Published on: 22 October 2024
DOHI STAFF
Religious minorities in Algeria know what it means to suffer for the sake of Christ. Since 2019, steadily increasing restrictions have cost many pastors their freedom, forcing many congregations to go underground to survive.
In fact, in the last five years, most of the Evangelical churches in Algeria have been shut down.
According to experts, 43 (out of a total of 44) churches affiliated with the Église Protestante d’Algérie (EPA) were forcibly closed by the Ministry of Interior. The official reason given was that due to “health and safety” code violations church buildings must be closed, thereby making any worship inside “illegal.”
A recent target of the Algerian authorities’ attempt to limit Christians’ freedoms of belief and expression is Pastor Youssef Ourahmane. Youssef, who was born into a Muslim family and converted to Christianity as a student, has been a leader in the Protestant Church of Algeria for 30 years.
On July 2, 2023, Youssef was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 100,000 Algerian dinars ($750) for the crime of “illegal worship” and leading the Emmanuel Church in Algeria. In November 2023, his prison sentence was reduced to one year.
Now free, Pastor Youssef is bravely advocating for the reopening of all the Evangelical churches forcibly closed by the Algerian authorities.
“In the 1970s, the government gave out licenses to churches which were largely full of expats,” Youssef explained at a recent event. “Today, the government is concerned that our churches are almost entirely filled with large numbers of Algerian converts.”
The fear that Muslims are turning to Christ seems to be at the root of the government’s heavy-handed dealing with the Christian minority.
Let us keep Pastor Youssef and all Christian leaders in Algeria in our prayers. Please pray that the hearts of the government agents would open up to the truth of the Gospel message and allow Algerians across the country access to God’s Word.
Algeria is a nation of 43 million people. Roughly 99% of the population identify as Sunni Muslim.
