Tag: Morocco

Moroccan authorities expelled eight more foreign Christians from the country last weekend, bringing the total of deported Christians since March to 128.

Two foreign women married to Moroccan Christians were included in this third wave of deportations since March, raising concerns that local authorities intend to harass the country’s small but growing Protestant community.

Authorities called the foreigners to police stations across Morocco on Friday and told them they had 48 hours to leave the country on grounds of “threatening public order.”

Since March, the Moroccan government has expelled more than 100 foreign Christians for alleged “proselytizing.” Authorities failed to give Christians deportation orders or enough time to settle their affairs before they left.

Observers have called this a calculated effort to purge the historically moderate Muslim country, known for its progressive policies, of all Christian elements — both foreign and national.

Amid a national media campaign to vilify Christians in Morocco, more than 7,000 Muslim clerics signed a statement denouncing all Christian activities and calling foreign Christians’ aid work “religious terrorism.”

Morocco has shut down an association belonging to a controversial religious leader after he said girls as young as nine years old could marry.

A legal action is also being brought against Mohammed Maghrawi, who made the pronouncement on his website.

Morocco’s Supreme Scientific Council condemned a fatwa issued by a Salafi preacher that permits girls to marry at the age of nine. The council filed a complaint with the Rabat preliminary court, which has opened an investigation.

The Council said in a statement Sunday that the fatwa issued by Sheikh Mohamed al-Maghrawi has no religious validity since its reasoning is based on only one individual case—the marriage of Prophet Mohamed to Aisha bint Abu-Bakr, who most Muslims believe was nine-years-old, in the 7th century.