The modern nations of Algeria and Tunisia are both in an area that was once a renowned center of Orthodox Christianity. The holy martyr St. Cyprian of Carthage, Blessed Augustine of Hippo, and many other saints hailed from North Africa. Today Christianity, albeit not yet Holy Orthodoxy, is returning to North Africa, but faces immense obstacles from both the government and many ordinary citizens, as the difficulties Slimane Bouhafs has encountered in both Algeria and Tunisia indicate.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Algeria, see here. For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Tunisia, see here.
“MBB” stands for “Muslim Background Believer.”
“Kidnapped Algerian Refugee Given Prison Sentence,” International Christian Concern, December 20, 2022:
12/20/2022 Algeria (International Christian Concern) – In August of 2021 Algerian Slimane Bouhaf’s was kidnapped from Tunisia by the secret police. He was brought back to Algeria where he was imprisoned for his religious beliefs and political connections. He was charged with belonging to and procuring foreign funds for a “terrorist organization” and “undermining national unity.”
He was previously sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison for “insulting Islam, after converting from Islam to Christianity. Even though he was given Refugee status in 2020 by the UN with the support of a Tunisian Rights Group, he was still kidnapped under mysterious circumstances…. He is now sentenced to three years in Prison without Parole and given a fine of 100,000 Dinars.
As an MBB, Bouhaf already faces hardships, and with Algeria consisting of mainly Sunni Muslim[s], it looks as though this could have influenced the official’s decision to disregard his refugee status when returning him to Tunisia. Algeria is not a place that welcome Christianity and has long history of imprisoning MBB’s themselves.
