Rabat – The US has added Algeria to its “Special Watch List” on religious freedom violations, placing the North African state among countries deemed to discourage or repress freedom of conscience.
Countries on the Special Watch List are deemed to engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom.
US State Secretary Antony Blinken added Algeria to the list on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the 2020 Freedom of Religion report on Algeria listed several violations.
The report cited a letter signed by an international group to denounce freedom of religion violations in Algeria, including the closure of numerous churches.
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“According to the letter, the government closed 13 churches and ordered seven more to close since 2018 because they lacked the required permit to hold non-Islamic worship services,” the report said.
The letter, according to the report, emphasized that the National Committee for Non-Muslim Religious Worship, which is responsible for issuing permits, “had not issued a single permit to EPA-affiliated [the Protestant Church of Algeria] churches”
In addition to Algeria, several countries were added to the special watch list, including: Comoros, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
Secretary Blinken also added some terrorist organizations to the report’s list of “Entities of Particular Concern.” These include ISIS-West Africa, Boko Haram, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS in the Greater Sahara, among others.
Meanwhile, the US designated Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Burma, Eritrea, Ira, Pakistan, among others, as “Countries of Particular Concern” for tolerating “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”
Blinken stated, “The challenges to religious freedom in the world today are structural, systemic, and deeply entrenched.”
Conceding that such violations exist in every country, Blinken added that confronting these challenges requires “sustained global commitment from all who are unwilling to accept hatred, intolerance, and persecution as the status quo.”
He also emphasized the need for countries to engage in urgent international action by shouldering their shared responsibility to address challenges of freedom of religion and violations across the world.
“The United States remains committed to working with governments, civil society organizations, and members of religious communities to advance religious freedom around the world and address the plight of individuals and communities facing abuse, harassment, and discrimination on account of what they believe, or what they do not believe,” Secretary Blinken concluded.
