Mahfoud Nahnah

Mahfoud Nahnah (Arabic: محفوظ نحناح; 27 January 1942 – 19 June 2003) was an Algerian politician who served as the leader of the Islamist political party Movement of Society for Peace (commonly referred to as Hamas) in Algeria.

After being freed four years later, he helped found the El Islah Oual Irchad (Reform and Guidance) charitable association with Mohammed Bouslimani, as well as the Islamic Preaching League with Ahmed Sahnoun, uniting major figures of the Algerian Islamist movement such as Abbassi Madani and Mohammed Said.

On 6 December 1990, after the FIS was successful in local elections, Nahnah established his own party and called it Hamas (later renamed Movement of Society for Peace, or MSP).

He felt that the military and the West were not ready to allow Algeria even to become a full democracy at that time, much less an Islamic state.

Because of Nahnah's cautious practices, his party remained legal after the military coup of 1992, and in November 1995 he ran for president (with FIS banned) and finished second to General Liamine Zeroual with about 25% of the vote.