Worship At Your Own Risk: Christianity Under Pressure Across The Muslim World

For millions of Christians, Sunday worship begins with a question most Americans have never had to ask: What could happen to me if someone discovers I am here?

Will the police come? Will the church be closed? Will my Bible be confiscated? Could I lose my job, be rejected by my family, be accused of blasphemy, or find myself sitting in a prison cell because I chose to follow Jesus Christ?

Across parts of the Muslim world, these are not hypothetical questions.

Christianity continues to survive — and in some places grow — under governments and societies where abandoning Islam, evangelizing Muslims, operating an unapproved church or publicly expressing Christian beliefs can bring consequences ranging from harassment and surveillance to arrest, imprisonment and violence.

The methods differ from country to country. Some governments use licensing laws and bureaucratic restrictions to squeeze churches out of existence. Others target converts and underground congregations as threats to the state. Elsewhere, blasphemy laws create an environment in which an accusation involving Islam can place a Christian’s freedom — and potentially life — in jeopardy.

Three recent cases illustrate the different faces of this pressure.

In Algeria, police raided a Christian worship gathering and seized Bibles and Christian literature.

In Iran, an intensified crackdown has swept Christians associated with underground churches into arrests and imprisonment, while one Christian ministry reports that dozens of its ministers have been killed.

And in Pakistan, Christians continue to face blasphemy prosecutions under laws carrying the possibility of a death sentence.

Three countries. Three different systems. One recurring reality: openly following Christ can come with a price.

And sometimes all it takes to discover that price is gathering together to worship.

Algeria: When A Worship Service Becomes A Police Matter

Twelve Christians gathered quietly for worship in an apartment connected to a humanitarian shelter in Algeria on September 4.

Then the special forces arrived.

Police raided the gathering at the House of Refuge in L’Ayaida, about 22 miles east of Oran. All 12 Christians present were detained. Christian literature was seized along with mobile phones and identity cards. The women were eventually released, while some of the men reportedly remained in custody until around 3 a.m.

Their alleged offense was not violence, extremism or plotting against the government.

They had gathered for Christian worship.

Christians fear the group could be prosecuted under Algeria’s Ordinance 06-03, the 2006 law governing non-Muslim worship. Among other provisions, the law restricts collective non-Muslim worship to approved locations and criminalizes certain attempts to persuade Muslims to embrace another religion.

Penalties for some violations can include years in prison.

The September raid also didn’t occur in isolation.

Open Doors reports that nearly all 47 churches associated with the Protestant Church of Algeria have received closure orders or have been sealed. More than 50 Christians have reportedly faced prosecution connected to their faith in recent years.

That creates an extraordinary dilemma: Christians are told they must worship within approved structures while churches themselves have been systematically closed.

The result is exactly what happened in L’Ayaida.

A small gathering of believers inside an apartment became a matter for police surveillance, detention and confiscated Christian literature.

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