TIZI-OUZOU, Algeria, August 27, 2019 (Morning Star News) – A brigade of gendarmerie showed up at an evangelical worship site in Algeria on Monday (Aug. 26) to execute the latest of several church closure orders from provincial authorities, but Christian leaders thwarted the attempt.
When Akbou gendarmerie parked their vehicles at 9:30 a.m. at the church courtyard in Ighzer Amokrane, 192 kilometers (119 miles) east of Algiers, the building was filled with about 200 Christians from different churches united in prayer and worship, and protest banners hung from the walls: “NO to the unjust closing of the churches,” and, “Abrogation of Law 03/06.”
Authorities had issued a warning earlier this month that the 300-member Ighzer Amokrane church would be closed.
The officers, armed with police weaponry, cautiously got out of their vehicles.
A church elder, a council member of the legally recognized umbrella group of Protestant churches in Algeria, the Protestant Church of Algeria (l’Église Protestante d’Algérie, or EPA) and their attorney greeted them, backed by Christians from 33 churches, sources said.
The attorney, Wahab Chiter, asked to see the closure order. After reading it, he told the brigade chief that it was invalid because the provincial chief was not empowered to sign such an order, sources said. A closure order for a place of worship, he explained, can come…
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