50th Anniversary of the creation of the newspaper El Moudjahid
At the beginning of 1956, several meetings were devoted to questions of propaganda and information. Sâad Dahlab and Benyoucef Benkhedda were responsible for a summary report on this subject. If they report the good performance of “Algerian Resistance”, they emphasize that this newspaper does not “come out” often enough and they suggest the edition of an important and regular weekly. It remains to find a title.
- Why not “the Algerian”. We would thus indicate that every Algerian is virtually at least a National Liberation Front, it would be political” would have suggested Larbi Ben M’Hidi.
- “Political perhaps, but not journalistic”, and at the moment it is journalism that we are doing. I ran the newspaper “L’Algérie Libre” for years and I can tell you that we sold many issues of this title,” retorts Saad Dahlab.
- “Why not El Moudjahid or El Moukafih”? Suggests Benyoucef Benkhedda.
- “El moudjahid gives off an idea of jihad, of holy war, we must take this into account. We are fighting for the liberation of the country,” objects Abane Ramdane.
- “Perhaps El Moudjahid would have a greater resonance than El Moukafih” remarks Ben M’Hidi.
- “EL Moudjahid fights for a sacred cause and the liberation of Algeria is one of them” underlines Benkhedda.
After a long discussion, “El Moudjahid” was the title that was chosen. The newspaper will carry at the top of its cover the words “Organ of the National Liberation Front” and the slogan “The Revolution by the People and for the People”. Abane Ramdane will nevertheless admit in the subtitle “the fighter” who will disappear from issue number 8 of August 5, 1957.
The first issue will be printed at the end of June at Mostefa Benouniche in Kouba, a suburb of Algiers.
The first of the nine texts, unsigned, in this case the editorial was written by Abane Ramdane, assisted by Benyoucef Benkhedda, who will give it the title “Birth Bulletin”.
After the Soummam Congress of August 20, 1956 Sâad Dahlab will be in charge of the press and information, therefore of El Moudjahid. Abdelmalek Temmam will be responsible for coordinating the editorial. The Coordination and Execution Committee forming the editorial committee. Six issues of El Moudjahid will appear from June 1956 to January 1957, in Algiers. Number seven, in preparation, during a period of intense activity on the eve of the eight-day strike of January/February 1957, will not see the light of day. It will be seized and the printing means destroyed during an operation by French army paratroopers.
Thus ends the episode of Algiers.
It will reappear in Tetouan, on August 5, 1957, under number 8 as "the only organ of the Algerian Revolution and the spokesperson for the National Liberation Front", then in Tunis, from number 11, dated November 1, 1957.
The reasons for a choice
“(…) Some will be surprised, no doubt, by the choice of the title which they might believe to be inspired by any political sectarianism or any religious rigorism, when our goal is to free ourselves from a denationalizing colonialist straitjacket, for democracy and equality between all Algerians without distinction of race or religion. You have to answer. The word “jihad” (holy war) from which El Moudjahid (fighter of the faith) derives has always been, due to an anti-Islamic prejudice dating from the Crusades, taken in a narrow and restrictive sense in the Christian West. It would be a symbol of religious aggression. This interpretation is already made absurd by the very fact that Islam is tolerant and that respect for religions, in particular Christianity and Judaism, is one of its fundamental prescriptions, moreover put into practice over the centuries. [Extract from the first editorial of the newspaper El Moudjahid, June 1956].
A conference on the creation of El Moudjahid
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its creation, a conference on historical El Moudjahid (1956-1962) is planned to be held on December 18 and 19, 2006 at the National Library of El Hamma. The meeting is at the initiative of Media Marketing, in collaboration with the Faculty of Political Sciences and Information of the University of Algiers. Key figures and direct actors who assisted and supported the newspaper from its birth until independence, such as Rédha Malek, speak. Authentic copies of El Moudjahid and the Algerian Resistance newspaper were also exhibited.
- Why not “the Algerian”. We would thus indicate that every Algerian is virtually at least a National Liberation Front, it would be political” would have suggested Larbi Ben M’Hidi.
- “Political perhaps, but not journalistic”, and at the moment it is journalism that we are doing. I ran the newspaper “L’Algérie Libre” for years and I can tell you that we sold many issues of this title,” retorts Saad Dahlab.
- “Why not El Moudjahid or El Moukafih”? Suggests Benyoucef Benkhedda.
- “El moudjahid gives off an idea of jihad, of holy war, we must take this into account. We are fighting for the liberation of the country,” objects Abane Ramdane.
- “Perhaps El Moudjahid would have a greater resonance than El Moukafih” remarks Ben M’Hidi.
- “EL Moudjahid fights for a sacred cause and the liberation of Algeria is one of them” underlines Benkhedda.
After a long discussion, “El Moudjahid” was the title that was chosen. The newspaper will carry at the top of its cover the words “Organ of the National Liberation Front” and the slogan “The Revolution by the People and for the People”. Abane Ramdane will nevertheless admit in the subtitle “the fighter” who will disappear from issue number 8 of August 5, 1957.
The first issue will be printed at the end of June at Mostefa Benouniche in Kouba, a suburb of Algiers.
The first of the nine texts, unsigned, in this case the editorial was written by Abane Ramdane, assisted by Benyoucef Benkhedda, who will give it the title “Birth Bulletin”.
After the Soummam Congress of August 20, 1956 Sâad Dahlab will be in charge of the press and information, therefore of El Moudjahid. Abdelmalek Temmam will be responsible for coordinating the editorial. The Coordination and Execution Committee forming the editorial committee. Six issues of El Moudjahid will appear from June 1956 to January 1957, in Algiers. Number seven, in preparation, during a period of intense activity on the eve of the eight-day strike of January/February 1957, will not see the light of day. It will be seized and the printing means destroyed during an operation by French army paratroopers.
Thus ends the episode of Algiers.
It will reappear in Tetouan, on August 5, 1957, under number 8 as "the only organ of the Algerian Revolution and the spokesperson for the National Liberation Front", then in Tunis, from number 11, dated November 1, 1957.
The reasons for a choice
“(…) Some will be surprised, no doubt, by the choice of the title which they might believe to be inspired by any political sectarianism or any religious rigorism, when our goal is to free ourselves from a denationalizing colonialist straitjacket, for democracy and equality between all Algerians without distinction of race or religion. You have to answer. The word “jihad” (holy war) from which El Moudjahid (fighter of the faith) derives has always been, due to an anti-Islamic prejudice dating from the Crusades, taken in a narrow and restrictive sense in the Christian West. It would be a symbol of religious aggression. This interpretation is already made absurd by the very fact that Islam is tolerant and that respect for religions, in particular Christianity and Judaism, is one of its fundamental prescriptions, moreover put into practice over the centuries. [Extract from the first editorial of the newspaper El Moudjahid, June 1956].
A conference on the creation of El Moudjahid
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its creation, a conference on historical El Moudjahid (1956-1962) is planned to be held on December 18 and 19, 2006 at the National Library of El Hamma. The meeting is at the initiative of Media Marketing, in collaboration with the Faculty of Political Sciences and Information of the University of Algiers. Key figures and direct actors who assisted and supported the newspaper from its birth until independence, such as Rédha Malek, speak. Authentic copies of El Moudjahid and the Algerian Resistance newspaper were also exhibited.