Muslim Country That Pope Leo Praised Raids Christian Prayer Service

The “police seized all Christian literature.”

During Pope Leo’s visit to Algeria, I warned that he was praising an Islamic terror state that used brutal violence to ethnically cleanse its Christian population.

In 1955, Algeria had over 1 million Catholics and 140,000 Jews. Today, as Pope Leo visits Algeria, there are some 8,000 Catholics in Algeria and there are fewer than 200 Jews.

Pope Leo visited Algeria’s so-called Martyrs’ Monument, “Maqam Echahid,” located above the El Mujahid or Jihadi Museum, erected by former Islamic-Socialist terrorist dictator Houari Boumédiène who had headed the ALN, one of whose specialties was the “Smile of Kabylie” in which the tongue was pulled through a slit throat, and which was responsible for the Oran Massacre of Christians and Jews thereby ethnically cleansing a formerly non-Muslim city.

Women and children had their throats cut by Muslim mobs bent on slaughter. 250,000 non-Muslims had lived in Oran. After the massacres, over 200,000 survivors fled.

Praising the Arab Muslim Jihadis who had set out to eliminate Christianity from Algeria, the pontiff declared that “they lost their lives but in doing so, they gave them up for the love of their own people. May their example sustain the people of Algeria and all of us on our journey, for true freedom is not merely inherited, it is chosen anew every day.”

In typical Islamic fashion, Algeria set out to restrict the existence of churches (see the Pact of Omar) while mandating that prayer services only be held in official religious buildings. The Catch 22 here is that Christians can’t pray at home and they can’t open churches.

The result is a quiet but sweeping transformation of Christian life. Prayer meetings now take place in private homes, improvised spaces or outdoors. Some believers gather in what the report describes as “house churches,” while others meet in remote areas, “churches under olive trees.”

Algerian law requires non-Muslim worship to be authorized by the state, but Christians say such approvals are rarely granted.

Under a 2006 ordinance, any religious activity must take place in officially approved buildings, while a 2012 law requires religious associations to register with authorities, a process critics say has been effectively blocked.

Without legal recognition, even small gatherings can be treated as violations.

Pastors and worshippers have faced prosecution for holding services without authorization, while police raids on prayer meetings have led to detentions and interrogations.

And now there’s been a police raid of a Christian service.

Special force police in Algeria raided a worship service at a humanitarian shelter on Sept. 4, arresting all 12 Christians present on suspicion of holding an unauthorized, non-Muslim religious service, sources said.

The House of Refuge shelter in L’Ayaida, 36 kilometers (22 miles) east of Oran, serves as a haven and restoration center for vulnerable women and their families. It housed a worship hall before authorities ordered its administrative closure in October 2019, but Christians have continued to meet for church services in one of the separate apartments on the shelter premises.

The premises have been under surveillance for some time, sources said.

During the operation, police seized all Christian literature, mobile phones and identity cards of those present, said the sources, unidentified for security reasons. The women were released to be questioned the following morning, while the men were held until late at night, some until 3 a.m.

Remember three things…

1. This behavior is completely normative and indeed the Pact of Omar imposed on Christians by the genocidal Muslim conquerors was even worse

2. Muslims in America and Europe cry and wail that they’re the victims of ‘Islamophobia’ when someone gives them a dirty look while this is how they treat Christians in their own countries

3. Western politicians and institutions, secular and religious, enable this behavior in the Muslim world by refusing to push back against it. There are reports issued, but where are the actual statements from presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers, archbishops and popes?