Religion in Algeria
Those measures, however, did not satisfy everyone. As early as 1964, a militant Islamic movement, called Al Qiyam (values), emerged and became the precursor of the Islamic Salvation Front of the 1990s. Al Qiyam called for a more dominant role for Islam in Algeria's legal and political systems and opposed what it saw as Western practices in the social and cultural life of Algerians.This proved to be the most difficult challenge for the immediate post-independent regimes as they tried to incorporate an Islamic national identity alongside socialist policies. Whereas the new leaders of Algeria saw Islam and Socialism as both compatible and features of Algerian culture and society; radical Islamists saw Islam as the only defining characteristic and in fact incompatible.
Economy of Algeria
Algeria's currency is the dinar (DZD). The dinar is loosely linked to the U.S. dollar in a managed float. Algeria's main export, crude oil, is priced in dollars, while most of Algeria's imports are priced in euros. Therefore, the government endeavors to manage fluctuations in the value of the dinar. As of April 2008, US$1 was equivalent to about DZD64.6.
Algeria's foreign currency reserves have grown rapidly since 2000, reflecting rising prices for exported oil. At the end of 2007, foreign reserves totaled US$99.3 billion, up from US$12 billion in 2000 and the equivalent of almost four years of imports. In 2007 the estimated inflation rate was 4.6 percent.