January 28, 2011 -- Mohammed Bouazizi's protest suicide in Tunisia has prompted a series of copycat self-immolations by Algerians equally despondent over unemployment and high living costs. Mohcin Bouterfa, aged 37, died Monday (January 24th) of injuries sustained January 15th near Tebessa. The father of a young girl, Mohcin was in search of a job and housing for his family. Residents said that after trying unsuccessfully to meet with the mayor, he set himself alight in front of the Boukhadra town hall "to denounce the attitude of contempt displayed towards him by politicians". A day earlier, Karim Bendim, 35, died of his injuries after attempting to end his life in front of the town hall in Dellys. Afif Hadri, 37, a father of six children, tried to end his days by splashing gasoline on himself in El Oued. In Annaba, another town near the Tunisia border, ten people attempted a mass suicide by fire and a woman attempted suicide by self-immolation in Sidi Bel Abbes.

Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, in an effort to quell the unrest, decided to stop eviction proceedings in illegal housing cases. Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia, meanwhile, stressed that local officials need to listen to the concerns of young people. He said on January 17th that the government was creating new plans for young employment and that banks had been instructed to speed up requests for small business loans. The best hope for containing the crisis, however, may not come from government policy. Authorities are now turning to imams for help. Religious Affairs Minister Bouabdallah Ghlamallah spoke out against suicide as a violation of Islamic law, saying that those who offer to burn their bodies to protest against poor living conditions ''are breaching the limits of God" by doing so. "If Muslims suffer from certain social problems, they should protest against them through lawful means, not through committing suicide," he said.

Last Friday, imams were instructed for their sermons "to evoke the topic of suicide by immolation, a phenomenon that is alien to our society", confirmed Adda Fellahi, the head of communications at the Religious Affairs Ministry. The imams responded to the call, raising their voices to stem the rash of suicide attempt by poor and marginalised citizens. Sheikh M'kerkeb, imam of the Al Qods mosque in Algiers' Hydra quarter, asked young people to calm down, explaining that, "when moving away from the precepts of religion, all drifts are possible". "Young people cannot hide behind social demands to violate a fundamental principle of Islam that is respect for human life," he said.

Sheikh Mohammed Ali Ferkous issued a fatwa via his website forbidding suicide. The Salafi cleric attributed the recent bloodshed and loss of life in Algeria and other Arab Maghreb countries to what he called "blind youth in a contemporary civilisation". "Suicide is contrary to the teachings of Islam," he affirmed. That a Muslim could reach a point where he could burn himself with fire suggests a degree of despair and hopelessness that "characterises people who have gone astray", Sheikh Ferkous said. "It is not permissible for a Muslim to punish the enemy with fire, so how can he burn himself?" he asked.

Sheikh Chamseddine, who is known for his association's efforts to assist disadvantaged people, said that "it is not permissible for a Muslim to kill others, nor to kill himself". "The wave of suicides that we hear of in Algeria is not permissible in Sharia law, as it is a major sin to commit suicide… It shocks the person and his parents, and if he had a wife and children they will also be shocked," he wrote in an editorial published in Algerian newspapers on January 18th. "Whoever burns himself because of mundane problems would have lost both life and the Hereafter", he added.

For his part, Sheikh Ahmed, an imam at one of the mosques in the capital, told Magharebia: "The emergence of the phenomenon of suicide requires from parents, educators, school teachers and preachers a serious stand to study the cases and their causes." "The spread of the phenomenon of suicide by self-immolation in the recent period would not have happened if the various institutions of civil society played their role as required, including mosques and private educational institutions," he stressed. The imam urged all parties to examine the root causes of despair and frustration. Still, he said, "It is unacceptable that a man puts an end to his life, whatever the justification and motivation for it".

The phenomenon of self-immolation to express discontent is not new in Algerian society, according to social psychologist Gaci Ali. "We have witnessed in recent years all sorts of suicide beyond the traditional," he told L'Expression. "Young people have killed themselves in self-mutilation to challenge their rejections from the lists of homes, while others decided to jump in the sea and drown rather than be caught by the coastguards." But economic conditions alone are not enough to explain the wave of suicide attempts, said Abdelhak Benouniche, a psychiatrist at Maillot Hospital in Algiers. He points to the trauma suffered by the Algerian population during fifteen years of terrorism. "Many prohibitions prevented Algerians from speaking out," he said. And when social instability is accompanied by great psychological distress, and there is no outlet, some people can direct the anger and trauma against themselves, he explained. "That is a typical case of Algeria."

Malika Guerbouche, a 35-year-old teacher and mother of two, told Magharebia, "I am shocked by the increasing incidence of suicide attempts. It is not the best way to protest." "I can understand the despair of young and old alike. Their demands are legitimate but they must find other ways to express their needs. What is it worth to do as much harm? Before taking action, these people must think of the harm they cause themselves and their families," she said. For his part, telecommunications executive Ali Lamara, believes that "Algerians cannot begin to copy the Tunisian model". "The revolution has begun there by the desperate act of Mohammed Bouazizi, but we cannot repeat history. Young Algerians who are sacrificing themselves are unaware that the context is different and that their actions could have no effect," he stressed. "The urgency now," Lamara said, "is to organise the civil society and to find other channels of expression, far from violence."