24 it was an existential battle, a battle of survival or extinction, a battle between continuing as a nation with its own language, culture, faith and independence or dissolving and disappearing forever. The battle was in essence a fight by Algerians for the preservation of the Arab character and the Muslim faith, which were their tools for exercising their free will and their ability to build the future. I still remember an example given by anAlgerian writer confirming beyond any doubt the depth of these feelings in the hearts of all Algerians, men and women alike. He said that when the attacks against Algerian villages grew more brutal and large numbers of the population began to fall one after the other, the fighting around a certain mountainous area took on a legendary status surpassing all forms of resistance and sacrifice. The resistance was so fierce that when, finally, the armies of occupation managed to break into the area, they found nobody alive there who was capable of carrying arms. The French commander then realised that the reason for such fierce resistance was the name of the area, LaLa Fatima: that is, it was named after Sayeda Fatima the daughter of the Prophet, God’s Peace be on Him, and to the inhabitants that was a sacred place. Islam and genuine religious feelings occupied a central position in the Algerian people’s hearts and played a huge role in the struggle against French colonisation and in stopping its attempts at containment. Adhering to Islam and the Arabic lan-
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