On December 24, 2006 - Christmas Eve - the Algerian daily El-Shourouq El-Yawmi published an op-ed complaining that Santa Claus, in full holiday regalia, was on the move in the streets of Tizi Ouzo, in the Algerian Berber region of Kabylie. The article described what it called the "Christianization" of the region as "the death arriving from the West." The article comes in the context of an ongoing polemic over the phenomenon of conversion to Christianity in the Kabylie region. In 2004, Minister of Religious Affairs Bouabdellah Ghlamallah denounced Christian proselytizing, warning that it could lead to bloodshed. Several weeks later, in an about-face, he said that proselytizing posed no danger, and that "everyone is free to convert to the religion he finds right for him." [1]
Nonetheless, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has recently made statements to the contrary. On April 17, 2006, the daily L'Expression reported that during a visit to the city of Constantine, Bouteflika had said: "We will not accept our children being turned away from their religion to Christianity under the pretext of democracy," and that "Algerians will not accept another religion aside from Islam." [2] Several months later, the country passed the "Regulation of Religious Practice" law, which stipulates a punishment of two to five years' imprisonment and heavy fines for anyone convicted of urging a Muslim to change his religion. [3]