{"id":4824,"date":"2014-07-16T18:42:30","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T01:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=4824"},"modified":"2014-07-16T18:42:30","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T01:42:30","slug":"north-africa-ramadan-adds-extra-pressure-for-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=4824","title":{"rendered":"NORTH AFRICA: Ramadan Adds Extra Pressure for Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldwatchmonitor.org\">World Watch Monitor<\/a>, July 3, 2014<\/p>\n<p>In about 50 countries across the world, some 1.6 billion Muslims have [been] fasting from sunrise to sunset for the 30 days of Ramadan. Much as it\u2019s celebrated by those who choose to participate, it also brings a heightened pressure for non-Muslims if they do not agree that they should be forced to fast.<\/p>\n<p>Often the pressure comes from social discrimination, but in a country such as Algeria or Morocco, where Islam is the state religion, breaking the Ramadan fast in public is punishable by a fine and imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>A majority of [Algeria\u2019s] Christians are Kabyle Berber, and many object to being forced to fast at this time of year.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, during Ramadan, there was a joint effort by the police in the same region to arrest public non-fasters. This sparked a wave of outrage among human rights activists, and in reaction, hundreds staged picnics in protest against \u2018forced\u2019 fasting.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldwatchmonitor.org\/2014\/07\/article_3208248.html\/\">Read full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: World Watch Monitor, July 3, 2014 In about 50 countries across the world, some 1.6 billion Muslims have [been] fasting from sunrise to sunset for the 30 days of Ramadan. Much as it\u2019s celebrated by those who choose to participate, it also brings a heightened pressure for non-Muslims if they do not agree that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=4824\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">NORTH AFRICA: Ramadan Adds Extra Pressure for Christians<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4825,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824\/revisions\/4825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}