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London North Eastern Railway employee Zitouni is in a critical but stable condition after he was injured shielding passengers from the attacker
His family, colleagues, police and politicians praise his bravery, which is credited with saving many lives during mass stabbing
A British-Arab railway worker credited with saving many lives during a mass stabbing on a UK train was named on Tuesday as Samir Zitouni.
The 48-year-old, who shielded passengers from the attack, remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital, British Transport Police said.
Zitouni, a customer experience host who has worked for London North Eastern Railway for more than 20 years, was on duty on the Doncaster to London King’s Cross service on Saturday evening when the attack took place. Witnesses, colleagues, police and politicians have praised his actions as “courageous” and “heroic.”
David Horne, LNER’s managing director, said: “In a moment of crisis, Sam did not hesitate as he stepped forward to protect those around him. His actions were incredibly brave and we are so proud of him, and of all our colleagues who acted with such courage that evening.
“Our thoughts and prayers remain with Sam and his family. We will continue to support them, and wish him a full and speedy recovery.”
Zitouni’s family said they were “deeply touched by the outpouring of love and kindness” toward him.
“We are immensely proud of Sam and his courage,” they added. “The police called him a hero on Saturday evening, but to us he’s always been a hero.”
The statements on Tuesday did not provide any further details about Zitouni. Some social media posts described him as Algerian-born.
Transport police said on Sunday that CCTV footage of the attack showed an LNER employee, now identified as Zitouni, attempting to stop the attacker.
“The actions of the member of rail staff were nothing short of heroic and undoubtedly saved people’s lives,” Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Cundy said.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday paid tribute to the “breathtaking bravery” of those on the train, including Zitouni.
“On Saturday, he went to work to do his job — today, he is a hero and forever will be,” she said.
Passengers told how a man wielding a knife began attacking people on the train as it passed through Cambridgeshire on Saturday evening. Ten people were taken to hospital for treatment after the train stopped at Huntingdon station and another admitted themselves later. Seven have been discharged and three remain in hospital in a stable condition, along with Zitouni.
Anthony Williams, 32, has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder related to the train attack, and an additional count of attempted murder in connection with a separate incident in London on Saturday.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Samir Zitouni, who shielded passengers from a knife attack on a train, is in a critical condition in hospital. (LNER)
The 20th session of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, meeting Thursday in New Delhi, has clearly and unequivocally confirmed the primacy of Algeria’s inscription of the Caftan as an essential component of its rich cultural heritage, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Community Abroad and African Affairs said in a statement.
On this occasion, the Committee decided to modify the name of the element inscribed in 2024 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity to explicitly include the Caftan, as well as the Quat and the Lhef. The Algerian element now bears the new designation: “Women’s ceremonial costume in the Eastern region of Algeria: knowledge and skills associated with the making and adornment of the Gandoura and the Melehfa.”
The Committee also approved the modification of the file titled “Rites and craftsmanship associated with the wedding costume tradition of Tlemcen,” inscribed since 2012 on the Representative List. It decided to add the mention “the Wearing of the Caftan” to section B3 of the ICH-02 form, in accordance with the submitted document.
These decisions represent “a new major diplomatic success for Algeria, both on the international cultural scene and within the framework of multilateral diplomacy.” They reaffirm “the historical and cultural primacy of Algeria’s inscription of the Caftan on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and strengthen the international recognition of this exceptional intangible heritage,” the statement added.
The decision “consolidates Algeria’s place on UNESCO’s Representative List” and constitutes explicit recognition of the “sustained and continuous efforts of the State to promote, preserve and highlight Algeria’s rich cultural heritage, the product of centuries of history reflecting the depth and authenticity of our nation.”
This recognition “also reflects the relevance of the approach adopted in implementing the instructions of the country’s high authorities to promote our cultural heritage in all its components and forms, while protecting it from any attempt at imitation, appropriation or falsification,” the statement concluded.
A new generation of talent is turning its lens towards intimate storytelling, with Africa’s largest nation as its backdrop.
“Algeria is a visually unspoilt country,” says Mounia Meddour. Meddour is one of the nation’s most prominent contemporary filmmakers. Her debut film, Papicha (2019), set during the 1990s Algerian Black Decade with Algiers as its backdrop, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard, bringing her international recognition. Yet, she is right: very few images of Algeria exist within the cinematic landscape.
There are many reasons for this. The industry has long been at a standstill; visas are difficult to obtain and cultural policy remains lukewarm. Algerian landscapes and intimate stories struggle to travel beyond the country’s borders. For several years now, however, a new generation of filmmakers, cameras in hand, has been working to capture and create a contemporary visual archive of a nation longing for representation.
Algeria nonetheless has a rich cinematic history. In 1975, thirteen years after gaining independence from France, the young state won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for the historical fresco Chronicles of the Years of Fire, directed by Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina — making Algeria the first, and still the only, African and Arab country to achieve this distinction. It is this legacy that leads the film critic Samir Ardjoum to speak of a paradox in Algerian cinema.
“This symbolic prestige has not translated into industrial continuity,” he says. “Algerian cinema suffers from a lack of stable international distribution. Films circulate widely at festivals, but rarely in commercial circuits.”
Ardjoum explains that Algerian cinema originated as a cinema of nation-building. After 1962, the country invested heavily in films recounting the War of Independence and enshrining a heroic national memory, creating a shared narrative and collective imagery. Many films about the thawra (the Revolution, or Algerian War) were commissioned, with Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina among the most prominent figures of this movement.
A more mainstream cinema emerged in the 1970s, but was largely forgotten due to poor archiving. The Black Decade of the 1990s brought the industry to a near halt, as it did many others. Since then, Algerian cinema has remained in a state of lethargy. As the filmmaker Malek Bensmaïl puts it: “It is both fragile and very lively. Yet there is a deep desire to create our own stories and not let others tell them for us.”
The act of image-making inevitably raises questions of funding and audience. “All too often, we oscillate between a foreign gaze that restricts us and a nostalgic form of self-aestheticisation akin to self-Orientalism,” argues Amira Louadah, director of The Ark.
For too long, Algeria has been shaped by Western-manufactured representations, beginning with France. “Between 1830 and 1962, during French colonisation, most images of the country — whether in painting, photography or film — were created from a Western perspective,” Louadah notes. In a colonial context, such representations served to criminalise, demean and demonise “Muslim Algerians”, the term used by the colonial administration for indigenous people. Even today, Ardjoum adds, “Algeria is often depicted through the lens of crisis, politics or its colonial past.”
With limited state funding, filmmakers increasingly turn to European backers who, Louadah says, can at times “dictate the stories they want to see from our region”. The result is a striking absence of visual documentation of everyday life. “How did families live? How were social relationships organised? How did people communicate? What did daily routines, household objects or lighting look like? How did people travel, in both rural and urban areas?” she asks.
This new generation hopes to fill that void. “It’s exhilarating to have this rare access to locations and footage,” says Yacine Medkour, co-founder of the Algiers-based production company 2Horloges. “At the same time, it’s a huge responsibility.”
“Our country lacks images produced from its own perspective,” Bensmaïl emphasises. By reclaiming their narratives, this new wave of filmmakers is creating “archives for the future, preserving fragments of memory to pass on to future generations”. Yet this comes with what Louadah calls “a cultural responsibility”. “We need to support a plurality of perspectives rather than a single, black-and-white approach. We should represent all viewpoints and social classes—not just central Algiers. The more diverse, the better. We must break free from monopolies over narrative and representation.” Ardjoum agrees: “It’s not about polishing the country’s image; it’s about expanding the range of representations.”
As part of this shift, many filmmakers are moving away from stories centred solely on the Algerian Revolution. “People are growing tired of heroic narratives,” Ardjoum observes. Bensmaïl, whose forthcoming film The Arab reimagines the unnamed protagonist of Albert Camus’s The Stranger through the testimony of his ageing brother, suggests that “his generation needed to ask questions”. “We are not abandoning the Revolution,” he says. “We are simply no longer treating it as a static icon.” Ardjoum describes this as a shift in political focus — from the grand historical narrative to the personal sphere. “By constantly glorifying the past, it becomes difficult to describe the present.”
Meddour’s Papicha follows Nedjma, a fashion student determined to stage a show during the Black Decade — a period the director herself experienced. Sofia Djama’s The Blessed (Les Bienheureux) centres on a couple, Amal and Samir, celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary as they reflect on their shared past. Louadah’s documentary La Grosse Moula ou Li Michan explores Algeria’s linguistic history from a personal perspective. “There was a need to ground Algeria in the present, to tell stories that allow us to come to terms with our reality,” Meddour says. As Ardjoum notes, “Contemporary Algerian cinema is no longer solely a cinema of national narrative; it has become a cinema of the personal, of trauma, of urban life and of social tensions.”
To portray Algeria fully, however, filmmakers must look beyond the capital. “Our generation has tended to film what we know — often Algiers, which is inherently cinematic in its vitality,” says Djama, who is currently working on her next film, Jeudi moins quart. “But it would be a shame to limit ourselves. We need to look further afield.”
Progress remains constrained by financial and institutional challenges. “Over the past fifteen years, there has been real progress — more young filmmakers, more women, more films in festivals,” Bensmaïl notes. “But it is not yet enough.” Sustained national funding will be essential if this movement is to endure — allowing it to evolve from a fragile ecosystem of resourceful auteurs into a stable creative industry.
“If the films exist, we also need venues in which to show them,” Bensmaïl adds. Filmmakers are calling for a wider network of cinemas, alongside what Ardjoum describes as “an ambitious policy on archiving and international distribution”, supported by legal protections for creative freedom. “We have a wealth of talented individuals eager to write, produce and direct across genres,” Meddour says.
Medkour remains optimistic: “Algeria is the future of image-making.”
Melliti, 23, plays a 17-year-old in a coming-of-age tale centred on a teenage Muslim girl in Paris who faces a struggle with her identity and religion.
French artist of Maghrebi descent Nadia Melliti won the best actress award at the Cannes film festival for her first-ever performance in a film, “The Little Sister” by Hafsia Herzi.
Melliti, 23, plays a 17-year-old in a coming-of-age tale centred on a teenage Muslim girl in Paris who faces a struggle with her identity and religion.
She beat Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence in “Die My Love” by Lynne Ramsay, Japanese child revelation Yui Suzuki in “Renoir” by Chie Hayakawa and Elle Fanning in “Sentimental Value” by Joachim Trier.
“It’s a huge honour to be here tonight and to have been able to take part in this very beautiful project,” she said clutching her award on stage.
“I have such a feeling gushing through me right now. I can’t describe it but it’s really incredible,” she said as the director sobbed in the audience.
“Thank you Mum. I know you’re watching and I hope you are very proud and happy,” she said.
Melliti is a French student and amateur football player who was spotted in the street.
Before walking the red carpet for the premiere of Hafsia Herzi’s “The Little Sister”, she was preparing for exams.
In the coming-of-age tale, she plays 17-year-old Fatima, a Muslim girl in Paris struggling with her identity and religion as she explores her sexuality.
“I’ve never done any theatre or cinema,” she said.
But she said she immediately empathised with the character when she read the script, based on a partly autobiographical novel of the same name by French writer Fatima Daas.
“I identified hugely with Fatima, her surroundings and origins. My mother hails from an immigrant background,” she said.
“My roots are Algerian. I also have sisters.”
Melliti said she specifically related to the film’s theme of “emancipation” in the film.
“When I was younger I wanted to play football. I still do today,” said the actor. “I wanted to take up the sport, one people say is masculine and in which men are over-represented.
“And when I took that home, there was this emancipation, even if for Fatima it was different, more linked to her intellect and sexuality,” she added.
Melliti said she could not believe her luck when she was spotted by a casting agent in the street near a large shopping mall in central Paris.
“I was walking in the street and (she) called out to me,” she said.
At first “I thought she was a tourist and I wondered if my English would be up to scratch.”
Nadia Melliti, winner of the Best Actress award for her role in the film La petite dernière (The Little Sister), poses during a photocall after the closing ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 24, 2025. REUTERS
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, honoured the six winners of the Great Arab Minds 2025 edition at the Museum of the Future in Dubai.
Great Arab Minds is the largest Arab initiative dedicated to celebrating outstanding Arab achievement, highlighting contributions to advance human civilisation, support the expansion of scientific and knowledge-based endeavours, and showcasing the creative impact of Arab talent across the region and globally.
His Highness affirmed that the Great Arab Minds initiative was designed to expand the horizons for established and emerging Arab talent, nurturing and investing in their potential; recognise Arab achievement across research, development, innovation, technology, culture, and architecture; and to reinforce a culture of pride and sustained support for Arab individuals who have inspired significant progress in key fields.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed said, “Today, we honour Great Arab Minds in recognition of achievements that advance civilisation and build societies. From the Museum of the Future in Dubai, we reaffirm our support for Arab talent committed to innovation, creativity, and excellence.”
His Highness further said, “We congratulate the winners of the Great Arab Minds 2025: Professor Abbas El Gamal in the Engineering and Technology category, Dr. Nabil Seidah in the Medicine category, Professor Badi Hani in the Economics category, Professor Majed Chergui in the Natural Sciences category, Dr. Suad Amiry in the Architecture and Design category, and Professor Charbel Dagher in the Literature and Arts category. We encourage them to continue their journey of achievement and contribution, serving as true role models for younger generations in our region and around the world, inspiring them to shape a better future through science and knowledge.”
His Highness expressed his confidence in the ability of Arab talent to drive progress in scientific research, knowledge creation, and the cultural sector, supported by expertise, institutional support, and the ambition of young people across the region.
Focused on a better future
Sheikh Mohammed noted that the Great Arab Minds initiative will continue to highlight the achievements of Arab individuals who look to the future with optimism and pursue ambitions that recognise no limits.
The awards ceremony was attended by H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the UAE; H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Second Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Media Council; H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports, and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group; His Highness Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of the UAE National Olympic Committee; H.H. Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture); and H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid bin Mohammed bin Rashid.
Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Chair of the Higher Committee for the Great Arab Minds initiative, was among numerous ministers and senior officials in attendance along with scientists, academics and diplomats.
His Excellency Al Gergawi stated that the Great Arab Minds initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed represents a profound recognition of Arab achievement across disciplines, and a significant strategic investment in empowering talent and encouraging renewed contributions to Arab intellectual and scientific progress.
He added that the Great Arab Minds initiative embodies Sheikh Mohammed’s vision to inspire confidence in Arab capabilities and motivate individuals to take an active role in shaping their societies and the future of a region that has long contributed to human civilisation through science, literature, thought, and architecture.
‘Powerful message’
He praised the achievements of the Great Arab Minds awardees across medicine, engineering, technology, sciences, architecture, arts, and literature, saying, “Your presence today on the Great Arab Minds 2025 platform at the Museum of the Future sends a powerful message to hundreds of millions of young people to pursue excellence, achievement, and leadership in research, innovation, creativity, and knowledge, and to help shape a brighter future for Arab and human civilisation.”
The award recognised one winner in each of its six categories: Medicine, Economics, Engineering and Technology, Natural Sciences, Architecture and Design, and Literature and Arts.
In Medicine, Dr. Nabil Seidah was honoured for his medical and research achievements in cardiovascular health and cholesterol regulation.
In Economics, Professor Badi Hani was awarded for his pioneering contributions to econometrics and the development of economic analysis tools, particularly in panel data analysis. His work enabled more accurate and in-depth analysis by combining data across multiple time periods and sources.
In Engineering and Technology, Professor Abbas El Gamal was awarded for his pioneering contributions to network information theory.
In Natural Sciences, Professor Majed Chergui was honoured for his contributions to understanding light-matter interactions, developing techniques and applications that enable the study of ultrafast molecular and material dynamics at the atomic level.
In Architecture and Design, Dr. Suad Amiry was honoured for her contributions to preserving Palestinian architectural heritage through documentation, restoration, and adaptive reuse of historical buildings.
In Literature and Arts, Professor Charbel Dagher was honoured for a body of work that constitutes a key reference in the study of Arab and Islamic arts, Arabic calligraphy, and modern visual arts.
Professor Abbas El Gamal said, “I extend my sincere gratitude to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum for his vision in launching Great Arab Minds. Being honoured in this way is deeply meaningful to me.”
Professor Majed Chergui said, “I am Algerian of Syrian origin, born in Morocco and raised in Algeria and Lebanon. In this way, the Arab world comes together in who I am. For me personally, this award is not only the highest recognition of my achievements; it touches me deeply because it comes from an Arab country.”
Dr. Suad Amiry said, “In 1981, when I decided to live in the city of Ramallah, my aim was to study traditional architecture in rural Palestine. Ten years later, I founded the Riwaq Centre, which since then has been dedicated to documenting, restoring, and rehabilitating architectural heritage in Palestine. Winning this award is a great honour for me and for the Riwaq Centre.”
Professor Badi Hani said: “This award recognises not only my work, but also the people and places that shaped me, my family, my mentors, my city, and the Arab world that nurtured my earliest aspirations.”
Dr. Nabil Seidah said, “My father’s adage, that knowledge is something no one can ever take away from you, has been the principle that guided me throughout my journey. Your trust represents a powerful motivation for Arab scientists to serve as role models for future generations, and I pledge to continue serving science with the same passion that has always driven me.”
Professor Charbel Dagher said: “Commitment to the Arabic language has remained a defining hallmark of everything I have done: teaching, writing, and research, to the point that I live within Arabic itself. We cannot exist outside our language or our culture. Allow me to share this award with those who supported me, and my gratitude extends to everyone who has worked and continues to work to ensure that Arabic remains a living language of science, knowledge, and culture.”
The awardees were chosen by six high-level specialised committees, one for each category. Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Tourism, chaired the Economics Committee; Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of Education, chaired the Engineering and Technology Committee; Mohammed Ahmed Al Murr, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Library Foundation, chaired the Literature and Arts Committee; Dr. Amer Sharif, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Health and President of the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences headed the Medicine Committee; Professor Sehamuddin Galadari, Senior Vice Provost-Research and Managing Director of the Research Institute at New York University Abu Dhabi chaired the Natural Sciences Committee; Professor Hashim Sarkis, Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology chaired the Architecture and Design Committee.
In addition to the committee chairs, the specialised committees also included Essa Kazim, Governor of the Dubai International Financial Center; Dr Mohammed Madhi, Dean of the College of Business and Economics at UAE University; Dr Rabah Arezki, Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at the World Bank and Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; Ferid Belhaj, Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South; and Dr Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund.
The committees also included Professor Ismael Al Hinti, President of Al Hussein Technical University; Adel Darwish, Regional Director of the International Telecommunication Union; Dr Ahmed Zayed, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandria; His Excellency Dr. Alawi Alsheikh-Ali, Director General of Dubai Health Authority; Professor Elias Zerhouni, Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins University; Dr Noureddine Melikechi Dean of the Kennedy College of Sciences and Professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell; Professor Nader Masmoudi, Professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University Abu Dhabi; Dr Latifa Elouadrhiri Laboratory Directed Research Staff Scientist at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility; and Professor Dr Jehane Ragai, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at The American University in Cairo.
The specialised committees also included Dr Adrian Lahoud, Dean of the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art; and Professor Ali Malkawi, Professor of Architectural Technology, Director of the Doctor of Design Studies Program, and Founding Director of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities.
The Nominations Committee included Huda Al Hashimi, Deputy Minister of Cabinet Affairs for Strategic Affairs; Chucrallah Haddad, Partner and Head of Advisory at KPMG Lower Gulf; Abdulsalam Haykal, President and Founder of Majarra Company; Ali Matar, Head of LinkedIn Middle East and North Africa and Emerging Markets in Africa and Europe; and Saeed Al Nazari, Secretary-General of the Great Arab Minds Initiative.
Widely known as the ‘Arab Nobel,’ the Great Arab Minds initiative recognises distinguished Arab achievement and highlights extraordinary contributions that reflect the region’s historic role in advancing knowledge and human progress globally. For a third consecutive edition, the initiative continues to strengthen its position as a platform for celebrating Arab creators and as a point of reference for promising Arab talent, by highlighting achievements that inspire young people and contribute to expanding Arab participation in global knowledge and civilisational advancement.
Algeria’s new law declares French colonial rule a crime, seeking accountability and reparations for the colonial past.
Algeria’s parliament has unanimously passed legislation declaring France’s colonisation of the country a crime.
On Wednesday, lawmakers stood in the chamber draped in scarves bearing the national colours, chanting “Long live Algeria” as they approved the bill.
Parliament also formally demanded an apology and reparations from Paris in a move that seeks to redress attempts to sweep the issue aside.
The law assigns France “legal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused”, placing historical accountability at the centre of the state’s legal framework.
While analysts say the law carries no enforceable international weight, its political impact is significant, signalling a rupture in how Algeria engages France over colonial memory.
Parliament Speaker Ibrahim Boughali said the legislation sent “a clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable”, according to the APS state news agency.
The text catalogues crimes of French colonial rule, including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, “physical and psychological torture” and the “systematic plundering of resources”.
It also asserts that “full and fair compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonisation is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people”.
‘Crime against humanity’
France brutally ruled Algeria from 1830 to 1962 through a system marked by torture, enforced disappearances, massacres, economic exploitation, mass killings and large-scale deportations and marginalisation of the country’s indigenous Muslim population.
The war of independence between 1954 and 1962 alone left deep scars. Algeria puts the death toll at 1.5 million.
President Emmanuel Macron has previously described the colonisation of Algeria as a “crime against humanity” but has consistently refused to issue a formal apology. He reiterated that position in 2023, saying: “It’s not up to me to ask forgiveness.”
Last week, French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pascal Confavreux declined to comment on the parliamentary vote, saying he would not engage with “political debates taking place in foreign countries”.
Hosni Kitouni, a colonial history researcher at the University of Exeter, told the AFP news agency that the law has no binding effect on France but stressed that “its political and symbolic significance is important: it marks a rupture in the relationship with France in terms of memory”.
The vote comes amid a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. Algeria and France maintain ties through immigration in particular, but today’s vote comes amid friction in the relationship.
Tensions have been high for months since Paris recognised Morocco’s autonomy plan for resolving the Western Sahara conflict in July 2024. Western Sahara has witnessed armed rebellion since it was annexed by Morocco after the colonial power, Spain, left the territory in 1975.
Algeria supports the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination in Western Sahara and backs the Polisario Front, which rejects Morocco’s autonomy proposal.
In April, the tensions escalated into a crisis after an Algerian diplomat was arrested along with two Algerian nationals in Paris. The diplomatic crisis came barely a week after Macron and Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune expressed their commitment to revive dialogue.
From challenging French colonial nostalgia to critiquing Algerian nationalism, revolutionary historian Mohamed Harbi served truth, writes Rachid Sekkai.
For those of us who live between Algeria and France, between family memory and official public archives, Mohamed Harbi was more than a name on a book spine, he defined our way of thinking. This is why I am so deeply saddened by his passing.
His death is certainly a real loss to the shared Franco–Algerian memory of the twentieth century—not the sentimental commemoration that comforts nations, but the difficult memory that forces them to mature.
But on a more personal note, I am disappointed that I was never able to meet the late, great historian whose contributions are immeasurable.
On the side of the oppressed
Harbi came from a milieu that was far more accommodating to French colonial rule. This collaboration was even viewed by many as respectable, including members of his own family who served in the French-established Algerian Assembly (1947–56). Nevertheless, Harbi chose to side with the colonised very early in his life.
Even when he was sent to France to study, Harbi commitment to standing with the oppressed remained, and he refused to join the ranks of the ‘integrated’ intelligentsia. He became active in the student networks linked to the National Liberation Front (FLN) and entered the revolution from the inside.
Later he worked close to the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA), specifically within the orbit of Krim Belkacem—one of the FLN leaders who signed the Evian Accords. Harbi was not a signatory, but he was close enough to those who had been to see what independence negotiations were going to look like: ideals constrained by strategy, unity tested by rivalry.
Following Algerian independence in 1962, he served during the Ben Bella era, persuaded—as many were—by the promise of social change. The 1965 coup marked a rupture, however; and Harbi paid the price for his criticism of the succeeding president of Algeria, Houari Boumediene. He was imprisoned and then put under house arrest, before escaping into exile in 1973.
Exile
Mohamed Harbi’s life in France is not a footnote. It is where he wrote the very work that led to his international recognition.
Renowned French historian Benjamin Stora recalled how surprised he was as a 25-year-old graduate student preparing a thesis on Messali Hadj, when he read Harbi’s first major book in 1975. For him, Harbi embodied an intellectual freedom rare in the memory of those who were so close to the historical events.
Harbi wasn’t an outside commentator, he was a former senior FLN figure in France who was close to the movement’s leadership and connected to the GPRA circle during independence negotiations. Yet, his sharpness and refusal to serve states in what he produced, always remained.
What makes Harbi’s work enduring is also the gaps it fills in terms of the memory of a colonised Algeria. Stora spoke to me about chapters that the late revolutionary’s writing covers, which break with cliché that include an entre-soi shaped by communal boundaries and religiosity, colonial segregation, inequality and racism.
In doing so, Harbi escaped the nostalgic racist colonial memory of French Algeria, and the monochrome official memory of an authoritarian nationalism indifferent to historical nuance.
Speaking truth to power
Reactions to Harbi’s death in Algeria were a mixed bag. In a notable official tribute, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune publicly described him as a mujahid and a “cultured historian.” He added that he was an exceptional man.
In reality, for Harbi and all those who respected him, official recognition serves no value.
As many, including Stora have noted, Harbi went further than many of his generation and positioning. He spoke truth to power, even foregrounding the role of violence in organisational construction in his work. He named the “war within the war” between rival nationalist currents, and honestly described internal struggles for power and legitimacy before and after 1962.
Similarly, he was brutally frank about the French Socialist Party, for example, which he told historian Martin Evans, was “enemy number one” because of the way parts of the French Left repressed Algerian nationalism on the ground.
Liberation could be both courageous and tragic—and Harbi refused to choose between those truths.
Algerians at home and abroad are caught between family pride versus public stigma, French labels versus Algerian injunctions, and silence versus shouting. Decades on since Algeria’s independence and dark decade of civil war, Harbi offers a third position within such a complex reality: fidelity without worship; critique without self-hate.
He showed us how to honour emancipation while still critiquing power, how to name violence without licensing new silence, and crucially, how to demand truth and reconciliation without pretending neutrality.
Mohamed Harbi punctured comforting stories wherever they lived, that is why he will forever serve as an example of what a historian should be.
He left us a library, but also a moral framework: history is not a temple, but a civic discipline. It demands rigour and patience with complexity, especially when communities prefer righteous simplifications.
There will be a ceremony honoring the winners held under the patronage of His Highness Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, minister of culture
The King Salman Global Academy for the Arabic Language announced the names of the winners of its awards celebrating efforts to serve the language.
Mahmoud Al-Batal won an award for his work in teaching Arabic in the US, which included carrying out in-depth research into linguistics, much of which has been published in peer-reviewed studies.
The Saudi-based Manahij International Foundation received an award recognizing its development of educational materials and curricula for early years language learning and Arabic for non-native speakers.
Manahij was also highlighted for developing training packages for teachers, and praised for its “originality, methodology and innovation” in the field, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Algerian Ahmed Khorssi was recognized with an award for his contributions to the language by developing more than 30 computer programs including tools for correcting pronunciation.
He has published more than 15 studies in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences.
King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology won an award for developing systems including an audio database, an automatic speech recognition system in local dialects, and other advanced tools.
Ramzi Mounir Baalbaki, from Lebanon, won an award that recognized his academic career that has spanned four decades
Baalbaki has authored 12 books and more than 80 research papers in Arabic and English in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Saad Abdel Aziz Maslouh, from Egypt, received an award recognizing a lifetime of academic achievements including the publication of 33 books and 29 research papers.
The Arabic Education Training Center for Gulf States, in the UAE, was awarded for developing evaluation tools and other educational content.
Mazen Abdulqader Mohammed Al-Mubarak, from Syria, won an award for his extensive scholarly work including the well-known book “Towards Linguistic Awareness.”
The National Coalition for Arabic Language in Morocco also received an award for promoting linguistic awareness in Moroccan society through lectures, seminars and intellectual forums.
There will be a ceremony honoring the winners held under the patronage of His Highness Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, minister of culture and chairman of the board of trustees of the academy, next Sunday in Riyadh.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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The King Salman Global Academy for the Arabic Language’s headquarters in Riyadh. (OIC)
Until last year, 17-year-old Victoria Miller admits she would have had to search online to learn where Algeria is , let alone describe the exploits of one of its most famous heroes.
Pictorial Press / ALAMY / Abd el-Kader’s name lives on in Elkader, Iowa, pop. 1,300, the only US town named after an Arab.
.“I was really taken by Amir Abd el-Kader’s character and how he handled the multiple challenges he faced, including when some of his own people didn’t believe in him,” says Miller, who lives in the northeastern Iowa town of Decorah. On September 19 she was recognized as one of seven winning essayists in the 2016 Abdelkader Global Leadership Prize.
After reading diplomat John W. Kiser’s biography, Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader (Monkfish, 2008), for a class in human geography at Decorah High School, Miller now says she regards him as an international role model. Her new understandings, she adds, help her feel more comfortable talking to Muslims.
“Abd el-Kader’s legacy deserves to be remembered along with Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s,” Miller enthuses, “because they were all pursuing the same dream: to reach peace.”
ABDELKADER EDUCATION PROJECT / Abdelkader Education Project co-founder and executive director Kathy Garms opened the group’s seventh annual forum on September 19 in Cedar Rapids. Students competed for scholar-ships in the Abdelkader Global Leadership Prize, and educators explored the legacy of Algerian freedom fighter and peacemaker Amir (Prince) Abd el-Kader.
Indeed, the Algerian prince (amir or emir in Arabic) united tribes in North Africa and fought for independence; later, during the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war, he helped save thousands of Maronite Christians from massacre—an act for which President Abraham Lincoln lauded him. When the amir passed away in 1883, The New York Times eulogized him as “one of the few great men of the century. The nobility of his character won him the admiration of the world.”
Even decades earlier, in 1846, so widely admired was he that Iowa farmers named their new town after him, and today Elkader, Iowa, is the only us town named for an Arab. Since 2008 it has been reviving his legacy, thanks largely to the eight-year-old nonprofit Abdelkader Education Project (aep).
Kathy Garms, executive director and cofounder with Kiser of the Elkader-based aep, furthers Miller’s sentiment, explaining that the story of the amir “inspires civility, tolerance and understanding” and offers “models of ethical leadership, moral courage and humanitarian conduct.” The aep, Garms continues, works to “shape the minds, hearts, values of the next generation.” And this is where aep’s Abdelkader Global Leadership Prize essay competition comes in.
John W. Kiser, author of Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader, and forum participant said the students stereotypes have been challenged.
Its award ceremony was held this year about 130 kilometers south of Elkader in Cedar Rapids, where it was nearly cancelled due to rising floodwaters on the Cedar River. But the student writers and their families braved the threats of high water to meet Kiser as well as teachers and leaders of civil-society groups from around the country.
Kiser says he is pleased with the results so far.
“The students’ stereotypes about Muslims and Arabs have been challenged, and their minds opened to the diversity of the Muslim world,” he observes. As a role model, he says, Abd el-Kader “is a unifier … [whose] probing intellect, ethical courage, compassion, depth of knowledge … impress all who learn about him.”
And his advice to the winners was simple: “Treat others as they would want to be treated … and resist stereotyping.”
Garms affirms the broadening of students’ horizons. “We started this with an essay contest for students, but we’d like to expand our programs and create additional tools to reach a wider audience of police, military and businesses to promote better intercultural understanding,” she says.
After the awards program, the winners and family members toured the Cedar Rapids Islamic Center and visited one of the city’s historic sites: the oldest standing mosque in the United States, built in 1934.
“Abd El-Kader’s legacy deserves to be remembered along with Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s because they were all pursuing the same dream : To Reach Peace
‘ – Victoria Miller, Iowa High School Division Winner’
Elkader Mayor Josh Pope hopes the aep inspires young people “to carry on the values of the amir.” In addition to hosting the aep, Elkader is a sister city to Mascara, in northwestern Algeria, where Abd el-Kader was born in 1808. Today Mascara’s population of 150,000 dwarfs Elkader’s 1,300 residents. “Abd el-Kader serves as a great example about how people of different cultures can live together in peace and understanding,” he says
In early September Pope traveled at the invitation of the Algerian government to speak at its own Emir Abd el-Kader Award ceremony, which recognized organizations in the Mediterranean region for work in economic cooperation and interfaith relations.
The interfaith aspect of Abd el-Kader’s life impresses Miller deeply.
“I’m a Christian, and I’ve had my own difficulties—though certainly on a different level—but I know it’s important to stay positive and hopeful,” she says.
Now, she wants to add study of comparative religions and “the psychology of how we learn and react to stereotypes” to her aspirations for a career in medicine.
“Victoria grew a lot in the process of reading about el-Kader and writing her essay,” says Miller’s mother, Yvette Powers, noting diplomatically that her daughter was not always supported by some members of her extended family.
“I believe people need to accept all races and creeds,” she declares. “I hope she was able to open some eyes.”
Brian Miller, Victoria’s father, says he and his daughter talked about the life of Abd el-Kader when she was writing her essay.
“It opened up quite a discussion,” he says. “I believe there are good Muslims and bad Muslims, just like all people.”
Forum attendees received a tour of the “Mother Mosque of America,” built in 1934 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by immigrants from what is now Syria and Lebanon. Although not the first mosque built in the US, it is the oldest standing mosque; its proximity to Elkader, 130 kilometers away, is coincidental.
Abd el-Kader, he says, “was a good guy,” adding that he hadn’t ever really thought much before about why the town was called “Elkader.”
National high school division winner Daud Shad lives far from Iowa, more than 1,600 kilometers east, in New Jersey. He says his elder brother encouraged him to read Kiser’s biography and enter the contest.
“I’d never heard of el-Kader, ‘the George Washington of Algeria,’” says the 17-year-old, whose parents were born in Pakistan. “There need to be more leaders on all sides like el-Kader because he embodied the best of religion and humanity.”
Samantha Wiedner, 18, grew up in Elkader, and she won the high school competition for her town.
“I knew Elkader was named after the emir, and I knew where Algeria was, but that was about it,” says Wiedner, now a freshman studying Russian and international relations at the University of Iowa.
University of Iowa freshman and winner in the contest’s Elkader High School Division, Samantha Wiedner, right, talks with Jefferson High School tenth grader Lena Osman outside of the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids. “Being intolerant to other cultures and religions isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Wiedner says. “Despite all our differences, we should be able to co-exist.”
She says she learned that “being intolerant to other cultures and religions isn’t going to get us anywhere. Despite all our differences, we should be able to coexist.”
Noureen Choudhary, 20 and a student at Villanova University, learned about the essay contest from her mother, who was born in Algeria.
“I first heard the name Abd el-Kader in a song popularized by Algerian musicians Khaled, Faudel and Rachid Taha,” says Choudhary, who was born and raised in Philadelphia. Though she was only four, she says the memorable tune and appealing lyrics made her wonder who it was about.
“My mother told me he was an Algerian hero,” she continues. “I now realize he is a figure widely heralded as an ideal Muslim, humanitarian, warrior, leader and source of Algerian national pride of the 19th century.”
Choudhary initially thought Abd el-Kader was “too obscure for Westerners to know about.” She was stunned to learn that a small town in Iowa was named for him, and that there is a group devoted to the study and promotion of his life and work.
“Not many people achieve great things like he did,” she says. “He practiced his faith in an exemplary manner.”
source/content: aramcoworld.com (headline edited) / Brian E. Clark
NASA’s mapping of Mars now bears the names of three iconic Algerian national parks, Algerian physicist Noureddine Melikechi, a member of the US space agency’s largest Mars probe mission, has told AFP.
The Tassili n’Ajjer, Ghoufi and Djurdjura national parks have found their Martian namesakes after a proposition by Melikechi, which he sought as both a tribute to his native Algeria and a call to protect Earth.
“Our planet is fragile, and it’s a signal to the world that we really need to take care of our national parks, whether they are in Algeria or elsewhere,” the US-based scientist told AFP in a recent interview.
He said the visual resemblance between some of the Martian landscapes and the ones after which they were labeled was also a key reason for the naming.
“The first one that came to my mind was the Tassili n’Ajjer,” he said of the UNESCO-listed vast plateau in the Sahara Desert with prehistoric art dating back at least 12,000 years.
“Every time I see pictures of Mars, they remind me of Tassili n’Ajjer, and now every time I see Tassili n’Ajjer, it reminds me of Mars,” added Melikechi, who left Algeria in 1990 for the United States, where he now teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
The ancient art found in Tassili n’Ajjer depicts figures that can seem otherworldly, he said.
Some of the paintings show single-eyed and horned giants, among others which French archaeologist Henri Lhote dubbed as “great Martian” deities in his 1958 book, “The Search for the Tassili Frescoes”.
“Those paintings are a signature… a book of how people used to live,” said Melikechi.
“You see animals, but also figures that look like they came from somewhere else.”
‘Historic’
Melikechi’s second pick was the Ghoufi canyon in eastern Algeria, whose rocky desert landscape was the site of an ancient settlement off the Aures Mountains.
Now a UNESCO-listed site and a tourist attraction, it has cliffside dwellings carved in the mountain, a testament to human resilience in a place where survival can be adverse.
“Ghoufi gives you a sense that life can be hard, but you can manage to keep at it as you go,” Melikechi said.
“You can see that through those homes.”
The third site, Djurdjura, is a snowy mountain range some 140 kilometers (about 90 miles) east of the capital Algiers.
Comapred to Tassili or Ghoufi, it bears the least resemblance to Mars.
Melikechi said its pick stemmed of Djurdjura’s “reminder of the richness of natural habitats”.
He said the naming process came after Perseverence, NASA’s Mars rover exploring the Red Planet, made it into uncharted territory.
That area was then split into small quadrants, each needing a name.
“We were asked to propose names for specific quadrants,” he said.
“I suggested these three national parks, while others proposed names from parks worldwide. A team then reviewed and selected the final names.”
The announcement, made by NASA earlier this month, sparked celebrations among Algerians.
Algerian Culture Minister Zouhir Ballalou hailed it as a “historic and global recognition” of the North African country’s landscapes.
Melikechi said he hopes that it will attract more visitors as Algeria has been striving to promote tourism, especially in the Sahara region, with authorities promising to facilitate tourist visas.
Official figures said some 2.5 million tourists visited the country last year—its highest number of visitors in two decades.
“These places are a treasure that we as humans have inherited,” Melikechi said.
