Christianity in Mauritania

Christianity is a small minority in Mauritania. All of the roughly 4,500 Catholics in Mauritania are within the country's only diocese, the Diocese of Nouakchott. There are several expatriate African churches in Mauritania, though there are no more than 200 Protestants in the country, including foreigners.

In spite of a strict law against evangelization, the Mauritanian Christian community is growing and there estimated to be 400–1,000 ethnic Mauritanian Christians.[1] For a period of eight months the Miracle Channel, a Norwegian/Swedish Christian channel, broadcast clandestine Christian gatherings in the Mauritanian desert containing over 160 people.[2]

Persecution

The distribution of Christian literature and the evangelizing of Muslims are prohibited by law. Bibles are rarely printed or distributed. State oppression has included the arrest of Mauritanian Christians due to their religious beliefs and the closure of churches. Conversion from Islam is punishable by death and other religions are not recognized by the state.

References

1. World Watch List 2010: #8. Mauritania Archived 2010-10-25 at the Wayback Machine
2. "Troens Bevis Verdens Evangelisering – Så på Miracle Channel midt i Mauritanias ørken – Norwegian language". Archived from the original on 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2010-05-25.

Sources

• Status of religious freedom in Mauritania article

http://parl.gc.adventist.org/documents/world_reports/WorldReport05.pdf