Two years after Algeria enacted a troubling religious law, Christians in the North African nation are facing an unprecedented clampdown, with churches being closed, suspected missionaries put on trial, and Muslim figures warning of devious plans to lure Algerians away from Islam.

The 2006 law, known as Ordinance 06-03, outlaws anything that “incites, constrains, or utilizes means of seduction” to influence a Muslim to convert to another religion. It also bans the publication, distribution or storing of printed material that has the goal of “shaking the faith” of a Muslim. Punishments include imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to one million dinars ($15,900).

The law also requires all churches or other structures for religious worship to register with a special commission. Organizers of any non-Muslim religious meeting must to seek permission from the regional wali (governor) five days in advance, providing information on the meeting’s purpose, venue and expected number of attendees.

Critics in the U.S. and Europe called the law a step backward for religious freedom, saying sections were vaguely worded and that it could among other things outlaw Bible studies and meetings in homes — or even possession of a Bible.

Enforcement appeared slow at first, and the State Department’s most recent report on global religious freedom said there were no reported instances of Ordinance 06-03’s implementation in the period up to mid-2007.

But since late last year, that has changed, with a campaign targeting Christians picking up steam in recent months.

Religious freedom advocates say churches that have tried to register with the commission since it was finally set up last August have been stonewalled, with government departments declining to accept registration letters or giving conflicting instructions. At the same time, authorities have begun clamping down on unregistered religious activities.

According to Barnabas Fund, an organization focusing on Christians living in Islamic societies, at least 25 of the country’s some 150 Protestant churches that have been operating officially for many years have been ordered closed, most of them since March (Other organizations put the total number of Protestant churches at only around 50).

Aside from the church closures, it said, a number of Christians have been arrested, fired from their jobs, or accused of offenses including proselytizing, possession of Bibles, practicing a non-Muslim religion without permission, and distributing material to undermine Muslims’ faith.

Some foreign pastors, including a 74-year-old American citizen who had lived in Algeria for 45 years, have been expelled, and foreign Christian students harassed.

Gov’t denies discrimination

Barnabas Fund says Algerian Christians are urging fellow believers around the world to support them in prayer and by writing to Algerian diplomatic missions.

Open Doors has also launched a worldwide advocacy campaign, and is asking supporters to contact their local Algerian Embassy.

“We need to tell the Algerian government that these church closures must stop, and that freedom for all religions must be respected,” Open Doors USA advocacy program manager Lindsay Vessey said Wednesday.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide said earlier its initial reservations about the 2006 ordinance had proven to be justified. It called on the international community to urge Algeria to repeal the law, which it said “contravenes international human right standards.”

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s government denies that the 2006 ordinance is discriminatory, noting that the practice of Islam is also regulated.

“Religious associations must register with the authorities in order to be recognized and to exercise their beliefs in a context of transparency,” the government said in a report to the U.N. human rights watchdog last month.

“The criminalization of religious activities applies to persons who, lacking the necessary capacity or authorization, seek to persuade citizens to renounce their religion, in most cases by coercion or blackmail,” the government said. “This provision applies to all religions, including the majority religion in Algeria, namely Islam.”

Foreigners, Jews blamed

The Algerian newspaper El-Khabar reported last March that an official report on Protestant activity, submitted to the Home Affairs Ministry, called for concerted efforts to counter a “fierce attack” by missionaries targeting the unity and religion of the Algerian people.

The vast majority of Algeria’s 33 million people are Sunni Muslims, but the number of indigenous Christians is growing, thanks in part to the reach of Christian satellite television and radio.

Barnabas Fund estimates that there are around 30,000 mostly Protestant evangelical Christians in Algeria today, up from several hundred in the early 1980s.

Many of the Christians are in Algeria’s north-eastern Kabylie region, home to ethnic minority Berbers. Most of the churches shut down in recent months are in Tizi Ouzou, a city in the Kabylie region.

Tizi Ouzou is the focus of much of the negative attention on Christians in recent months.

Algerian media have reported on a security services clampdown on campuses in the city and elsewhere, where they claim foreign students are proselytizing.

Christians are accused of adopting various means to lure Muslims to convert, including offers of money, gifts and “the use of African Christian girls to attract male students,” according to reports in the national daily Echorouk newspaper.

“We guarantee free religious practices for everyone, but we do not accept the evangelization of our sons,” the paper quoted the head of the Algerian Muslim Scholars Association, Abdurrahman Chibane, as saying.

The president of a body called the Scientific Council on Religious Affairs, Said Bouziri - who teaches as Tizi Ouzou university - told a seminar last month that various scientific institutions have been assigned to investigate evangelization and “internal and external networks behind it,” Echorouk reported.

He said those involved in spreading Christianity in Algeria came not only from the former colonial power, France, but also from other countries including the United States, Netherlands and Egypt.

Bouziri also charged that the missionaries were working in collaboration with “Jewish groups in Algeria” to encourage people to abandon Islam (According to the State Department, the already shrunken Jewish community in Algeria diminished after terrorist threats in 1994 to “virtual nonexistence” and the last synagogue was abandoned. The World Jewish Congress puts the size of the community at 50.)

Algeria’s relationship with the U.S. has strengthened since Bouteflika in July 2001 became the country’s first president to visit the White House since 1985. The State Department says Algeria has been “strongly supportive of the international war against terrorism” launched after 9/11.

Algeria is now the United States’ third-largest market in the North Africa/Middle East region, while U.S. imports from Algeria grew from $4.7 billion in 2002 to $10.8 billion in 2005.

In a statement read at the inauguration of a new U.S. Embassy in Algiers last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Algeria “a recognized leader in North Africa and beyond,” saying its economy had made great strides and its society was “becoming ever more open.”