Draft:Abbas bin Sheikh Hussein

Abbas bin Sheikh Hussein
Name	Abbas bin Sheikh Hussein
Other Names	{{{other_names}}}
Personal Details
Birth Place	Constantine, Algeria
Brith Date	1912 CE
Death Place	Paris, France
Death Date	1989 CE
Religion	Islam

Sheikh Abbas (Constantine, Algeria 1912 – Paris, 1989) bin Ismail bin Dahman bin Allawa bin Sheikh Hussein, was a scholar, writer, and Algerian activist, one of the great figures and pioneers of religious, social, and political reforms in the 20th century. He held many high positions but resigned from most of them to preserve his principles, until he passed away at the height of defending Islam and defending Muslims in France against ignorance, intolerance, and racism.

Birth

Sheikh Abbas was born in 1912 CE in the city of Constantine, Algeria, in a zawiya or corner named after his grandfather, who was the founder of that zawiya, Sheikh Hussein al-Qashi in the mid-19th century, and was near the city of Mila in the Constantine region in eastern Algeria. This zawiya was committed to a specific Sufi method that was limited to social work and spiritual education, and generation after generation, they sent their children and students to Zitouna University in Tunisia and Al-Qarawiyyin in the city of Fez, Morocco, and produced dozens of righteous scholars to preserve the Arab-Islamic identity of Algeria during the dark era of Colonialism.

Education

After memorizing the Quran and receiving initial education in Fiqh Maliki and Arabic among the elders of the family corner, he traveled to Tunisia for higher studies at Zitouna University along with his brother Sheikh Marzouq, who later became the Imam of the Great Mosque of Constantine. He soon decided to go to Morocco, where he studied at Al-Qarawiyyin University in Fez and graduated with a valid international certificate.

Struggle in the Reformist Movement

• After returning from Morocco, he joined the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulema and soon became a member of its permanent office. The fellow members of the assembly chose him as the public relations officer of their institution due to his speech, discourse, and power of persuasion.
• He accompanied Imam Abdelhamid Ben Badis and was influenced by his reformist approach, innovative ideas, and his fight against superstitions and deception, as these matters were the pillars of the survival of French dominance.

• He also accompanied Sheikh Bachir El Ibrahimi and were together in struggle and brotherly life until death.

• During the Algerian Revolution, he and his companions were sentenced to death by the colonial authorities and secretly traveled to France, then to Switzerland, and then to Cairo along with Professor Ahmed Tawfik al-Madani (who later became Minister of Awqaf), and there they established the Provisional Government of Algeria headed by Ferhat Abbas. Sheikh Abbas then went to Saudi Arabia representing this government and the Algerian Revolution.

After Algerian Independence

Sheikh Abbas was officially confirmed as the first independent ambassador of Algeria to Saudi Arabia but resigned. When Ahmed Ben Bella, President of Algeria, attacked the ruling family of Saudi Arabia only to align with the policy of Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt, Sheikh Abbas was ashamed of this hostile and worthless attitude; since he was the first witness to the absolute Saudi support for the Algerian Revolution. So he returned home to submit his resignation to Ahmed Ben Bella, President of Algeria.

He was then appointed as the first head of the Israeli Boycott Office in the Arab League.

He was appointed as the first head of the newly formed Supreme Islamic Council of Algeria, and after attempting reforms that were not approved by the Algerian government, he submitted a written resignation from his position and addressed Houari Boumédiène, the President of the country, saying: "I have found myself among a people and a government where the people ask me to be like Umar al-Faruq, while the government does not believe in Umar al-Faruq."

He was appointed as the Algerian ambassador to Indonesia but refrained from going there as he believed he could not serve his country because he did not know the Indonesian or English language and preferred to remain in his homeland for 13 years away from any official job, serving only as a Friday preacher in the Great Mosque of Algeria.

In France

In 1982, he agreed to succeed Hamza Boubakeur as the head of the Islamic Institute and Imam of the Great Mosque of Paris. He remained in France and exerted all his effort to reunite Muslims and defend their rights until the end of his life.

Death

He died on 13 May 1989 in Paris.

External links

• Official website of the Paris Mosque Abbas Bencheikh
• In French Nouvel Observateur, 6-12 April 1989.