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Faith under fire
Algerian protestant churches targeted
A total of 42 out of the Evangelical Protestant Association’s 45 churches in Algeria have been closed since 2017 and more than 50 of its pastors and leaders prosecuted by the state since November 2021. Some ministers have already been sent to prison while others are awaiting the appeal of their sentences.
The closed churches have had wax seals placed upon the doors and the homes of Christians have been raided and searched for Bibles or other Christian literature. This has caused many Christians to flee the country, or to stop meeting together.
The overwhelming majority of Christians in Algeria are recent converts, brought to faith in rapidly growing churches whose success
in spreading the gospel came to be seen as a threat by the state and the Islamic establishment.
Continuing active church ministry in this context is very difficult and can be stressful for those involved, and their families, who are under surveillance from the state.
Release International is supporting our Christian brothers and sisters in Algeria during these difficult times and would ask all of our supporters to pray for them.
Christians in Belarus have expressed concern about Belarus’s repressive new religion law – now signed by President Aleksandr Lukashenko and which comes into force in July.
Fears over Belarus’s new religion law
The legislation continues to require
all religious communities to gain state registration before they are allowed to exist and continues to ban the activity
of unregistered religious organisations. All registered religious communities are required to seek re-registration between July 5 this year and next.
President Lukashenko signed the law that will restrict religious communities
Leonid Mikhovich, the head of the Baptist Union, welcomed several changes
in the final version compared with the earlier draft, including the removal of a requirement for religious organisations to report to local executive committees
on their religious education of children. However, he expressed concern that no possibility exists for small religious communities without 20 adult founders. He also
expressed concern about the extensive information founders need to provide to authorities.
the
‘We look at the new law with caution,’ a Protestant pastor who asked not to be identified for fear of state reprisals told Forum 18 while the new law was in preparation. ‘It promises nothing good, but it depends on how formally it will be applied as the wording in some parts is obscure.’ The pastor noted the ‘endlessly expanding’ list of reasons the state could use to liquidate religious communities. ‘If desired, they may be applied to any religious organisation.’ (Source: Forum 18)
Bailed Iranian
brothers request
Mauritania releases
‘baptism video’
prayer
Officials in Mauritania have released all Christians arrested after a video of a baptism ceremony in November prompted Muslims to call for their punishment, Christian leaders in the region said.
Friends and family of Iranian Alireza and Amir Nourmohammadi are grateful that they were released conditionally following their arrest in December, but request prayer
as they face prosecution for their Christian activities.
The Christians do not appear to have been charged with any crime.
The brothers were arrested, along with Milad Goodarzi, another convert, by intelligence agents last December. Milad was released after questioning, but Alireza and Amir remained detained for more than four weeks.
‘They have been asked to go home and believe what they want, but in private and discreetly,’ a Christian leader in the region told Christian Daily International. ‘It seems that our brothers have more to fear from the Islamists than from their government. Thank God for this happy ending.’
The brothers were released in January after submitting bail of 300 million tomans (about £2,300) each. They face charges of engaging in ‘deviant educational or propaganda activities contrary to the holy Islamic law by making false claims in religious fields’.
At least 15 and possibly as many as 18 Christians were arrested along with their families but were later released. There is no law against evangelism in the northwest African country, though officials ban any public expression of faith except Islam.
(Source: Middle East Concern)
(Sources: Christian Daily International-Morning Star News; Voice of the Martyrs podcast)
Christians
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