The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was an Islamist political party in Algeria that existed from 18 February 1989 to 4 March 1992, when it was banned after winning an electoral victory in the first democratic elections in the history of Algeria. The FIS was founded by Ali Belhadj and Abbassi Madani, two teachers who sought to implement sharia law and end secularism, replace French with Arabic as the language of instruction in Algeria, and rid Algeria of French and European cultural influences. The FIS was enormously popular among the young urban poor who had participated in the October 1988 riots against the authoritarian FLN regime, and, after winning the 1990 Algerian local elections, the party established a reputation for being charitable and just, unlike the corrupt and arbitrary FLN. Backed by the urban poor and the pious middle class, the FIS won the 1991 elections, winning 118 seats in Parliament to the FLN's 16; the military feared that the FIS' anti-democratic and Islamic fundamentalist platform would destroy Algeria's status as a secular country, and it responded with a military coup. The FIS was banned on 4 March 1992 and thousands of its leaders and supporters arrested, and its few remaining at-large leaders went on to lead an insurgency against the government in the "Algerian Civil War". Its armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, warred against the Algerian Army and the radical Armed Islamic Group until 2000, when it agreed to disband; in 2005, the vast majority of its imprisoned leaders and members were released, and its former guerrillas were amnestied a year later.
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