GOA DENIES REPRESSING CHRISTIAN ACTIVITIES

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 000491 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/29/2018 TAGS: PHUM PREL AG SUBJECT: GOA DENIES REPRESSING CHRISTIAN ACTIVITIES REF: A. SECSTATE 42214 ¶B. ALGIERS 467 ¶C. ALGIERS 420 Classified By: Ambassador Robert S. Ford, reason 1.4 (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: On April 29, Ambassador delivered ref a demarche to MFA Director General for American Affairs (Assistant Secretary equivalent) Fatiha Selmane, highlighting specific examples of Christian groups facing GoA obstacles as reported in refs b and c. We also delivered the demarche on April 28 to the Director of Religious Orientation at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, who provided a more detailed response to the challenges to religious freedom we raised. Both officials stressed that the GoA did not seek to restrict religious freedom and said they would deliver the message to the Interior Ministry, which controls the local registration process. END SUMMARY. AMBASSADOR RAISES SENSITIVITIES WITH MFA -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) In his meeting with Selmane, Ambassador observed that we understand that the GoA regulates mosques and claims it is treating non-Muslim communities the same way. He noted, however, that we have multiple reports of Christian church groups that have tried register with local authorities that in turn have refused to accept their dossiers. Ambassador also pointed to the apparent de facto ban on the importation of Bibles, commenting that Algerian Muslims would be furious if the U.S. Government imposed a similar restriction on Qurans. The Ambassador noted that while the issue is sensitive in Algeria, it is also sensitive among some of the Christian communities in the U.S. ¶3. (C) Selmane stated that senior Algerian officials such as Foreign Minister Medelci before the UN Human Rights Commission earlier in April and Minister of Religious Affairs Ghoulamallah had made clear that the Algerian government did not seek to obstruct Christians from exercising their freedom of conscience as guaranteed in the Algerian constitution. Ambassador noted that the expressions of political will at the top appeared not to connect to obstacles on the ground. We wanted to see change on the ground so that groups could register easily and if the criteria for any refusal be entirely transparent. Not sanctioning or punishing local officials who refuse to grant authorizations to Christians was itself a message, he concluded. Selmane asked for some specific examples which we provided. She has promised to inform the Ministry of Interior (which controls the local registration process) and the Ministry of Religious Affairs and to provide an official response. RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS MINISTRY SAYS GOA ACTIONS LEGAL -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶4. (C) Mohammed Aissa, Director of Religious Orientation at the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA),told us on April 28 that the Algerian government believes that it has acted legally regarding recent church closings. Aissa, also the secretary of the nine-member Algerian government body charged SIPDIS with applying Ordinance 06-03, asserted that no churches designed, built and consecrated as such have been closed. He said that only "places of worship" which had sprung up in garages and homes, for example, had been closed, and added that 42 such ad-hoc mosques had been closed in 2007 as well. Aissa had no knowledge of any requests for the construction of churches in Algeria, adding that there is no need to build any because several vacant churches already exist which, in some cases, were being used by new congregations. Despite press reports, Aissa said that Algeria officially reports no conversions from Islam to Christianity in 2007 and maintains that requests to import Bibles will be approved, in "reasonable quantities that correspond to the size of the Christian population." Aissa, along with the MoRA Director of Qur'anic teaching and the MoRA Inspector General, acknowledged that the MoRA had done a poor job of explaining Ordinance 06-03, to both Christian groups as well as to local officials charged with implementation. ALL ROADS LEAD TO INTERIOR MINISTRY -------------- -------------- ¶5. (C) Aissa stressed that the Interior Ministry alone is responsible for closing churches not necessarily because of their religious nature but because of MoI's legal authority to recognize associations in general. Only after a non-Muslim religious group received recognition from the MoI would the dossier come to the MoRA for implementation. Currently, our MoRA interlocutors said the Catholic Church of Algeria is the only church with legal status. The Protestant Church of Algeria, the Seventh Day Adventist Church and the Anglican Church do not have official recognition, Aissa said (ref b). (Comment: In 1990, the Algerian government put forward Law 90-31 regarding associations and churches, requiring even those who had had legal status since 1974 to reregister with the Interior Ministry. Eighteen years after the law's enactment, the churches still have not been granted recognition, either because they have not followed the correct registration procedures - if they were even aware of these procedures - or because the MoI bureaucracy failed to respond. End Comment.) We asked Aissa about the persistent rumor that organizations and churches that try to register with the MoI are often not given a receipt for their documents. He seemed surprised that we have never been able to speak to anyone at the MoI, but said that the Religious Affairs ministry had intervened previously with the MoI to accept the registration documents of the Anglican Church, for example. According to Aissa, the relevant local office had to be provided direct instructions from central MoI leadership to receive the application. RAISING CONVERSIONS AND BIBLE IMPORTATION -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) In recent weeks, we have reported on the pressQ, extensive coverage of alleged Christian proselytizing and the resulting Muslim conversions to Christianity. Aissa derided the press for irresponsibly reporting numbers of Muslims who had converted to Christianity, but stressed that Algerians were free to choose their faith. According to Aissa, only 145 Algerians converted to Christianity in 2007. (Note: Christian leaders are required to report to the Interior Ministry whenever a Muslim converts to Christianity, for reasons concerning marriage and inheritance. End note.) ¶7. (C) When we raised the complaints of Christian groups that they had difficulty importing bibles, Aissa said that Algerian law prevented the importation of all religious materials, but that it also provided for exceptions. These procedures, he said, were not limited to Christian materials, as Algeria forbids the importation of Wahhabi and Shi'a literature, as well, viewing them as destabilizing. The MoRA was charged with providing customs approval for the importation of quantities of religious materials "consistent with the actual population" of that denomination, Aissa said. Without naming the requestor, he said that the last request to import Bibles came in December 2007 and was approved. (Note: Sources in the Christian community have told us that they have not been able to import Bibles since ¶2005. End note.) GOA DIAGNOSIS AND SUGGESTED CURE -------------- -------------- ¶8. (C) According to Aissa, the core of the current problem was a lack of transparency and effective communication on the part of the Algerian government bureaucracy. He said that Religious Affairs Minister Ghoulamallah is considering inviting representatives of various Christian churches to meet, in an effort to bridge the gap between them and the MoI. Aissa said that Ghoulamallah is also considering proposing a consolidation of legal texts to cover all religions in Algeria, in contrast to the present situation, where Muslim organizations are covered by the 2001 Penal Code while non-Muslim religious conduct is covered by Ordinance 06-03. Aissa and his colleagues were surprised to learn that we had never been able to meet with MoI officials, and offered to reach out to the MoI Director-General for Freedoms to help us obtain a meeting, in the context of providing information for the annual International Religious Freedom Report. ¶9. (C) COMMENT: Our MFA and MoRA contacts made it clear that Algeria did not want the current furor over religious freedom to worsen, saying there was no intent whatsoever to restrict Christian religious activity in Algeria. The MoRA, in particular, agreed it needs to reach out to Christian groups in an effort to provide greater transparency and information that would help groups negotiate the Algerian government bureaucracy. Both the MFA and MoRA stated they would transmit our demarche to the Interior Ministry as well, which by all indications is where much of the current difficulties reside. Our most recent request to meet with the MoI was sent in March. Of course, it is entirely likely that even if the Interior Ministry in Algiers approves a church community application, either MoRA officials or local Interior Ministry employees would raise new obstacles. The background rhetoric from the Minister of Religious Affairs about Christian communities representing a wedge for foreign-state interests is not encouraging, for example. Nonetheless, as we break this problem down into actionable pieces, the next step is to get the Ministry of Interior to start acting on applications - and that won't be easy. FORD