According to Abdel Fattah Zarawi, the Muslim leader of the Salafi party, also known as the Free Front of Algeria, any and all Christian churches remaining in the north African nation must be closed and reopened as mosques.
Although the closure, destruction, or transformation of Christian churches into mosques is nearly as old as Islam itself — Algeria was Christian-majority when Islam invaded and conquered it in the seventh century — the Salafi leader tried to portray his proposal as a “reaction,” or “grievance” against rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe, especially France.
Launched on social media and networks, the Salafi campaign against Algerian churches even calls for the transformation of the nation’s most important churches into mosques — including the Church of Notre Dame d’Afrique in Algiers, the Church of St. Augustine in Annaba, and the Church of Santa Cruz in Oran — since “they have no relation whatsoever to the religion of Algerian Muslims.”
