ALGIERS, ALGERIA (BosNewsLife)– Supporters of an Algerian pastor and his co-
worker have urged prayers after an appeal hearing against a lengthy prison term related to their Christian work was postponed.
Pastor Rachid Seighir and Nouh Hamimi were sentenced February 27 to two years in prison for “shaking the faith” of Muslims through Christian literature sold in their bookstore.
The ruling followed a reported raid on the Algerian church-run shop in September 2017. An appeal of the case was scheduled Sunday, for April 18, but “it has now been postponed until May 16,” trial observers said.
It was the latest setback for the pastor whose Christian bookstore and congregation faced legal problems for years in the Muslim nation. In 2008, Pastor Rachid was reportedly convicted of similar charges but acquitted on appeal.
In my last article I gave a little background to the crisis in Myanmar, with some specific prayer points. This time I will elaborate on the situation there, and mention two other areas in the world – Ethiopia and Algeria – which also need our prayers.
Myanmar
Many civilians are being killed or injured as a result of their defiance of the military junta. It seems as though reaction to military rule may be uniting people who previously did not seem to care about the fate of ethnic minorities.
Most of Myanmar s nine percent Christian minority hail from the long-persecuted Chin, Kachin and Karen ethnic minorities. For a long time, Kachin and Karen ethnic armies have been protecting protesters and providing sanctuary to Myanmar resistance leaders and elected MPs and facilitating their escape to India (via Chin State) and Thailand (via Karen State).
Persecution, International Christian Concern, February 16, 2021 Democratic Republic of the Congo
A Muslim colonel stole weapons from an armory and then blamed the 12 soldiers on duty for the theft. Six of those 12 soldiers all Christians were then executed on January 25. The Christian Post, February 4, 2021
Nigeria It s not only about these six soldiers.. Nigeria is becoming like Somalia and Rwanda. That was exactly how it started, with the government taking sides and backing the members of a particular ethnic group. That s the situation. Even in the security forces, Christians are being targeted. Emeka Umeagbalasi, a lawyer,
The Christian Post, February 4, 2021
Nigeria Many Nigerians now believe the Army fights for Islam, not Nigeria.. The Army s lack of action to protect Christians comes directly from its leaders in government. When troops go into areas controlled by radical Islamists to defend Nigerian Christians, the government orders them to retreat. Then
Prison sentence for pastor at Christian bookstore in Algeria, already acquitted of same charge
A court in Algeria has convicted and sentenced in absentia a pastor and another Christian to two years in prison and a heavy fine, accusing them of âshaking the faithâ of Muslims with Christian literature at their bookstore, sources said.
Pastor Rachid Seighir and Nouh Hamimi learned by a written notification slipped under the door of their church building in Oran â a coastal city about 430 kilometres west of Algiers â that they had been sentenced to prison and fined 500,000 Algerian dinars (AU$4,899).
The pastor was the manager of the now-closed bookstore, where Hamimi worked as a salesman.
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
ALGIERS, ALGERIA (BosNewsLife)– Algerian Christians have urged prayers for a pastor and his assistant who were jailed and fined for evangelizing in Algeria, an Islamic nation, BosNewsLife learned.
Pastor Rachid Seighir of a church in Oran’s coastal city, and a salesman helping in the book and stationery shop the pastor runs, were sentenced to two years imprisonment, trial observers said.
They were also fined some $3,800 each in local currency during the February 27 court procedure held in absentia, according to Christians familiar with the situation. Both will appeal the sentence, supporters said.