Islamic Tolerance Alert. "5 sentenced for Christian doctrine preaching and public order offences," from El Khabar (thanks to Daryl):
Five people were sentenced earlier in June for charges related preaching Christian doctrine and public order offences by virtue of the law on the religious practice in Algeria approved by the government in 2006. The sentences vary between one year sentence with no remission and one year suspended sentence with a 5000 AD fine.Public authorities started implementing the legal texts ruling the religious practice in Algeria. Five people are to be tried for Christian doctrine preaching as well as public order offending. Sentences were considered by the indicted as a beach to the freedom of worship established by the constitution and stressed that they were trapped by security services.
The press attaché at the religious affairs ministry Mr. Tammine said he didn’t know about the trial, but all those who practice illegally the religious rituals i.e. outside the religious community. The same legal texts are applicable to Salafist Muslim communities....
How ironic, in the land that once seen Sts. Augustine and his beloved mother Monica. But it does not suprise me because it is often a part of being united with the Lord and a true Christian is to be attack for your faith.
London: Two call girls have dropped assault charges against the nephew of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said on Monday.
The case against Mohammed Al Sanussi, 26, was brought by Karen Etchebery, 21, and Patricia Bech, 25, who allege they were beaten up by Al Sanussi at his London home on November 17.
The women said in court documents the attack occurred after they tried to leave when a dispute over money erupted. Sanussi was arrested after police went to his London house.
The case began three weeks ago in London's Blackfriars court but the judge issued a gag order that shielded Al Sanussi's nationality and all but silenced any coverage of the case. Telephone calls to Judge David Martineau on the reason behind the gag order were not immediately returned on Monday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Al Sanussi's father, Abdullah, is the head of Libya's intelligence service and Ghadafi's brother-in-law.
The Libyan government asked the Foreign Office to pass on their "concerns" to prosecutors, according to a British government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. Libyan officials also allegedly raised the matter during former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's trip to Tripoli when a major
gas deal was announced.
"The Libyans raised the case with the Foreign Office and wanted us to pass their concerns to director of public prosecutions," the British government official told AP, refusing to discuss the contents of the letter sent in July. "It was routine."
The official said the British government would not have interfered in the case.
A spokesman for the Libyan government in London declined to comment.
During the trial, prosecutors accused Al Sanussi of punching Etchebery in the face, causing her "sustained complex fractures of the skull', and bruising Bech. Etchebery said in court testimony that Sanussi hit her in the face. "I don't think that because somebody pays me to be there they can hit me in the face," she said in court documents.
But Martineau told the jury the case was being dropped after the women changed their minds about giving evidence.
Etchebery claimed she had been followed shortly after going to police.
"I withdrew from the case because I was scared," she told the Sunday Times and the Daily Mail newspapers.
They have the best cartoons. Fitting for dhimmiwatch
http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/001189.html
I'd heard that the Berber population was in revolt against their Salafi Arab Overlords, and converting to Protestantism because it allows them to keep their berber identities. The motto of christianity has always been, "just as I am"....whereas the Salafi Arab Overlords' motto is "convert or die".
The fact that the righteous sons of Allah are slaughtering their musulman brethren all around the countryside doesn't help the cause of Da'wa or Jihad.
US Needs Madrassas to Help Fight Terrorism
http://the-gathering-storm.blogspot.com/2007/09/storm-track-appeasement-us-needs.html
The world is insane
I wonder what the Islamic world would think if the West treated Muslims in the West like how non Muslims are treated in the Islamic world.
Hello Robert:
Any idea how we can help pay the fine? 5000 AD works out to about US$75 (according to OANDA). Not a lot of money, but perhaps is a lot to an Algerian Christian.
kuta
I have adopted the practice of toting my laptop and leaving JW/DW up and running.
Unlike some, I WANT people to look and ask when they see a provocative headline.
Just the other day a seminary student (Presbyterian) at Starbucks said, "I couldn't help but notice..." an archived story regarding religious persecution.
I knew more about the Koran than this guy. He certainly was interested in the Hadith, and said it was his first year and he has always been taught that muslims worshipped our God.
Maybe Robert or Hugh could moonlight at some of these seminaries.
CG
The truth will sent them free if they will open their eyes and minds.
Elric66
Nothing to do with Elric of Melniboné
Since only Islam can be practice in the Arabian Peninsula, perhaps Islam should only be practice in the Arabian Peninsula. This would solve so many problems for the practitioners of Islam.
Not really logical, but it does follow a certain kind of Koranic logic.
Islam in Algeria is getting the wind up.
In recent years there has been something of a 'people movement' into the Christian faith, primarily among the Kabyle, a Berber group. The New Testament has been translated into Kabyle; similar work is being undertaken on other Berber languages and in Algerian Arabic; and work on the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Kabyle is also proceeding.
A group of Kabyle Christians - entirely on their own initiative - have been at work on a rough translation of the Psalms, from the French Bible, into Kabyle (this story I found on the website of the Bible Society in France): "Il y a quelques jours, nous avons reçu à l’Alliance biblique un chrétien berbère, en séjour à Paris, et qui s’apprêtait à repartir dans son pays. Il m’a expliqué dans le détail le travail de son petit groupe qui traduit actuellement les Psaumes en berbère"/ 'Some days ago, we at the Bible Society received a Berber Christian, on holiday in Paris, who was getting ready to return to his country. He explained to me in detail the work of his little group which was at present translating the Psalms into Berber'.
One should remember that modern technology provides means of communication whereby people may hear the gospel in their own vernacular WITHOUT having to be able to obtain and read the physical text of scripture.
There is also a perceptible movement of Arabised Algerians into the Church - I read about one such person in 'Christianity Today' online.
One guesstimate is that, besides the Christians among the expat population, there may be among the native Algerians, both Arabic and Berber-speaking, as many as twelve thousand more or less openly identifying as Christian, within New Testament style house churches; and as many again operating 'under the radar' as secret believers.
Furthermore, some Algerian Berber living in Europe have been converting to Christianity.
Perhaps Ramon Lull and Charles de Foucauld and the White Fathers did not die in vain.
May the true and living God bless all His saints, martyrs and confessors in Algeria, especially those who have come to Him out of Islam.
kutabeach,
I don't know for certain, but I have heard of an organization called Barnabas Fund (http://www.barnabasfund.org/) based in the UK that helps persecuted christians. Maybe you could bring this to their attention.
You may also try the UK branch of Voice of The Marytrs. (http://www.releaseinternational.org/)
I would reccommend that you do some research before actually giving to verify each organization.
non-redneck-
Your final parenthesis ")" above is glitching your link:
http://www.barnabasfund.org/
Ibn Warraq wrote about the large numbers of converts to christianity among the Berbers and Arabs, I have a dvd of a recorded program shown on satellite to the Berbers and Arabs. I saw one of these programs myself. The power to cross borders without the written word is inestimable. That the missionaries are coming from within the Berber communities themselves is even more astounding...and most astounding of all, is that an apostate of Islam, a self-professed atheist has noticed and documented on this honestly.
A brief post script to my remarks above.
In one of the articles I have read about the conversions in Algeria (I apologise for not being able to give the precise source - I can try to track it down but don't have time right now) one of the converts is reported to have explained their decision in these words: "Islam is death. Christianity is life".
'Islam is death'. That remark must be seen in the light of the multiple atrocities committed against fellow Muslims by the jihadists in Algeria in the not so distant past.
Here is a video of from a French news broadcast about Christians in Algeria
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xlf7z_chretiensdalgerie_news
And here is a video about Algerians in France who have converted to Christianity http://www.dailymotion.com/related/999503/video/xrykh_musulmans-convertis-en-chretiens_fun
In a slightly related topic here is a clip about Chinese immigrants in Algeria
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x289an_immigres-chinois-en-algeriem610607
Dumbledoresarmy said, "'Islam is death'. That remark must be seen in the light of the multiple atrocities committed against fellow Muslims by the jihadists in Algeria in the not so distant past."
This was from a quote in Ibn Warraq's book, Why I left Islam.
I think the Salafists and the pure sons of Allah may be overplaying their hands.