Oppressed Christians in Algeria go underground

By Morning Star News Aug 4, 2026

 

Sealing of Tafath church in Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria on Oct. 16, 2019. Morning-Star News

Following Algeria’s closure of nearly all evangelical churches in waves of repression that began in 2017, Christians have been forced underground in what they describe as an internal exile, sources said.

Christians in the 99-percent Muslim country gather discreetly in homes, garages or under olive trees, isolating many who are deprived of regular spiritual guidance. Some turn to the internet and social media, where heresies proliferate, thus fostering internal divisions, the spread of false teaching and the rise of conflicts.

Despite such challenges, some Christians express gratitude to God, viewing this period as a spiritual cleansing to build stronger and more mature churches.

“Believers maintain fraternal bonds within small family groups,” said one Christian community leader. “We celebrate Holy Communion and baptisms privately, and dedicate significant resources to charitable aid, in accordance with biblical commandments.”

One church leader continues to serve by visiting families in various villages to offer moral and spiritual support. Like all pastors mentioned in this story, his name cannot be published for security reasons.

“The situation is undeniably difficult because we are deprived of fellowship,” he said. “But God’s work must not stop. We desperately lack Bibles and Christian books, as customs officials systematically confiscate them even when friends bring them from the West.”

Along with blocked book imports, police searches and confiscated equipment, Christians have increasingly been shut out of regular fellowship since authorities effectively left the evangelical umbrella group, the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA), without legal status. When the EPA re-applied for legal status in August 2014 and July 2015 following implementation of the 2012 Law on Associations No. 12-06, authorities withheld mandatory registration receipts, leaving the umbrella group in a legal limbo that provided the pretext for forced closures of most affiliated churches from 2017 to 2019.

Since Law 12-06 blocks the official registration of the EPA, security forces have sealed shut 46 of the group’s affiliated 47 churches, leaving only a church headquarters in Algiers operational thanks to the presence there of some foreigners and diplomats.

Iranian Pastor Reveals What's Happening to Underground Church Amid Iran War

Catherine Fitts: Power Grids, Bankers vs. the West, Secret Underground B...

KTFLive: Establishing the Underground Church, Part 7

UNDERGROUND CHRISTIANS: China's Fight for Faith

SPECIAL REPORT: Bodega ‘Pharmacies’ a Risky Business, Experts Warn

Posted by admin

The Mexican contraception Perlutal is one of the medications available without prescription in a bodega in El Barrio.
For Mariela Suarez, a 36-year-old Mexican woman, the bodega near her home is her pharmacy.

Last week Suarez went to a store on 110th Street in Harlem’s El Barrio neighborhood for an injection of the birth control medication she has been using for several months.

For $23, Suarez bought Perlutal, a medicine made in Mexico which is not approved for sale in the United States. For $5, Luisa (not her real name), a Mexican woman who runs the store, injected her with an ampule’s worth of the drug in the back of the store where fruit and other merchandise is stored.

The bodega, a store of less than 350 square feet which carries products ranging from flowers to fruits and vegetables, also sells and injects other medicines without prescription. These include Pentrexyl, an injectible antibiotic, for $24, or in pill form for $1.75 each.

Luisa sounds like an expert pharmacist.

“This is good for everything,” she explained in a friendly way when she is asked about a medicine for a sore throat. “It cures infections of the ear, the stomach and the throat,” she adds.

The medicines are not on public display. But the sale of un-prescribed medicines is an open secret. Clients arrive, explain their symptoms in Spanish, and the sales clerk responds by listing the medicines the store carries to cure them.

Some of the medicines, spread out on a counter in front of the buyer, have no seal of guarantee, nor any expiration date; others are about to expire.

“It’s very cheap, and it’s good,” Suarez said of Perlutal. “I haven’t got the money to go to a doctor, much less to buy expensive contraceptives in a pharmacy. I’ve got to use what I can get.”

Marilyn Aguirre-Molina, a professor at Lehman College and a specialist in health issues affecting Latinos, explained that the sale of illegal medications is neither a new phenomenon nor confined to the community of El Barrio, but rather a common practice in the city’s immigrant neighborhoods.

“The Latino community is experiencing a health crisis,” said Marilyn Aguirre-Molina. “The purchase of medications without a prescription has become a necessity for immigrants who have no insurance.”

Besides the risks of taking medicines without medical supervision, the use of medications for purposes other than those intended is also becoming more and more common, warned Aguirre-Molina.

Out of control

On a second visit to the store in El Barrio, Aguirre-Molina’s warning was apt.

Perlutal, according to Hispanic women of the area, is very well known among young women and transsexuals, not only for its ability to prevent conception, but also as a hormonal stimulant which enlarges breasts and hips.

Tatiana (not her real name), a Peruvian woman of 21 who grew up and still lives in El Barrio, confirmed that the medicine is popular among her friends.

“I don’t use it,” she said. “But women I know well do use it to make their breasts grow bigger. Although I don’t know if it really works.”

Aguirre-Molina, the CUNY professor, said that hormonal contraceptives can lead to weight gain in some patients, but not in specific areas like buttocks and breasts. She also warned that hormonal contraceptives are not recommended for adolescents, since they can have a damaging effect on their development.

Gloria Sanchez-Contreras, a spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration, said that Perlutal is not approved for sale and distribution in the United States. The spokeswoman also warned of the health risks of consuming medications of unknown origin and doubtful purity. She pointed out that imported medicines can lack the information which would allow for a patient’s rapid treatment in case of side-effects.

The New York State Attorney General’s Office would not comment on whether investigations into the sale of illegal medicines in the city are underway.

Source

Anonymous: How YOU Can Be A Part Of FACEBOOK ATTACK

Uploaded by AnonymousVoice777 on Jan 23, 2012
January 28th, 2012 (12 AM MIDNIGHT EASTERN STANDARD TIME UNITED STATES!!!)

DOWNLOAD LOW ORBIT ION CANNON http://sourceforge.net/projects/loic/

OR HIGH ORBIT ION CANNONhttp://rapidshare.com/files/436018600/Hoic2.1.zip


TO browse anonymously go to https://www.torproject.org/download/download.html.en this will change your IP

Hello. People of the world. We are anonymous. The time has come. An online War has begun between anonymous, the people, and the government of the united states. While SOPA and PIPA may be postponed from congress, this does not guarantee that our internet rights will be upheld. For those unaware, there is still ACTA or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. You. The public. I have a proposal. Would you like to become part of the greatest internet protest and first official cyber war? Anonymous is in the hands of us all. It is time to take action. Operation global blackout is ongoing and everyone can be a part of it. In the description I have provided everything you will need. Our first target... Facebook... While it is true that facebook has at least 60,000 servers... It is still possible to bring it down... Anonymous needs the help of the people... The people who want to take a stand against the government... The people who want to make a difference... This is what we must do... But first... you must ask yourself, are you truly apart of the anonymous consciousness? Do you fully grasp our ideas and understand what we are. If you do... Then one thing is clear... Together... We the people... We anonymous... Can make a change... We've already crashed CBS... Warner Brothers... And FBI sites... Facebook is our next aim... This will be enough to show them indeed that we are not, playing. Now I will give some general instructions on what to do in order to help crash facebook... First... you will need to download the L-O-I-C or, Low Orbit Ion Cannon from the link provided in the description... Once downloaded... Open the program and type in the URL space http://www.facebook.com/ and hit lock on... It will tell you facebooks ip address. Because there are different servers, there will be more than one ip address that will pop up on different instances, but they will all be similar. Next you will go to the box that says attack options. Change the threads to 1000. Then you will hit the button that says IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER... tHIS WILL NOT WORK if everyone does it at random times... This is why... I would like to conduct this operation at exactly 12 A M on January 28th 2012. A five day preparation... That way... We will have a stronger army built up to fight for our rights... Do not fear... There is no way you can get caught... Hundreds of thousands of us citizens and those of the anonymous idea will all be participating... They cannot take down that large of a group... This is your chance... Our chance... The fate of the internet... Rests in your hands... In owr, hands... Government Of The United States... Leaders of the new world order... You have been warned... Operation Global Blackout Part 2, Facebook. Engaged... We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. They should of Expected us...

YOU CAN CHANGE THE THREADS TO 1000 or 10,000 or more!
.

Chinese Christians Rally Around Underground Church

By ANDREW JACOBS

Published: May 12, 2011

BEIJING — More than a dozen Christian leaders in China have thrown their support behind an embattled underground church, calling for the government to end its persecution and for broader religious freedoms as well.


The New York Times
In early April, members of the Shouwang church gathered for prayer in office space in Beijing.


Their petition, a rare public gesture for religious figures, who are often wary of wading into politics, raises the stakes in a standoff that has drawn concern from Christian groups outside China and prompted a separate petition campaign in the United States and Canada.

Nineteen pastors signed the petition, delivered Wednesday to the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, and posted on the Internet. It calls for legal protections for so-called house churches, which operate illicitly outside the government-run religious system.

The petition also calls on the legislature to investigate the crackdown on one such church, Shouwang, an evangelical Protestant congregation whose leaders have been under house arrest for more than a month.

The church and its 1,000 members became homeless in early April after the landlord, under pressure from the authorities, canceled its lease. Since then, the parishioners have tried to pray outdoors each Sunday, prompting a predictable cat-and-mouse game with the police, who prevent some members from leaving their homes and round up those who manage to reach the predetermined place of worship.

Carsten Vala, an expert on Chinese Christianity at Loyola University Maryland, said the petition ratcheted up pressure on the ruling Communist Party at a time when it was increasingly nervous about perceived challenges to its authority. “This shows there is national attention to what’s happening to Shouwang and that there is connection among urban house churches across the country,” he said.

The petition blames an “outdated system of religion management” for a crisis that is stirring up the tens of millions of Chinese believers who have come to place more faith in Christianity than in the atheist Communist Party. It also suggests that such policies will invariably lead to more social strife, the very thing Chinese leaders are so eager to avoid.

“We hope that by setting up a special investigation commission, the government will be able to handle the Shouwang incident in a rational and wise manner on basis of the principles of ‘putting people first and ruling the country by law’ and in the gracious spirit of serving the citizens, so as to avoid the escalation of the conflict between state and church,” the petition says, quoting a common slogan of the current leadership.

The document was written by Xie Moshan and Li Tianen, patriarchs of the house church movement, who have each spent more than a decade in Chinese prisons.

The persecution of Shouwang and a number of other unregistered churches coincides with a wider clampdown in China, fueled by unrest in the Arab world, which has led to the detention of scores of dissidents, rights lawyers and other perceived critics.

Like many unofficial churches, Shouwang started out in a private home, but in recent years it has become one of the capital’s largest and most affluent congregations. In 2009, after a previous eviction forced the church to worship in a park, parishioners donated more than $4 million to purchase a space of their own. But despite having a deed in hand, the church has not been permitted by the government to occupy the space, a conflict that led to the current crisis.

At a regular news conference on Thursday, Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, defended the campaign against Shouwang, saying that congregants had tried repeatedly to “gather illegally in the streets,” according to Reuters.

“To maintain public order and security, the public security departments have taken the appropriate measures,” she said.
.
Source
.