The Genesis of a Partisan Mobilization: Continuities and Politicization of Charitable and Religious Activism within the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)

This article examines how, without any political experience, the leaders of a new party managed to mobilize efficiently. In the new context of democratization in Algeria, the national and departmental committees of the FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) have organized a large range of local charitable activities. Using a comprehensive sociological approach, this article proposes to show how previous religious engagement is systematically transformed and displaced in the political sphere.