[ April 16, 2024 ]
More outreach and tolerance from moderate Muslim countries.
New Christian in Algeria Sentenced for ‘Organizing Worship’ in His Home
TIZI-OUZOU, Algeria, June 25, 2019 Morning Star News:
A judge on June 16 handed a Christian father of two in northwest Algeria a suspended prison sentence and a hefty fine for holding worship at his house, four days before another judge fined the owner of land that a church uses.
Story continues below advertisementProsecutors had sought a six-month prison sentence and a fine of 500,000 Algerian dinars (US$4,200) for the 35-year-old father in Mostaganem, a coastal town about 350 kilometers (217 miles) west of Algiers. The judge instead delivered the two-month, suspended prison sentence and a fine of 100,000 dinars ($840) to the new Christian, who requested anonymity as he fears for his life in the officially Muslim North African country.
For inviting a Christian couple to pray with him, an area source said, he was accused of organizing Christian worship in his home under Algeria’s notorious religion law of June 2006, commonly known as the 03/06 law, which forbids non-Muslim worship for unregistered churches. The law stipulates that churches must obtain the permission of a national committee to be registered, but this committee has never met, and no church request has been officially considered or approved, sources said.
“Incredible but true, it was enough that a neighbor denounced him and accused him wrongly, and he is condemned, all because he welcomed a Christian couple to pray together,” said the area source, who cannot be identified for security reasons. “He is frightened and shocked by this accusation.”
Police had summoned the Christian for questioning several times, the source said.
“During these visits to the police station, the poor man had to endure terrible pressure and intimidation, though he was known as a man of peace,” he said.
‘Intimidation’
In Akbou, about 185 kilometers (114 miles) east of Algiers in Bejaia Province, Kabylie Region, a judge on Thursday (June 20) fined the owner of a church that was ordered to close in October 2018.
Prosecutors had sought a 500,000-dinar (US$4,200) fine and six months in prison for Amar Ait-Ouali, owner of the land where City of Refuge Church meets in Azaghar village near Akbou, for allowing a worship tent on the land after authorities closed the 300-member congregation’s church building on Oct. 16, 2018. The judge instead fined Ait-Ouali 50,000 dinars (US$420), Ait-Ouali said.
“I’m not afraid of them, and all their intimidation is just wind,” Ait-Ouali told Morning Star News. “I have the right to be a Christian, and I also have the right to make my home and my land available to the church. All this is injustice. ”
His attorneys, a group of human rights lawyers, said they would appeal.
The pastor of the church, Jughurtha Sadi, said the congregation is trusting in God for the outcome.
“We have nothing to fear,” the pastor said. “The EPA [Protestant Church of Algeria, an umbrella group] is on our side to support us. Whatever they do, we will continue to praise our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Gendarmerie had questioned Ait-Ouali following the installation of the tent for the church, which began meeting in November 2013. After the church building and two others in the region were closed and the Azaghar church began meeting in the tent, soon gendarmerie visited Ait-Ouali and threatened to arrest him if he did not remove it, he said.
The church continued to meet, and he received a court summons in Akbou.
In Tigzirt, 34 kilometers (21 miles) north of Tizi-Ouzou, a judge summoned Nouredine Benzid, pastor of a church in Makouda, on Thursday (June 20), after Islamists pressured local officials into seeking to seal his church building, sources said.
He answered accusations by the Makouda administration that the church did not have permission to meet, they said.
Prosecutors seek to fine him 500,000 dinars (US$4,200). A verdict is expected on Thursday (June 27).
The church of Makouda, also affiliated with the EPA, has more than 300 members.
These cases follow the sealing of another church building and its Bible school in northwestern Algeria on May 22. Citing the 2006 law requiring authorization for non-Muslim places of worship, gendarmes locked the doors of the evangelical church building in Boudjima, 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Tizi-Ouzou, capital of the province of the same name in Kabylie Region.
While three churches in Oran Province that the provincial head closed in November 2017 and February 2018 have since reopened, others that authorities closed last year in Akbou, in Kabylie Region, remain sealed. On Dec. 30, authorities ordered the closure of an evangelical church in Ait-Jimaa village, 45 kilometers (27 miles) from Tizi-Ouzou.
The EPA has 45 affiliated churches throughout the country with nearly 50,000 Christians. Since November 2017, “building-safety committees” have visited most EPA-affiliated churches and inquired about licenses required by the 2006 law regulating non-Muslim worship, according to advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC). Officials have yet to issue any license for a church building under the regulation, according to MEC.
Several churches have since received written orders to cease all activities, and authorities have closed a number of them for operating without a license.
Islam is the state religion in Algeria, where 99 percent of the population of 40 million are Muslim. Since 2000, thousands of Algerian Muslims have put their faith in Christ. Algerian officials estimate the number of Christians at 50,000, but others say it could be twice that number.
Algeria ranked 22nd on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, up from 42nd place the previous year.
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15 Comments
4 years ago
Time to start reciprocal treatment of islam parasites!!!!! Kick all of them back to their goats and caves!!!
4 years ago
Reply to
patd
And the Leftist Poope shills for bringing in more illegals/ christian killing jihadis into christian lands http://tinyurl.com/popeofwolves
Criticises Trump for building a Wall
while he lives behind secure 40 ft walls and 24 hour security !
4 years ago
Reply to
Suresh
That’s the point isn’t it. Same as the MPs. They all know the Muslim scum won’t be living next door to them. We in the UK may well fix this, since we are Brexiting. But this is war and so Christian countries should take Christians for asylum to get them away from the murderous turds. NONE of this, will our traitor MPs even give voice to.
4 years ago
The rotten, corrupt, immoral, degenerate atheists of the dying West only wish they could do this to their resident Christian populations.
4 years ago
Honestly, at least no one has to pay a church tithing. They can still practice their religion without having a place of worship.
Muslims have never been respectful. Stop expecting rational behavior from them at all. They’re not rational. Islam destroys all morality, reason, and respect for human beings.
4 years ago
Non Muslims have no future in Muslim majority lands.
4 years ago
Reply to
Jan Favre
MUSLIMS HAVE NO BUSINESS IN AMERICA! THAT IS WHAT I AM CONCERNED ABOUT. Islam is totally OPPOSITE of our Constitution, so WHY ARE THEY EVEN IN AMERICA?
AND, NO MUSLIM should EVER be elected to a Govt office, not in a town, a city, a State, or Congress! AND, none of them should ever work in any public utilities. THEY REFUSE TO SWEAR TO OUR FLAG AND OUR CONSTITUTION. Either some Americans are dumber than a box of rocks, OR they are Muslims in American clothing.
WAKE UP AMERICA. YOU NEED TO DEMAND MUSLIMS OUT OF THESE PUBLIC GOVT. POSITIONS!
4 years ago
Reply to
Jan Favre
Those lands were not originally Muslim in the first place! It is a travesty of history how Islam could have forcibly spread so far and wide, destroying so much culture in the process!
4 years ago
It’s all right for muslims to hold meetings in mosques to devise evil against “infidels”, including Christians, but it’s a terrible crime for Christians to meet in private homes.
4 years ago
And, I would go to Algeria, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and other countries who uphold the rights of Muslims MORE than they do for their own citizens, WHY???????????????????
4 years ago
4 years ago
islam has been at war with Civilization since its inception and desire for world domination. Isn’t it time for all people of Western Civilization to realize that and return war upon islam. It is a fight to the death and if we don’t exterminate islam all other concepts will die!
4 years ago
FACT IS DO TO THEM IN OUR COUNTRIES WHAT THEY BELIEVE THEY SHOULD DO TO US IN THEIR’S WOULD BE FAIR! HEY! WE WOULD BE APPLYING ISLAMIC LAW AS NON-MUSLIMS TO THEM! SINCE ISLAMIC LAW IS PERFECT, WHY WOULD THEY OBJECT? BECAUSE IT ISN’T IN THEIR INTEREST SO WHY SHOULD WE NON-MUSLIMS NOT DO WHAT ISN’T IN OUR INTEREST?
