Moroccan King Mohammed VI
The International Christian Concern (ICC) has reported that victimization of Christian minorities in Morocco has continued unabated and that this ugly scenario is causing a lot of concern to the Christian community world-wide.
The ICC’s Middle East Regional Manager, Aidan Clay, in a press release in Washington, D.C. on May 17, 2010, said that 23 foreigners have been notified of expulsion from Morocco since May 10, 2010, marking a second wave of Christian deportations from the country.
International Christian Concern Worried
“We are very concerned about this. While there were fewer Americans in this round than there were in the first round of this in early March, we’re still following it very closely, and we have expressed concern, as have other diplomatic missions here, to the Moroccan authorities about this," Clay noted.
He noted that this recent notifications of expulsion are officially attributed to proselytizing, which is illegal under Moroccan law and that earlier this year, the enforcement of anti-proselytizing laws resulted in the deportations of approximately 40 US citizens and many other foreign expatriates from Morocco.
He sated: “However, Moroccan authorities have refused to explain the charges. The Moroccan government has been very cagy about really giving any information to people, which has been disturbing. But we understand it’s all based on alleged proselytizing.”
The US Embassy’s Confirmations
According to Clay the US Embassy confirmed that among those who have received notice of expulsion is a US citizen adding that the list of deportees from a Moroccan Christian advocate includes citizens from the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Guatemala, Columbia and Korea.
Clay added that the deportation of foreigners has also affected the national Moroccan church stating that a pastor near Marrakech, who asked to remain anonymous, said, they’ve stopped all worship activity. And that they’re afraid that they will attack them if they are in meetings, so there is no meeting. We think the next step may be against Moroccans and maybe they will find accusations against us or they may raid the meeting to arrest people.
Clay noted that these expulsions have caused concern in the Unite States (US) Congress, which will be holding a hearing on June 17, 2010 to further examine the issue adding that laws against proselytizing are again being enforced in order to ensure that Moroccan Muslims do not convert to Christianity or to other religions, and to preserve Morocco as a majority Islamic State.
Law Against Religious Conversion
Clay observed that what on the surface appear to be anti-proselytizing laws are in actuality laws against religious conversion and that no Muslim will convert to another religion if they are prevented from hearing about other religions.
According to Clay this directly violates the fundamental human right of religious freedom, the ability to embrace the religion of one’s choice noting that the recent deportation of Christian foreigners shows Morocco’s blatant refusal to adhere to the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.
“The United States government and the international community must hold Morocco accountable for their actions and demand that the Moroccan government uphold international religious freedom laws," he also said.
The International Christian Concern (ICC), quoting a United State (US) Congressman, Frank Wolf, who's also a religious freedom advocate, stated: "I call on the government of Morocco to uphold its commitment to the principles of religious tolerance and freedom, that for so long, made it a model of tolerance and modernity in the Arab world."
Source: http://www.persecution.org/
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