Largely dormant for more than 10 years, a law in Algeria which permits the outright persecution of Christians is shaking back into life.
As Africa's largest country, Algeria sprawls south from the Mediterranean into the Sahara desert covering more than 2.3 million squared kilometres, ten times the size of the UK. Of its 40 million citizens, 99 per cent are Muslim and any attempt to convert an Algerian away from Islam is officially illegal.
But even after 2006, when laws controlling non-Islamic worship were introduced, the former French colony tended to continue its largely tolerant attitude towards minorities.
However now, with presidential elections looming next year and the government under pressure from the Islamist MSP opposition party, ministers are using the 12-year-old legislation to instil a new crackdown on churches. Christian Today.
