Madani, Abbasi al-

Madani, Abbasi al-

(born 1931, Sidi 'Uqbah, Alg.) Cofounder, with Ali Belhadj, of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). After earning a doctorate in London, he returned to Algeria to teach at the University of Algiers, where he became a leader of religious students. He traveled with other itinerant preachers around the country, exchanging ideas and preaching the outlines of a religious political movement. He was arrested after the first round of voting in the 1991–92 legislative elections. In 1999 he endorsed a peace agreement put forward by Algeria's president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, between the FIS and the Algerian government.