Our supported missionaries

This is a series of posts about the 50 countries in the world where it is the most dangerous to be a Christian.

 

This is taken from the 2024 World Watch List launched earlier this year in Parliament by the charity Open Doors. This was attended by 98 MP's, including Christina Rees (our local MP), Ian Duncan-Smith, Liam Fox, Chris Grayling, Andrea Leadsom, Esther McVey, Ian Paisley jr, and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

​

This section will be updated frequently. If you would like to view the full list you can access this via www.opendoorsuk.org

 

We come to the 15th country, Algeria, which has an authoritarian government. Presidential elections are scheduled for next month, with the military-backed President Tebboune seeking re-election against 34 candidates, which includes a number of women.

​

The Algerian economy is performing reasonably well. The country is 98% Muslim, with about 90,000 Christians, mainly converts, especially among the Berber ethic minority. Islam is the state religion, although the constitution guarantees freedom “to exercise worship” albeit within the constraints of existing laws. However there has been an increase in extremism and radicalisation, particularly amongst young men.  

The official Algerian protestant Church reports increased government pressure, with only 4 out of 46 of their churches currently open. This is because non-Muslim religions require their places of worship to be authorised by the government under a 2006 law. No such permission has been granted to either existing churches or proposed new builds. Thus, churches have either had to close, or meet illegally in other buildings.

Church leaders are therefore subject to detention and interrogation for “holding worship without permission”, “shaking the faith of a Muslim”, “poisoning the minds of youths” and proselytism. A number of them have received suspended prison sentences, and risk a 5 year sentence if found guilty of evangelising Muslims. The Vice President of the Protestant Church in Algeria had his prison sentence increased by 6 months when he lost his appeal against a conviction for holding an unauthorised religious meeting in a building not authorised for worship.

​

Many pastors are suffering financially due to the impact on their income when churches close. 

​

These issues were raised by the UK government with the Algerian authorities at the ministerial level in 2023 by both Lord Ahmed and the PM’s Special Envoy for FoRB, Fiona Bruce MP.

 

Please go to the Open Doors website for more information, or to order a copy of the Watch List.

​

Open doors has a number of elements to it’s lobbying of the UK government and MP’s :

 - to promote FoRB as part of our governments foreign policy and diplomatic engagement

 - to work with international institutions to raise the issue of Christian persecution with other governments

 - to include elements of Human rights and FoRB in trade strategies with other nations

 - to recognise the connection between persecution on faith grounds and and of ethnic minorities, and the risk of mass atrocities

 - to support those who have fled persecution on the grounds of belief as refugees

 - to recognise the gender specific persecution of women and girls from minority faiths

 - acknowledge the Human Rights concerns around emerging technology, especially surveillance in authoritarian states. 

Please also ask your MP to support the Private Members Bill to make the Prime Ministers Special Envoy for FoRB into a permanent cabinet post."