Tag: Algeria

Algerian pastor decries church closure

March 5, 2018 Algeria Aïn Turk, Algeria, Oran, Protestant Church of Algeria

The leader of a Protestant church in Algeria’s north-western town of Aïn Turk (15km from Oran city) has denounced the closure of his church four months ago. Youssef Ourahmane founded the House of Hope church more than 20 years ago – in 1997 – but on 9 November, 2017, the . . . Read More

Algeria: two more churches closed, others threatened

March 1, 2018 Algeria Aïn Turk, Algeria, Churches, Kabylie, North Africa, Oran, Proselytism, Protestant Church of Algeria, Religious freedom, Tizi Ouzou

Local authorities in Algeria’s north-western city of Oran have closed two more churches amidst growing pressure on Christians in the Maghreb country. The two churches – L’Oratoire (The Oratory) in Oran’s city centre, and a village church in Layayda (about 40km from Oran) – were sealed off by police on . . . Read More

‘Intensified campaign’ against Algeria’s churches

January 3, 2018 Algeria Aïn Turk, Algeria, Bejaia, Churches, Kabylie, Oran, Protestant Church of Algeria, Tizi Ouzou

Churches and individual Christians in Algeria have faced increased restrictions in recent months, raising concerns that these pressures signal a “coordinated campaign of intensified action against churches by the governing authorities”, according to Christian advocacy group Middle East Concern. On 19 December, three Christians were arrested in Chlef, 200km north-west . . . Read More

Algerian church closed for ‘illegally printing Bibles and material intended for evangelism’

November 20, 2017 Algeria Aïn Turk, Algeria, Bibles, Churches, Oran, Proselytism, Protestant Church of Algeria

A church in Algeria’s north-western town of Aïn Turk (15km from Oran city) has been closed down by local authorities. The church, affiliated to the Protestant Church of Algeria (known as EPA, its French acronym), was sealed off by police on 9 November. Authorities in Oran claimed the church had . . . Read More

Algeria: ‘unjust law’ still denying churches their ‘right to worship’

October 19, 2017 Algeria Algeria, Algiers, Mâatkas, Protestant Church of Algeria, Religion Law, Tizi Ouzou

Churches in northern Algeria continue to clash with the authorities over permission to hold services in non-religious buildings. Authorities in Tizi Ouzou province – 100km east of the capital, Algiers – have said a 2006 law that regulates non-Muslim worship is breached by churches meeting in houses meant only for . . . Read More

Algerian Christian on hunger strike after parole rejected

October 11, 2017 Algeria Algeria, Bejaia, Blasphemy, Constantine, Jijel, Kabylie, MAK, Setif, Slimane Bouhafs

Slimane Bouhafs has been released after 18 months in prison for alleged blasphemy on Facebook. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

An Algerian court has rejected a parole application for Slimane Bouhafs, an Algerian Christian jailed for five years for blasphemy in September 2016, despite his deteriorating health. Bouhafs heard the news on 2 October while in prison in the coastal city of Jijel, 300km east of the capital, Algiers, and . . . Read More

A year in prison for Algerian Christian for Facebook post

January 12, 2017 Algeria Algeria, Berbers, Blasphemy, Setif, Slimane Bouhafs

An Algerian Christian has been sentenced to a year in prison for a post he made on Facebook. On 8 January, the court in Bouira (100 km east of Algiers) found Samir Chamek, 34, guilty of insulting Islam and its prophet over items he posted on his Facebook page. Samir says . . . Read More

Algerian churches still fighting for freedom of worship

April 29, 2016 Algeria Algeria, Algiers, Churches, Kabylie, Mâatkas, Protestant Church of Algeria

Churches in Algeria are facing intimidation and harassment, despite constitutional provisions guaranteeing freedom of worship in the country. On Sunday 24 April, 2016, a church in Mâatkas, in the north-eastern region of Kabylie, was ordered to cease all religious activities on the grounds that it was in breach of a . . . Read More

Global Church meets to seek unity in face of persecution

November 6, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Albania, Aleppo, Algeria, Catholics, Churches, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, India, Iraq, Islamic State, Kenya, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Nineveh Plains, Orthodox, Pakistan, Pentecostals, Protestants, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yohanna Ibrahim

Twenty-five years ago, on 4 Nov. 1990, a priest risked his life to hold a mass in a cemetery in Albania. In 1967 his president, Enver Hoxha, had declared that he had “abolished” the Christian faith, and that his country was henceforth the world’s first atheist state. On 4 Nov. . . . Read More

Libya: ‘a country where Christians shouldn’t come’

May 14, 2015 Libya Algeria, Ansar al-Sharia, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Libya, Migrants, Muammar Gaddafi, Refugees, Tripoli, Tunisia

Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been engulfed by conflicts between various coalitions of armed groups.Photo courtesy Open Doors International Migrants and refugees in Libya are increasingly facing widespread abuse and persecution on religious grounds, a report by Amnesty International has revealed. Foreign nationals travelling irregularly . . . Read More

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