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North African Hizbullah Established

A new Shi’ite movement was recently established by people from the Maghreb countries, the London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported.
 
The new movement is called The Maghrebi Hizbullah and it is led by an influential Shi’ite from the Maghreb, who currently resides in Germany, said ‘Abd A-Rahman Sa’idi, deputy chairman of the Algerian party Mugtama’ A-Silm.
 
The Maghreb is a region in northern Africa, which includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
 
"An intellectual group out of Algeria is moving to establish the basis for a Maghrebi party in the Arab Maghreb," said Sa’idi. He added that the movement was led by a person whose origin was from eastern Algeria.
 
"He is married to a Lebanese woman and maintains much influence in Shi’ite circles out of Algeria. He is known as one of the leading Shi’ites in the Maghreb region."
 
Sa’idi also revealed that according to his information, the preparations toward the creation of the movement were made in Western countries and in Syria.
 
Algeria’s Religious Affairs Minister Bu ‘Abdullah Ghulamullah has rejected claims of a "Shi’ite peril" in his country, and called to avoid what he termed "media intimidation."
 
The Shi’ite population in the Maghreb countries constitutes a very small minority. In Algeria there are approximately 1.3 million Shi’ites, who constitute 4 percent of the total population. In Morocco and Tunisia the Shi’ites constitute about 2% of the population, and in Libya 1%.