A new report from a U.S. government watchdog warns that the Algerian government has closed down as many as 16 Evangelical churches in recent years, enforcing strict regulations on religion to arrest individuals on blasphemy and proselytization charges.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan body led by volunteer commissioners who advise the U.S. government and Congress, released a factsheet this month on religious freedom conditions in Algeria, the world's largest Arab nation by landmass with a 99% Sunni Muslim population.
The report warns that the North African country's penal code and Ordinance 06-03 regulation on non-Muslim organizations are "inconsistent with international legal protections for freedom of religion or belief." Specifically, the watchdog body states that Algeria's violating the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, a framework the country ratified in 1989.
"In recent years, the Algerian government has increasingly enforced these laws, imprisoning individuals on blasphemy and proselytization charges," the report stresses. "It has also interpreted other legal precepts in ways that infringe on Algerians' rights to worship."
Ordinance 06-03, passed in 2006, requires non-Muslim Algerians to worship exclusively in buildings authorized by the National Commission of Non-Muslim Worship.
Anyone who worships outside the parameters of these restrictions may be subject to one to three years of imprisonment and a roughly $710 fine.
The Algerian government has reportedly refused to acknowledge receipt of the Evangelical Protestant Association's application for registration and has forced at least 16 EPA churches to close due to their unregistered status, the USCIRF factsheet says.
"Advocacy groups report that government authorities have pressured EPA member churches to apply for status independently of the EPA, allegedly seeking to weaken the cohesion of the Evangelical Protestant community," the USCIRF report reads. "In November 2021, authorities charged senior EPA pastor Salaheddine Chalah and four other protestant Christians with practicing unauthorized worship; Pastor Chalah reportedly received 18 months in prison in March 2022 while those charged with him received six-month sentences."
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