir al Ibrahimi (died in 1965) who saw his traveling companion leave him prematurely (Sheikh Ben Badis died in 1940) to find himself at the head of the Association of Algerian Ulemas in order to lead one of the fiercest and most effective struggles of modern times against the alienation to which the Algerian people were victims. But let’s let Sheikh al Bashir himself “explain” to us the very quintessence of this fight:

“French colonialism in Algeria has never stopped fleeing [at the mere idea of hearing] the words reformism, virtue, guidance, Book, Sunnah, history of the pious predecessors, representing for each word [the faces] of Omar, Ali, Khalid, Oqba, Tariq, Salaheddine (Saladin), up to Djamal Eddine al Afghani and Mohammed Abduh, while knowing that this part [of the scholars] who pronounced these words out loud are not among those scholars who agreed to lower themselves before the colonizers and who were satisfied with their actions while working to submit to them. No, these scientists are among those who have combined the force of knowledge with the force of faith, the force of obvious proof with the force of clear presentation, the firmness of will with the firmness of conviction. Knowing all this, the colonizer has, apparently, given up, but he has imagined, against this association, hidden tricks that only the devil knows! »