رسالة الشيخ عبد الحميد الديسي إلى الشيخ عبد الحميد بن باديس

Eddissi’s fetwa on the testimony given by phone The french colonization of Algeria was not limited merely to the occupation of a foreign land by european –mainly French newcomers – but it did result, in the long run, in the reshuffling of societal ,economic and political institutions of an until then a sovereign state ; with a guiding goal in mind : to erase all that relates to the known identity of subdued algerians and replace it with the newcomers’ knowhow and values. By so doing , France knowingly or unknowingly unleashed a civilizational clash between local means and values and european ones that lasted for more than a century . As a case in point ,we introduce in this paper the opinion of a known scholar of the epoch cheikh ad-Dissi ( 1854¬1879) who was asked to issue a fetwa ( a learned opinon ) on the chariaa ‘s view on the validity of a testimony given by phone ;we have to bare in mind here that the use of the telephone was newly introduced in the colony ;and it’s use in testifying was seen by some people as a heresy .To testify, someone has to be present !. That’s one tiny issue from a wider range against which the local people found themselves struggling daily.