A highly repressive Presidential Order outlining the conditions and rules for “the exercise of religious worship other than Muslim” came into force on 1 March 2006. It is surely no coincidence that the Order appeared within days of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation. Approved by the government in February 2006, the Charter paved the way for some 10,000 condemned Islamists to be amnestied and released from prison. http://elizabethkendal.blogspot.com/2006/03/algeria-severe-new-penalties-for.html Considering this context, Presidential Order 06-03 was doubtless a concession to hard-line Islamists.
Targeting Algeria’s growing Protestant Christian Church (community), Presidential Order 06-03 mandates that all non-Muslim places of worship be registered with the government (something no church has ever achieved); and criminalises any religious activity that could be deem “proselytism”.
Presidential Order 06-03 has brought nothing but grief to Algeria’s peaceful Christians – in particular evangelical Protestants – across Algeria. Christians have been imprisoned and numerous churches have been forced shut. The situation is especially severe in Kabyle region, where a revival of Berber culture and identity (which is neither Arab nor Islamic) has opened the door for many Kabyle people to embrace Christianity.
Though constitutional amendments in February 2016 brought hope, https://www.sat7uk.org/religious-freedom-amendment-welcomed-in-algeria/ repression – in particular church closures – escalated from 2017 through 2019 as the government sought to bolster its Islamic credentials ahead of elections, in the face of massive and enduring anti-regime protests. http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/2019/12/rlpb-531-advent-in-algeria-persecution.html
The primary hope of Algerian Christians is that Presidential Order 06-03 will be repealed and religious freedom will come to respected as a fundamental human right.
