Two Algerian Christians Tried For Breaking Ramadan Fast

Since when should Christians have to follow Muslim religious traditions and vice versa? No-one forces Muslims to partake in Christian or Jewish holidays in non-Muslim majority countries, so why should Christians be forced to participate in Muslim religious holy days? It's ridiculous. But I suppose that's what's expected of the minority Christians in Algeria, since two Christian men were arrested on August 13 for, horror upon horror, eating during Ramadan. Not only were they arrested, they were actually tried for their terrible crime of breaking the fasting rules in spite of the fact that they are NOT Muslim.

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Hocine Hocini and Salem Fellak were arrested on Aug 13 on the building site where they worked in the northern region of Kabylie after they were spotted eating lunch, which they admit to doing but insist happened in a discreet place.

And for their 'criminal' act, they could get up to three months in jail. However they won't find out until October 5. Hocini seems optimistic, and for his sake, I hope he's right.

'We are innocent, and we haven't done any harm to anyone,' he said. 'We are Christians and we have not eaten in a public place,' he said.

Of course, they are innocent, but that doesn't mean the court will agree. They did have their supporters who were demonstrating outside the courthouse, and their lawyer, Mokrane Ait Larbi, claims that since

"Algeria has ratified international conventions on freedom of religion. This is a violation pure and simple of the constitution."

What is criminal is not that these Christians, who have no obligation to observe Ramadan since they are not Muslims, ate some food in private somewhere, but the fact that they were arrested and tried in the first place. Even more ludicrous is that they might spend three months in jail for eating a measly lunch.