ALGIERS- Minister of Religious Affairs and Waqfs (Endowment), Mohamed Aissa declared Tuesday in Algiers that “the Algerian State is not willing to fight the members of Ahmadiyya sect,” stressing that they are not prosecuted for practicing a religious cult but for their membership in an unauthorized association and collecting donations without permission.

During a conference organized by the Foreign Ministry’s Institute of Diplomacy and International Relations on the “Freedom of worship in Algeria,” Mohamed Aissa said he had received letters from the representations of the “Islamic Group Ahmadiya” in Great Britain on the alleged restrictions imposed by the Algerian authorities on the members’ activities in Algeria, as well as “reservations” expressed by an embassy about  Algeria labeling this sect as a takfirist group.

The minister said that his answer in the two cases has been that “Algeria is not willing to “fight” Ahmadiyya sect” underlining that the Algerian authorities “refuse to be part of the conflicts caused by some sects.”

Commenting the figures collected by the Ahmadiyya sect representations that 123 members were summoned and 21 others arrested in Algeria, the Minister said that the charges against them did not concern the practice of a religious cult, -which is guaranteed by the Constitution, but “for collecting donations without permission in addition to the membership in an unauthorized association.”

Imams working for the religious affairs ministry ware prosecuted for the same charges, added Aissa.

The religious affairs minister expressed readiness to “meet” with the members of the Ahmadiyya sect, “as part of the laws of the Republic” before excluding “the possibility for this group to negotiate as an… read more at source.