ALGIERS – On the eve of the celebration of Knowledge Day (Yaoum El Ilm), the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, sent a message (herein translated into English:
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate,
Prayers and peace on the Seal of the prophets,
Dear citizens,
Knowledge Day, a highlight date in our National Memory, coincides this year with the first blessed days of the Holy Month; congratulations to all of us on these two occasions.
Last year, we were deprived of the joy and pleasure of seeing our children, girls and boys, reciting, as they usually do on this occasion, the poems of the eminent scholar Sheikh Abdelhamid Ibn Badis and celebrating his high deeds.
Praise Allah for granting us, after a year of patience and sustained effort and the retreat of the Covid-19 pandemic, a better situation allowing our people to celebrate this Day, glorifying science and knowledge, promoting thought and culture and paying tribute to Algerian scholars, researchers, thinkers, intellectuals, and artists in all areas of creativity.
Dear sisters, dear brothers,
Our people have decreed the date of the disappearance of Sheikh Abdelhamid Ibn Badis, a reformer and renovationist, as being a symbolic Day of celebration of knowledge and scholars, consecrating this tradition as a beacon illuminating an important part of our history.
This was the time when our scholarly Sheikh and his companions, men of knowledge and veneration of the homeland, stood up against hateful colonial plans aimed at obscuring national identity and destroying its foundations: religion, language, and culture.
To do so, he (peace to his soul) embarked on an authentic national path by making the fight against ignorance and illiteracy a battle of his own and unveiling the pernicious methods aimed at spreading excesses and witchcraft among the population. He thus set out to free thought and mobilize wills through the weapon of knowledge.
Dear sisters, dear brothers,
The Algerian people has never forgotten the avant-garde role that Sheikh Abdelhamid Ibn Badis, the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulemas, and the august ulemas and shuyukh of the zaouias played in preserving the Algerian nation, its heritage and the components of its identity, and in the fight against charlatanism. Today, remaining true to their identity and relying on their potential, the Algerian people strive towards efficient policies to get a full understanding of the issues of the present day and the challenges of tomorrow – policies based on a real investment in the human element through the acquisition of knowledge and science, the mastery of technology and the investment in the world of computing and communications.
This is a major commitment of ours that we have undertaken to implement by working to set the conditions for a real revival based on the country’s true wealth, a wealth consisting of more than ten million students enrolled in educational establishments and more than one and a half million university and college students.
The democratic process is the choice of free and sovereign Algeria. It counts, in addition to the consolidation of the foundations of peace and security, among the objectives related to the country’s supreme interest that we are working to achieve through the joint efforts of state institutions, the political class and civil society actors.
On this day of National Memory, I call upon the Algerian society with all its components to express itself in the coming political milestones, in full freedom and by the most civilized ways possible, to elect its representatives, in the light of the internal and external challenges which require that everyone make the interests of the motherland prevail above any dispute and any narrow consideration.
In this regard, I remain confident that the daughters and sons of Algeria will go forward to lay this important milestone in the building of a new Algeria, and that their determination cannot be undermined by the deceptions of those who got bogged down in the twists and turns of destabilization and division.
By celebrating Knowledge Day, I loudly call upon the daughters and sons of Algeria to dedicate their daily life to the celebration of knowledge by being on the lookout for any novelty in the world of knowledge, innovation, and technology.
I would like to take this opportunity also to urge our children, pupils and students at schools, universities, institutes, and training centres to chart their course to success through hard work, knowledge, and moral rigor.
May Algeria celebrate Knowledge and scholars every year, may Allah approve your fast!
Glory and Greatness to our valiant Shuhada!
Long live Algeria!
