Two Thousand “Ahmadis” In Algeria

Amnesty International has revealed that the followers of the “Ahmadiyya” sect in Algeria number 2,000, calling on the authorities to stop the hunt for them because such a move represents it said, a tightening of the religious freedom in the country.

“Algeria must stop harassing the members of the religious minority known as the Ahmadiyya movement before the appeals hearing scheduled for June 21 for six members of this sect in Batna, who were  sentenced to up to four years in prison on charges of practicing their religious rites,” it said.

“At least 280 Ahmadi men and women have been interrogated or prosecuted over the past year since a crackdown began following the failure of attempts to register Ahmadiyya and the opening of a new mosque in 2016,” Amnesty added.

According to the organization, there are more than 2,000 Ahmadis present in Algeria. The Ahmadis argue that they are themselves Muslims, but Algerian officials make public statements describing the Ahmadis as heretics and a threat to Algeria”.

The statement criticized the remarks made by the Minister of Religious Affairs Mohamed Aissa about the Ahmadiyya sect after describing the latter as a “deliberate sectarian invasion” and that the Ahmadis are “not Muslims”.

The Government, and in particular the Ministry of Religious Affairs, has responded on several occasions that the crackdown on the Ahmadiyya community is not related to the freedom of belief but to their illegal activities such as collecting donations, worshiping in secret places, and offending Islam and its sacred principles.