Career
He was the President of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria. As its leader he became the voice of a large part of the dispossessed Algerian youth. In his youth he joined the Front for National Liberation (FLN) and participated in the first day of the Algerian War of Independence, 1 November 1954, by planting a bomb at an Algiers radio facility, but was arrested by the French on 17 November 1954, and remained in jail until independence in 1962.
After studying for a doctorate in educational psychology in London from 1975 to 1978, he became a professor of educational sciences at the University of Algiers.
Madani contended that the Islamic essence of November 1954 was betrayed by the Charters of Tripoli and Algeria, along with other charters upheld by Houari Boumediene and Chadli Bendjedid. In a 1990 interview he said he wanted to suppress "usury" in banking and to substantially reduce taxes, while he avoided answering a question about the financing of development projects.
In December 1994, the hijackers of Air France Flight 8969 demanded Madani"s release along with Ali Benhadj. The hijackers later dropped this demand in exchange for fuel to fly from France to Algeria.
His positions included free markets, early Islamic education, Arabization of education and government, segregation of the sexes, and sharia-based law.
He expressed support for democracy, but with the reservation that it could not override Sharia law. In January 2011, Agence France-Presse announced, in connection with ongoing demonstrations in Algeria, that Madani had fled to Qatar.
