The Supreme Islamic Council of Algeria is strict in its response to the US State Department report on religious freedom

The Supreme Islamic Council of Algeria was surprised by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s report on religious freedoms, wondering why Israel was not classified as a violator of religious freedoms for what it does to Muslims in Palestine.

The Supreme Islamic Council explained in a statement: “It is strange that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken issued his statement last Thursday, January 4, 2024, within the framework of the law passed by the US Congress in 1998 defining US foreign policy on the issue of freedom of religion and belief.”

He added: "Based on this commitment, Mr. Blinken classified the countries of the world into three levels of extreme, moderate, and grave violation of the freedom to exercise religious belief."

The Supreme Islamic Council confirmed: “It does not seem that Mr. Blinken found a harsher scope for religious people, preventing them from even entering their temples, as Israel does to Muslims in Palestine, preventing them from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, and depriving them of praying inside it.”

He explained: “Perhaps Mr. Blinken is waiting for the US Congress to issue a law to protect human life and criminalize the killing of children and women and the demolition of homes on their residents, so that he can issue a statement criminalizing the Zionist entity that is destroying the homes of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with the missiles that America delivered to it with the knowledge of Mr. Blinken.”

He added: "When the shipments of bombs and missiles that his country had supplied to the Zionist entity ran out, Mr. Blinken did not wait for the approval of the American Congress to supply the Zionist entity with new ammunition. Rather, he took responsibility for sending these ammunition urgently, because Congress's approval may require some time for the Palestinians to breathe and for the bombing to stop." Homes, killing children and their mothers, and demolishing their homes.

The Supreme Islamic Council stressed: “It is strange that Mr. Blinken took courage and openly declared his Jewishness, which preceded and surpassed his Americanism... the quality or advantage that prevents him from classifying the Zionist entity alongside ISIS, and both are among the achievements of America, his country, in whose name it classifies countries and societies.”

The US State Department had previously included Algeria on the "list of countries involved in violations of religious freedom."

Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf expressed his deep regret at what was stated in the recent statement of the US State Department regarding religious freedom in Algeria.

During his phone call with his American counterpart, Anthony Blinken, yesterday, Attaf confirmed that the same statement ignored the efforts made by Algeria to establish the principle of freedom of religious belief and practice, which is the principle guaranteed by the Algerian Constitution in a clear and unambiguous manner.

An adulterated alcoholic drink caused the death of 4 people and injured dozens in Tunisia

4 people died and more than 40 others were poisoned after consuming adulterated alcohol in southern Tunisia. 

Agence France-Presse quoted the official spokesman for the Medenine Court in southern Tunisia, Fathi Al-Bakoush, as saying that this was the result of “consuming alcohol that contains toxic substances.”

Al-Bakoush added that an investigation has been opened into the incident and the person who provided the injured with this substance has been arrested, pending the issuance of laboratory analyzes of this substance.

The majority of those infected left the hospital, while some cases were transferred to a hospital in the capital, Tunis.

In the year 2021, in a similar incident, the Tunisian health authorities announced the death of five people and the ambulance of 25 others, suggesting that the cause was poisoning resulting from the consumption of an alcoholic substance in Kasserine Governorate, in the center-west of the country.