{"id":4596,"date":"2023-08-25T14:38:38","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T14:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/?p=4596"},"modified":"2023-09-15T16:52:56","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T16:52:56","slug":"former-jihadi-now-church-planter-algeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/former-jihadi-now-church-planter-algeria\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Jihadi Turned Church Planter, Evangelist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ali was a jihadi. He had a long beard, wore white clothing and trained to fight alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. As a devout Muslim, he exhorted his mother and two sisters to be more religious, forbidding them to watch TV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Ali\u2019s brothers, however, had become a Christian. \u201cI thought he had left the true religion, and according to Islamic law he deserves to be dead,\u201d Ali said. \u201cI would show him the Quran verses and tell him, \u2018Look, you have to believe. You have to believe back to Islam.\u2019 Every time we would start talking about this, he would tell me that God loves me and would talk about God\u2019s love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n\t

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Ali belonged to an Islamist cell group that distributed tracts about fasting, Islamic dress and joining the jihad. But in 1992, following a crackdown on Islamists, he suddenly found himself at the top of the Algerian government\u2019s most-wanted list. His options were to stay inside all the time or venture out and risk arrest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, frustrated with his self-imposed house arrest, Ali went for a bus ride and got off at a random stop. A young woman at the bus stop caught his eye, so he asked her if he could talk to her. \u201cNo,\u201d she said bluntly, \u201cdon\u2019t talk to me. I am a Christian.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali was surprised, not least because it was a risky thing for her to admit. Still, he was attracted to her, so he tried another approach. \u201cMy brother is a Christian,\u201d he told her. \u201cReally?\u201d she asked. The girl then told him that she had become a believer by listening to Christian radio stations and writing down the Bible verses she heard. She had never even met a Christian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the girl became more comfortable talking with Ali, she boldly asked him if he could get her a Bible from his brother. Eager to please, Ali did get her a Bible, and in the process he became curious about what it had to say. He read the Bible, compared its teaching with the Quran and began to ask questions at the mosque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then one night he had a dream in which Jesus spoke to him: \u201cCome to me all who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest.\u201d Ali woke up and immediately felt as if a load had been lifted from his shoulders. \u201cAt that moment,\u201d he said, \u201cI woke up and told him, \u2018Lord, forgive me. You are Christ, you are God and I believe.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali eventually married Chaima, the girl from the bus stop, and today they serve as church planters and evangelists among some of the most committed Muslims in western Algeria. They have led many people to Christ over the years and currently lead several small house church groups. Unlike believers in the Kabylie region, Christians in their area cannot meet openly. They meet in homes, caf\u00e9s or parks, and they are watched closely by security agents, who often take them in for interrogation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police have expressed confusion about the two different Alis they see in their files. When he is brought in for interrogation, inspectors pull out one file with a photo of a young, scowling, bearded jihadi and a second file with a photo of a clean-shaven man in his 40s, radiating light. \u201cHow are these both you?\u201d they ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali then shares his testimony. \u201cI used to see you as an enemy of God,\u201d he explains, \u201cbut now I love you because the Bible says to love your enemies. This is what Christ did to change my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Two months after his recent visit to the national security office, Ali told a VOM worker that the interrogations never scare him. When he was a terrorist, he said, he lived with death every day, as his companions were killed fighting the government; now he lives in the promise of eternal life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHonestly, the Christian life is a painful life,\u201d Ali said. But his joy is undiminished by daily circumstances. \u201cWhen I die, I know where I am going.\u201d And he does not yearn for an easier life somewhere else. \u201cI love my country,\u201d he said. \u201cAlgeria is a place where Christian martyrs have flooded the earth with their blood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the city where Ali and Chaima work is very challenging, Ali said more people are wanting to know about Jesus. \u201c[If I thought about it] with my personal mind, I would think we have a lot of persecution, so no one would be interested,\u201d he said. \u201cBut with my faith I see the contrary; there are a lot of people [who] want to seek Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Ali and Chaima teach new believers, they are careful to warn them of the dangers they will face. They explain that persecution is guaranteed but encourage them to trust that Jesus will always be with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of the church in Algeria tells of God\u2019s work in overcoming the government\u2019s greatest efforts to stop the spread of the gospel. Some Algerian churches are now sending Christian workers to share the gospel with Arabs not only in unreached parts of Algeria but also throughout the Middle East. \u201cThe Kabyle church is a big hope, not just for Algeria but beyond Algeria,\u201d Ourahmane said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirty years ago, few could have foreseen such a movement of God in this predominantly Muslim country. But God has chosen some of \u201cthe least of these,\u201d the marginalized Kabyle people, to share his Good News throughout Algeria and build an irrepressible church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ali was a jihadi. He had a long beard, wore white clothing and trained to fight alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. As a devout Muslim, he exhorted his mother and two sisters to be more religious, forbidding them to watch TV.  One of Ali\u2019s brothers, however, had become a Christian. \u201cI thought he had left the true religion, and according to Islamic law he deserves to be dead,\u201d Ali said. \u201cI would show him the Quran verses and tell him, \u2018Look, you have to believe. You have to believe back to Islam.\u2019 Every time we would start talking about this, he would tell me that God loves me and would talk about God\u2019s love.\u201d Ali belonged to an Islamist cell group that distributed tracts about fasting, Islamic dress and joining the jihad. But in 1992, following a crackdown on Islamists, he suddenly found himself at the top of the Algerian government\u2019s most-wanted list. His options were to stay inside all the time or venture out and risk arrest.  One day, frustrated with his self-imposed house arrest, Ali went for a bus ride and got off at a random stop. A young woman at the bus stop caught his eye, so he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-4596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-field-stories","tag-algeria","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Jihadi Turned Church Planter, Evangelist - Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ali belonged to an Islamist cell group that distributed tracts about fasting,\u00a0Islamic dress and joining the jihad.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/former-jihadi-now-church-planter-algeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Jihadi Turned Church Planter, Evangelist - 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