Converts to Christianity Arrested

(Algiers, Algeria) Here's some news from the religion of peace and tolerance.

Algerian prosecutors have asked a court, last Sunday, to sentence four Algerian converts to Christianity to one year in jail each for opening a church without permission, their lawyer said.

The defendants, aged between 35 and 45 years, are accused of opening a Protestant church 90 miles east of the capital Algiers.

One of them has also been charged with accommodating a French pastor who had travelled to Algeria to address a Christian community, the defense lawyer said.

The practice of religion in Algeria, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, requires authorities to authorize the place of worship.

Over the past months, several trials have opened in Algeria, where Islam is the state religion, for violation of Islamic precepts and converting to Christianity.

There is no freedom of religion in Algeria.