Number of Christians in Algeria doesn't exceed 0.5% of Algerian population, study report says
According to an annual report issued by a US state department committee in charge of overseeing religious freedoms in the world and submitted for consideration to the Vatican's Pontifical commission in Europe, the Christian community in Algeria doesn't exceed 0.5% of the Algerian population in 2010.
- This yearly assessment report also spoke of certain egregious violations of religious freedoms in the country notably targeting the Christian community members in some parts of the country by alerting the Vatican’s Pontifical commission in Europe about what it called this “alarming” situation facing the Christian minority groups in the country.
- On the basis of latest statistics, the report says that the Christians represent 0.5% of the 35 million population in Algeria, 0.2% in Morocco, 1% in Mauritania, and less than 1% in Tunisia stressing that their number is rather dwindling as these Maghrebian countries are predominantly Muslim and conversions are very few.
- It’s worth recalling that the Algerian Constitution declares Islam to be the state religion but prohibits discrimination based on religious belief, and the Government generally respects this prohibition in practice, with some limited exceptions.
- The 2006 law limits the practice of other faiths; however, the Government follows a de facto policy of tolerance by allowing, in limited instances, the conduct of religious services by non-Muslim faiths in the capital which were open to the public. The small Christian and tiny Jewish populations in Algeria generally practice their faiths without government interference.
- Missionary groups are permitted to conduct humanitarian activities without government interference as long as they are discreet and do not proselytize.
- Many of the “home churches” in which Christians worship are in contact with the Government, and none report being intimidated or threatened with the exception of some isolated incidents notably in the eastern Kabylia region as reported by the local news outlets.
- In February the Algerian High Islamic Council sponsored an international symposium on interfaith cooperation in Algiers entitled “The Dialogue of Civilizations,” followed by a second symposium in April examining trends in Western and Eastern religious thought.
- The country’s leading Islamic and non-Islamic religious leaders also attended regional symposia hosted by the Algerian immigrant community settled in France to discuss inter-faith relations and religious tolerance.
- In March 2002, an international symposium on “Rapprochement among Islamic Rites” was held in Algiers. Topics discussed included terrorism and its eradication, religious fundamentalism and its nefarious societal impact, as well as the promotion of women’s and minority rights in Algeria and elsewhere in the North Africa region.