Islamic Salvation Front Algeria

Algeria's military-backed government Sunday abruptly canceled coming national elections, plunging the nation into further uncertainty and setting the stage for a possible confrontation with Islamic fundamentalists, who had been poised to take control of the National Assembly.

At dusk on a recent day in the holy month of Ramadan, 200 hungry men lined up outside city hall in this hillside suburb of Algiers for a free meal offered by the town's Islamic government. During Ramadan, Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset. But many of the men standing outside the colonial-era city hall looked as if they hadn't eaten for much longer than that.

Algeria's main militant Muslim group Saturday rejected a call by the country's army-backed government for presidential elections in November, saying the authorities were trying to win legitimacy by force. "The Islamic Salvation Front [FIS] refuses point-blank these elections as they are proposed by the putschists. . . ," the outlawed group said in a statement signed by one of its spokesmen, Anwar Haddam, from his exile in Washington.

About 25,000 Islamic fundamentalists gathered in violence-torn Algiers and cried out to Allah to destroy their enemies and free their leaders. The bearded fundamentalists streamed from a mosque and the surrounding area into a square for prayers that normally would have been led by Ali Belhadj of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). He and FIS leader Abassi Madani were arrested by security forces Sunday. The military presence was slight on Friday and no clashes were reported.

Quietly threading their way through neighborhood streets near the legendary and labyrinthine Casbah, in twos and threes, they approached the raw outlines of the unfinished red-brick mosque. The men were bearded, the women wore scarves in a show of traditional Islamic modesty. Because all roads leading to the mosque in the heart of Algiers were cordoned off, they came on foot.

Algeria's experiment with Islamic politics officially ended Wednesday when an administrative court banned the Islamic Salvation Front, the first Muslim fundamentalist political party ever legalized in the Arab world. The administrative tribunal of Algiers accepted the new military-backed government's argument that the party had pursued "subversive activities whose objectives imperiled public order and the institutions of the state."

The government arrested the leader of Algeria's Islamic party Wednesday and banned all gatherings outside mosques, trying to break the back of the Muslim fundamentalist movement. The moves came 10 days after the military-backed government canceled Algeria's first free parliamentary elections, which the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front was winning. Troops were sent into the streets, and hundreds of fundamentalists were reported arrested.

Amid reports that the government is preparing to impose a state of emergency, Islamic fundamentalists raised the stakes in the battle for control of Algeria on Monday by urging their militants to "prepare for all eventualities to save the country."

After a weekend of worsening violence that has left up to 40 people dead, Algeria's military-backed government Sunday declared a 12-month state of emergency and moved to ban the Islamic fundamentalist political party.

The Bush Administration delivered a mild rebuke Monday to Algeria's military-backed interim government for canceling the runoff of the country's first free, fair parliamentary election, although that move prevents Islamic fundamentalists from taking power in the strategic North African nation. "We view the situation there with concern--the interruption of the electoral process," State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said.