Source: Zenit.org
http://www.zenit.org/article-23190?l=english
The small Christian community in Algeria has undergone a rough period in the last few months. Two converts to Christianity were recently convicted of promoting their faith and given suspended sentences and fines, the Associated Press reported July 2.
Rachid Mohammed Seghir and Jammal Dahmani were sentenced for the crime of “distributing documents that aimed at weakening the faith of Muslims,” said their lawyer Khelloudja Khalfoun.
The convicted are evangelical Protestants, prosecuted when extracts from the Bible and other Christian books were found in one of their cars in 2007.
According to information published by the U.S. government, 99% of Algerians are Muslims.
Earlier, on June 3, following the conviction of four Algerian Christians, a Reuters report said that the state-appointed Higher Islamic Council, which regulates religious practice, had accused Protestant evangelicals of trying to divide Algerians through a secret campaign of gaining converts.
According to the article, under a provision in a 2006 law that limits religious worship to government-approved buildings, more than a dozen churches have been closed in the past six months.