The F.L.N. terrorized Muslim collaborators and used mutilation as an economic and symbolic weapon

Evidence

Worse still, the F.L.N. seemed to be switching their attacks from barracks and police stations to “softer” targets. Brutal murders of Muslim “friends of France”, from caids to humble village constables, multiplied, totalling eighty-eight in April alone, with a similar number hideously mutilated — as a terrible warning for the rest. At the same time the F.L.N. issued an edict enforcing a ban on Muslims smoking or drinking alcohol, as an economic blow against the pied noir tobacco- or vine-growers like Senator Borgeaud. Penalty for a first offence was the cutting off of lips or nose; for a second, égorgement — or what the army dubbed with black humour, “the Kabyle smile”. Most nations have their favourite unpleasant way of death; to the Algerians throat-slitting is associated with the killing of sheep, and therefore the most humiliating fate an enemy can be made to suffer. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 352 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Interrogations conducted in front of the local caid produced little: “you couldn’t see any expression in the Arabs’ eyes, except a kind of timid curiosity, but now hatred flashed there, like fire.…” Fear was everywhere. The bodies of loyal Muslims would be discovered, often appallingly mutilated or having been subjected to slow deaths that the adjacent army posts would be powerless to prevent. “Tongues were paralysed with terror.” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 323 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The D.P.U. block-warden system produced intelligence but destroyed Muslim loyalists; France armed defector Bellounis into a private Muslim ‘third force’ army; F.L.N. terror silenced Muslim informants and paralyzed collaboration with the French — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 323 (+4 more)

Related

• The F.L.N. terrorized collaborators and issued edicts to cripple settler economic interests. (similarity 0.95)
• F.L.N. terror silenced Muslim informants and paralyzed collaboration with the French (similarity 0.90)
• Indiscriminate F.L.N. bombing alienated the Muslim working class (similarity 0.85)
• The F.L.N. physically extended its Algerian terror and fundraising methods to metropolitan France. (similarity 0.84)
• F.L.N. terror killed six times more Muslims than Europeans (similarity 0.83)
• F.L.N. terrorism in France alienated even its expected leftist allies. (similarity 0.83)
• F.L.N. targeted killings aimed to sever European-Muslim contact and spread mutual suspicion (similarity 0.83)
• Rural Algerians had labeled every local European before the F.L.N. approached any of them. (similarity 0.82)
• The F.L.N. moved its terrorism into metropolitan France in summer 1958 (similarity 0.82)
• Lamp-post bombs killed almost equal numbers of Muslims and Europeans, hurting F.L.N. image. (similarity 0.82)
• France armed defector Bellounis into a private Muslim ‘third force’ army (similarity 0.81)
• F.L.N. terrorism and G.P.R.A. assertiveness eroded the French ‘third force’ Muslim strategy (similarity 0.81)
• The F.L.N. coerced Algeria’s Jews through terrorism and economic sanctions (similarity 0.79)
• Forced assassination riveted F.L.N. recruits to the cause irreversibly (similarity 0.79)
• F.L.N. killed six Muslims for every European civilian in the war’s first years (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The F.L.N. terrorized collaborators and issued edicts to cripple settler economic interests. #corroborates (0.90) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 352
• F.L.N. terror silenced Muslim informants and paralyzed collaboration with the French #expands (0.85) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 323
• F.L.N. terror killed six times more Muslims than Europeans #expands (0.75)
• Forced assassination riveted F.L.N. recruits to the cause irreversibly #expands (0.60)
• The F.L.N. replicated its Algerian coercion methods among Algerians in metropolitan France #expands (0.55)