Why do many Algerians hold contradictory ideas?
When I discuss religious topics with people — whether they are ordinary individuals, students of knowledge, or even intellectuals — I notice a strange pattern: many people seem to hold a mixture of different belief systems at the same time.
For example, someone may speak from a feminist perspective in one discussion, then use red-pill arguments in another. At one moment they sound Salafi, at another Sufi. Sometimes they insist on following the madhhab, yet elsewhere they adopt ideas closer to the school or modern reformist movements.
When I thought about this historically, it started to make sense. In Algeria, we were originally heavily influenced by the Maliki tradition. Later, during the Ottoman period, Hanafi influence spread through state institutions, along with various Sufi traditions. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, movements connected to the introduced new ideological frameworks. After that, scholars associated with Salafi thought, such as , became influential through books, recordings, and later the internet.
Today, social media exposes people to even more competing influences: liberalism, traditionalism, feminism, red-pill ideology, nationalism, self-help culture, and globalized modern values. As a result, many people develop a kind of ideological patchwork rather than a fully coherent worldview.
I think most people do not consciously build a complete philosophical system. Instead, they absorb ideas from their environment, emotions, culture, family, trends, and historical context — even when some of those ideas contradict each other.