10/21/2018 Algeria (International Christian Concern) – Algerian police shut the doors of a church on October 16. Government officials ordered the church to close in February after inspecting the site and demanding the church be renovated to provide another emergency exit and fire extinguishers.
The church complied with these demands and even closed for three weeks to allow for the renovation. Even after this, the police went to the building owner and notified him that they were going to close the building on orders from the Bejaia provincial officials.
This is not the first church to be closed in Algeria this year. Although some previously closed churches have been allowed to re-open, many still remain shut.
In the midst of rising church closures in Algeria, new churches and any other non-Muslim places of worship are required to register with the state. This has become a difficult process as the government has kept many churches from officially registering.
