page_title: Christianity in Algeria
section_title: Reintroduction of Christianity during French Colonialism
hierarchical_section_title: Christianity in Algeria / History of Christianity in Algeria / Reintroduction of Christianity during French Colonialism
caption_attribution_description: English: The Sacred Heart Cathedral of Algiers, started to built in 1956. Français&#160;: La cathédrale du Sacré-Coeur à Alger, début de la construction en 1956.
context_page_description: Christianity came to North Africa in the Roman era. According to historian Theodor Mommsen what is now Mediterranean Algeria was fully Christian by the fifth century. A notable Berber Christian of Algeria was Saint Augustine, important saints of Roman Catholicism. Christianity's influence declined during the chaotic period of the Vandal invasions but was strengthened in the succeeding Byzantine period. After the Arab invasions of the 7th century, Christianity began to gradually disappear.
  Currently, North Africa is primarily Muslim: Islam is the state religion of Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. While the practice and expression of other faiths is guaranteed by law, the same legal framework tends to restrict minority religions from actively seeking conversion to their religion, or even building or repairing churches. Converts to Christianity may be investigated and searched by the authorities as well as punished. There is some evidence that there has been an increase in conversions to Christianity among North African Muslims in recent years, even though in many cases the government will not change the religion from Islam on any citizens' identity cards.
context_section_description: The Roman Catholic Church was reintroduced in Algeria after the French conquest, when the diocese of Algiers was established in 1838. As of the last census in Algeria, taken on 1 June 1960, there were 1,050,000 non-Muslim civilians (mostly Catholic) in Algeria (10 percent of the total population including 130,000 Algerian Jews). 
  Under French rule, the Catholic population of Algeria peaked at over one million. The country was divided into four dioceses, including one archdiocese:
  Archdiocese of Algeria
  Diocese of Constantine
  Diocese of Oran
  Diocese of Laghouat (Immediately subject to the Holy See)
  During French rule, Christianity was used as a tool of assimilation. French colonizers attempted to convert the Muslim population to Christianity as a form of modernization. Laws were put in place to establish Algerians’ rights as citizens based on religion. The Crémieux Decree of 1870 denied Muslim Algerians full citizenship status while granting local Christian and Algerian Jewish inhabitants full citizenship. Very few Algerians converted because of this law. The religion-based citizenship divides established during the French colonial rule sparked animosity between groups that would impact the stance of minority religions in Algeria for years post-colonial rule.
caption: Cathédrale du Sacré-Cœur d'Alger  in Algiers, Algeria
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