By BosNewsLife Africa Service
ALGIERS, ALGERIA (BosNewsLife)– Islamists burned and looted a Protestant church in northern Algeria in an attack that was fueled by violence against Christians elsewhere in the Muslim and Arab world, church officials said Monday, January 11.The Pentecostal oriented Tafat Church, which is located in an apartment block in the city of Tizi Ouzou some 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of the capital Algiers, was reportedly ransacked and set ablaze onSaturday night, January 9.
“They even attacked the cross of Jesus, which was torn and burned,” church pastor Mustapha Krireche toldAlgerian media.
The independent El Watan daily published a photo of a smoldering pile of pulpits and desksthat had been brought outside for destruction. Looters also set fire to a pile of Bibles and religious textbooks, Christians aid.
Krireche accused authorities of “inaction”, and suggested that police refused to intervene, forcingworshipers to flee. “We’ve filed five complaints with the security services” he said. “If authorities want todissolve our association, they should do so through the courts,” El Watan quoted the pastor as saying.
Some 300 Pentecostal practitioners in the area used the apartment because authoritiesrefused to provide them with another venue, church officials said.
ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE
The head of the Algerian Protestant Church association, Mustapha Krim, suggested that the attackerswere encouraged by recent anti-Christian violence in predominantly Muslim Egypt and Malaysia. “It was fueled bywhat just happened in Egypt,” where six people, were killed in a church shooting during Christmas celebrations, Krimtold The Associated Press news agency.
In Malaysia, at least nine churches have also been recently burned down amid violence against the country’s Christian minority. “Islamist intolerance considers there is no room for Christian religious practicesin Algeria,” Krim added.
This weekend’s violence came after dozens of Muslims formed a human chain last month outside the recently opened worship siteof the Tafat congregation. “Here is the land of Islam, go pray somewhere else!” demonstrators shouted, as Christianstried to enter to celebrate Christmas on December 26, reported El Watan.
Christians said church pastor Krireche also received death threats.Algeria allows the practice of other faiths , but only in authorized venues. Churches and rights groups say there has been a crackdown on Christian converts in this mainly Muslim nationsince 2006, when a controversial law was passed demanding non-Muslim congregations seek permits from regional authorities.
CONTROVERSIAL LEGISLATION
Under the controversial legislation Algerians can also be fined up to 1 million dinars (about $14,000)and sentenced to five years in prison for printing, storing or distributing materials intended to convert Muslimsaway from Islam.
The state-appointed Higher Islamic Council has defended the measures saying especially Protestant evangelicals”are secretly trying to divide Algerians to colonize the country.”
Small Protestant groups have been accused of proselytizing, or trying to convert Muslims to Christianity,which is illegal in Algeria. Several Protestants were prosecuted last year for illegally carrying Bibles orallegedly converting people to Christianity and “illegal” worship.
Krim said the Algerian Protestant Association was officially registered in 2003 and is tolerated by authorities,but often turned down by the Ministry of Religious Affairs when it files requests for houses of worship.There has been international pressure on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to allow more religious freedom in his country.
Christians have always been persecuted by Moslems — ever since the time of Muhammad. Christians are still persecuted today in Moslem countries — Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Gaza, Egypt — and others. In Islam, Christians are considered the most monstrous of blasphemers because Christians believe that God had a son. That is the greatest sin in Islam, the only sin which Allah will never pardon. On top of that, the Koran says that Christians (and Jews, too) are subhuman enemies whom Moslems must wage war against and subjugate. Persecution of Christians is only the enactment of the violent religious bigotry that is inherent in Islam.
Jesus Christ taught about God’s love and forgiveness of even enemies: to love God means also to love fellow human beings. I can’t reconcile religion with wilful violence. What religious value do we get from violence or killing others? If God created humans, who then has the right to undo what God wills to be or exist? Believers who use violence as a means to serve God need repetence.