Algerian pastor convicted of “illegal worship” shares his story, advocates for re-opening churches

  • Christian convert and pastor Youssef Ourahmane shared the story of his arrest, conviction, and court appeals for “illegal worship” this week in Washington, DC, and called for the re-opening of evangelical churches in Algeria.   
  • An Algerian appeals court earlier this year upheld Pastor Youssef’s conviction and prison sentence for the so-called crime of “illegal worship” for leading his church.    
  • ADF International is advocating for his acquittal, supporting the legal defence of the persecuted across the globe.  

WASHINGTON, DC (18 October 2024) Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, a Christian convert and pastor in the Protestant Church of Algeria, has been sentenced to heavy fines and a prison sentence for the so-called crime of “illegal worship” for leading his church.  

This week, Pastor Youssef was in Washington, D.C. to share his story and advocate for religious freedom and the re-opening of evangelical churches forcefully closed in Algeria. In an event hosted by ADF International in Washington, D.C., Pastor Youssef appealed to the audience, saying “We have had a lot of opposition… by 2019 most of the Evangelical churches in our country had been shut down. When the churches were closed, a lot of the Christians felt that something was gone in their Christian faith because the building had been part of their identity.” 

When asked about why he is willing to go to prison for his faith, Pastor Youssef responded “God knows the number of my hairs on my head, and none fall without His will.” He continued, saying “We have to accept God’s will, and God’s sovereignty… I try by my best, by His grace, to be a good testimony to others.”  

In May 2024, the Court of Appeal in Tizi Ouzou, Algeria upheld the conviction of “illegal worship” against Pastor Youssef for leading the Emmanuel Church in Algeria. This was his second appeal in the case.  

Pastor Youssef, who was born into a Muslim home but converted as a student to Christianity, was sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars on 2 July 2023 for his involvement as the leader of his church, although authorities could provide no evidence of a crime. In November 2023, his prison sentence was reduced from 2 years to 1 year. Upholding his conviction in May of this year, the court added an additional 6 months of suspended prison time to his sentence of 1 year imprisonment and fines of 100,000 Algerian dinars.   

Also speaking at the event, Kelsey Zorzi, Director of Advocacy for Global Religious Freedom for ADF International, said “Despite their small numbers, Algeria has systematically been working to prevent the Evangelical community from being able to simply worship together…. Pastor Youssef’s case is one of roughly 50 spurious cases against Christians in the past few years…. His advocacy throughout the years on behalf of the entire evangelical church in Algeria, even in the face of potential imprisonment, is an inspiration.” 

Zorzi continued, saying “We stand with the persecuted Christians around the world, and especially those who are under such dire threat as the Evangelical community in Algeria. The United States and the international community must take a strong stand against the unlawful church closures and unjustified arrests and imprisonments of pastors.” 

ADF International is coordinating with other NGOs to support Pastor Youssef and his right to worship freely with international advocacy and to raise his case with government officials from over 40 countries.   

Video: remarks from Kelsey Zorzi

Background 

Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, who has been leading Christian congregations in Algeria for over 30 years, appealed his conviction for illegal worshipping in his church on 26th March 2024, the date of his 36th wedding anniversary.   

Pastor Youssef is one of the leading figures in the Èglise Protestante d’Algérie (EPA), the Evangelical Protestant group whose 43 churches have been forcibly closed by the Authorities since 2019, leaving only one with its churches open today. Over the past five years, security police in Algeria, with orders from the Ministry of Interior, systematically alleged that the denominations’ church buildings were in violation of various “health and safety” codes. These alleged building code violations, they claimed, justified putting locks over the doors and declaring worship inside the buildings to be illegal. In one case, they physically beat a Pastor in front of his young child because he was peacefully protesting the closure of his church.   

Pastor Youssef has faced baseless criminal prosecutions for his peaceful Christian activities since 2008. He is only the latest person out of 50 Christians to have been convicted by the Courts over the past few years, under the vague offenses of “shaking the faith” of Muslims, illegal worship, or embezzling of tithing donations. The convictions are thought to be a reaction to the large numbers of local Christian converts in the country. “In the 1970s”, Pastor Youssef said at the event, “the government gave out licenses to churches which were largely full of expats. Today, the government is concerned that our churches are almost entirely filled with large numbers of Algerian converts”.   

On 27 March 2024, a different Pastor and four Elders from the church also appealed their three-year prison sentences and fines of 200,000 Algerian dinars. 

Pictured: Pastor Youssef’s church in Algeria

Religious persecution in Algeria 

Algeria is home to nearly 43 million people, with 99% of the population identifying as Sunni Muslim. Christians fall into the 1% of religious minorities. Islam is the official state religion, but Algeria’s constitution recognizes the right of all to worship and speak freely. The Algerian government limits religious freedom and expression through the enforcement of laws, including egregious blasphemy and anti-proselytism laws, which intentionally target and violate the religious freedom rights of Christians and other religious minorities.    

Algeria’s penal and information codes criminalize blasphemy, with punishments including imprisonment for up to five years and fines. The Criminal Code also censors publications by prohibiting content that is “contrary to Islamic morals”. In particular, the government has systematically cracked down on the Evangelical Protestant Church through church closures and raids.   

Violations of the rights of religious minorities are in violation of both international and domestic law. Algeria is a signatory to major human rights treaties, committing it to upholding the rights to freedom of religion and expression.    

Governments and the international community have highlighted the ongoing plight of religious minorities in Algeria. The U.S. Department of State has placed Algeria on its “Special Watch List” since 2021 for its severe violations of religious freedom, and USCIRF advised in its 2024 Annual Report that the country be once again included on the State Department’s “Special Watch List”. In 2021, several U.S. Senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on him to address the increased persecution of religious minorities in Algeria.   

In addition to Pastor Youssef, ADF International also advocated for the release of Hamid Soudad, a Christian-convert in the Evangelical Church of Algeria, who was finally released from prison following a five-year ordeal. In January 2021, Soudad was arrested, convicted, and sentenced in an expedited trial to five years in prison for allegedly insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad in 2018. He was finally released from prison in 2023 following advocacy from religious freedom leaders from across the globe, including ADF International.    

Pictured: Pastor Youssef

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Collegiate and Olympic athletes, global human rights leaders call on UN to protect safety and fairness for women in sports

Save girls' sports
  • Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, U.S. collegiate athlete Lainey Armistead, Alliance Defending Freedom CEO Kristen Waggoner and global leaders appeal to UN to keep women’s sports fair and female-only. 
  • ADF International convenes UN event alongside Paraguay, Cameroon, Morocco and Malaysia to advocate for human rights of female athletes across the globe.  
Save girls' sports

NEW YORK CITY (17 October 2024): At United Nations Headquarters in New York City yesterday, female athletes and international leaders called on the international community to preserve and protect fairness and safety in sports for women and girls.  

Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, U.S. collegiate athlete Lainey Armistead, and ADF CEO Kristen Waggoner, UN Rapporteur Reem Alsalem, were among those that addressed government and UN officials during an event convened by ADF International as part of the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, 16 October.  

In her address, Armistead, a former West Virginia collegiate athlete represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, shared: “West Virginia has a law that ensures that only biological women can compete in women’s sports. Yet during my time as WVSU, I began to hear stories of women getting sidelined – and even getting hurt – while competing against males in women’s sports. In just the last three years, the one male athlete who has been allowed to compete against girls in West Virginia has already displaced nearly 300 girls. And that’s just one athlete.” Armistead’s lawsuit to defend West Virginia’s protections for women in sports has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.  

Armistead continued, saying “I’m here today because we’ve all seen what happens when males are allowed to compete on women’s teams… it’s demoralizing and unfair, and just plain wrong.”  

“Females are at a physical disadvantage. This doesn’t mean that we’re worse or better, it just means that we’re biologically different,” said Davies, who competed as a swimmer at three different Olympic games and addressed the gathering virtually. “I don’t know a single person that wants to exclude anybody. However, we do want to see women have fair and safe sport. And we cannot wait until a woman is seriously injured or worse still, killed, to be able to deal with the science and the obvious and the common sense.”  

Video: Sharron Davies’ virtual remarks

The U.S. and International playing field 

Kristen Waggoner, CEO, president, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom and ADF International, joined the athletes on the panel, testifying to the work being done by the organizations to protect women’s sports: “International law has long recognized equality and non-discrimination – including on the basis of sex – as a fundamental pillar of human rights. Unfortunately, many countries have fallen short of their human rights obligations toward women and girls in sports. We’ve learned the hard way that if female sports aren’t protected, it does grave harm to women and girls.”  

Waggoner continued, saying “Our hope at ADF is that the international community will turn its attention to this critical issue – ensuring women and girls can pursue sporting opportunities should they desire AND protecting female athletes from harm and indignity. Our plea to the world is to learn from the mistakes that have been made – and that are now being corrected – so that your daughters can walk into a future of fair and safe sports.” 

In addition to advocacy in the international community by ADF International, Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Lainey Armistead and other female athletes who are looking to protect women and girls from having to compete against males. The Alliance Defending Freedom is also challenging the Biden-Harris Administration’s rewrite of Title IX protections for women and girls.  

Pictured: Lainey Armistead & Kristen Waggoner

Global protections for women and girls 

Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, joined the calls to protect female-only sports at the event, remarking that,“Women and girls in sport are experiencing new forms of discrimination based on their sex. One glaring example is the opening the female category of sports to males, further undermining their access to equal opportunities and the right to participate in safety, dignity and fairness. In fact, I do not hesitate to say that the failure to protect the female category is one of the most egregious forms of violence against women and girls as the essence of being ‘female’ is willfully pushed aside and ignored resulting in distress, pain, humiliation, frustration, and anger at the loss of dignity and sheer injustice confronted.”  

In December 2023, Alsalem publicly warned the Biden Administration that altering the definition of women in “Title IX” would result in “loss of privacy, an increased risk of physical injury, heightened exposure to sexual harassment and voyeurism, as well as a more frequent and accumulated psychological distress due to the loss of privacy and fair and equal sporting and academic opportunities.”    

Giorgio Mazzoli, Director of UN Advocacy for ADF International, said: 

“Female sports and spaces belong to women and girls. Under international law, States have an obligation to prohibit and prevent discrimination on the basis of sex. The voices of women and girls whose achievements have been directly affected by male participation in female sports categories can no longer be ignored. It is past time for States and sports bodies across the globe to follow the science and uphold safety and fairness in female sports.” 

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𝕏 back online in Brazil after a 39-day blockade

  • Justice Alexandre De Moraes lifts ban on social media platform following conclusion of national elections
  • Brazilians prevented from engaging in online conversations during election period
  • ADF International, who have filed petition before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, highlight a “breach of human rights”

Brasília (8 October 2024) – After a 39-day blockade, social media platform “𝕏” is back online in Brazil.

Justice Alexandre De Moraes, who controversially banned the platform in August, has lifted the blockade following the conclusion of national elections.

The stated objection of the ban was to prevent “misinformation” and “hate speech” ahead of the election. Free speech advocates at ADF International described the censorship of Brazilians as “a breach of human rights”.

ADF International has filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in relation to the social media ban, representing five Brazilian legislators who were obstructed from communicating with their audience of millions ahead of a national election.

The legislators – Senator Eduardo Girao & Members of the Chamber of Deputies Marcel Van Hattem, Adriana Ventura, Gilson Marques & Ricardo Salles – claim severe violations of their free speech rights from persistent state censorship, dating back to 2019, reaching a head with the 𝕏 ban.

In September, over 100 global free speech advocates – including UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, journalist Michael Shellenberger, five US Attorneys General and Senior UK, US, European and Latin American politicians and professors united in an open letter to call for free speech to be restored in Brazil.

Reacting to the end of the 39-day blockade, Tomas Henriquez, ADF International's Director of Advocacy for Latin America said:

“That people can freely exchange ideas is a good thing. In that sense, that X is back online in Brazil is good, though let’s not forget that de Moraes’s demands were and remain unlawful.

“De Moraes is only now agreeing to lift the blockade, after the elections are over. Censorship has been a persistent and escalating problem in Brazil since 2019. We will continue to make the case that the actions of De Moraes and the greater climate of censorship are unacceptable, until the day that freedom of expression and information are once again secured for all in Brazil.”

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PICTURED: Tomas Henriquez, ADF International’s Director of Advocacy, Latin America