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'Authorities don't want to get involved because they're worried of
getting in trouble' Jan 11 01:43 PM US/Eastern
By AOMAR OUALI
Associated Press Writer ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Islamists looted and burned a Protestant temple
in Algeria, the congregation's leader said Monday, suggesting they were
inspired by a recent wave of religious intolerance in the Arab and
Muslim world.
The temple hosted in an apartment block in the city of Tizi Ouzou some
100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Algiers, the Algerian capital was
ransacked and set ablaze on Saturday night, several Algerian newspapers
said. The independent El Watan daily published a picture of a smoldering pile
of pulpits and desks that had been brought outside for destruction. It
quoted the pastor of the local Pentecostal community, Mustapha Krireche,
as saying worshippers fled the temple because local police had left a
gathering of anti-Christian rioters unchecked. The congregation was worshipping in the apartment block because it had
not received official government approval to operate a temple. Mustapha Krim, the head of the Algerian Protestant Church association,
said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Monday that
looters also set fire to a pile of Bibles and religious textbooks, and
desecrated Christian crosses. He said the looting showed "Islamist intolerance considers there is no
room for Christian religious practices in Algeria," and alleged it was
"fueled by what just happened in Egypt," where six people were killed in
a church shooting during Christmas celebrations. In mainly Muslim
Malaysia, nine churches have also been recently burned down amid
violence against the country's Christian minority. The Protestant Church in Algeria filed five separate complaints for
arson and looting with local authorities, Krim said Monday. "Authorities don't want to get involved because they're worried of
getting in trouble with the Islamists," Krim said. There was no official comment from Algeria's government on the church
looting. A senior police officer in the town of Tizi Ouzou confirmed the
police hadn't intervened, despite the complaints. He said authorities
couldn't intervene because the temple hadn't been authorized as a place
of worship. "What happened is appalling, but the apartment wasn't an authorized
house to practice a religion," the police officer said, requesting
anonymity because Algerian law bars security forces from talking to the
media. The officer said local authorities had ordered the temple to shut down
in November because the apartment hadn't received approval to function
as a place of worship. The officer denied police were caving in to Islamist pressure, pointing
out that security forces regularly battle Islamist militants in the
mountains around Tizi Ouzou, considered the stronghold of the local
al-Qaida offshoot. Krim said the 300 Pentecostal practitioners in the area used the
apartment because authorities had refused to provide them with another
venue. An overwhelmingly Muslim nation where Islam is the religion of state,
Algeria allows the practice of other faiths in authorized venues. A few
Roman Catholic churches are still open, left over from the French
colonial era. But small Protestant groups have been accused of proselytizing, or
trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, which is illegal in Algeria.
Several Protestants were prosecuted last year for illegally carrying
Bibles or converting people to Christianity. Krim said the Algerian Protestant Association was officially registered
in 2003 and is tolerated by authorities, but often turned down by the
Ministry of Religious Affairs when it files requests for houses of worship.
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