Algeria

Tensions remained high in a northern Algerian city Monday, January 3, after a Muslim mob reportedly prevented Christian converts from holding a Christmas service and threatened to kill their church pastor.

The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has learned that a blasphemy case brought against three Christians was dismissed on October 29, 2008 by a court in Algeria. The court is located in Ain Turk, a town 267 miles away from Algiers, the capital.

A court in western Algeria convicted two Muslim converts to Christianity yesterday for illegally spreading their faith.

A Christian evangelist was due to appear in an Algerian court Wednesday, June 25, on charges related to "attempting to shake the Muslim faith," after allegedly receiving death threats.

Convicted of blasphemy and evangelism in two separate cases this year, an Algerian Christian goes on trial in west Algeria for a third time tomorrow, again for evangelism.

An Algerian court gave four Christians suspended sentences and fines today for seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity, a Protestant church leader said.

A state prosecutor in western Algeria demanded two-year jail sentences and large fines for six Muslim converts to Christianity yesterday in one of two trials against Christians that have caught the north African nation’s attention in the past week.

The debate was urgent and often heated at the annual meeting of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA) earlier this month. The looming question: whether to obey or disobey government orders that have closed over half of the North African country’s 50 Protestant churches in the past six months.

Algerian Christians have appealed for international "prayers and support" amid a government crackdown on churches and suspected evangelists, a rights group said Monday, May 19.