Moroccan Islamists Use Facebook to Target Christians

Moroccan Christians
say Muslim extremists in the country are aiding and encouraging the government
to pursue them by exposing and vilifying them on social networking site
Facebook.
 

Facebook user Gardes Maroc Maroc has posted 32 image collages featuring
dozens of Christian converts, calling them “hyena evangelists” or “wolves in
lamb’s skins” who are trying to “shake the faith of Muslims.” That terminology
on the website, which is in Arabic, matches that of Morocco’s anti-proselytizing
law, which outlaws efforts to “shake the faith of Muslims.”
 

The online images depict Christian converts and their families from across
the country and include details about their roles and activities in churches,
their personal addresses and anecdotal stories attempting to malign them.
 
“These are some pics of Moroccan convert hyenas,” reads one image.
 
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.” 

On the Facebook page, Gardes Maroc Maroc makes a particularly strident call
to Moroccan authorities to investigate adoptive parents of children from the
village of Ain Leuh, 50 miles south of Fez. The user claims that local
Christians under orders of “foreign missionaries” were attempting to adopt the
children so missionary efforts would not “go in vain.”
 

On March 8, the Moroccan government expelled 26 Christian foreign staff
members and parents working at Village of Hope in Ain Leuh. 
Now efforts against national Christians have gained momentum. One image on
the Facebook page challenged the Islamic Ministry of Religious Affairs and
Endowments, saying, “Evangelist hyenas are deriding your Ministry.” The page
with the images claimed that Christians had rented out an apartment belonging to
that government ministry.
 

An entire page was dedicated to a well-known Christian TV personality in
the Middle East, Rashid Hmami, and his family. The user also inserted pictures
of hyenas next to those of Christians, presumably to indicate their danger to
the nation.
 

National Christians Threatened

Moroccan Christians told Compass that authorities had begun harassing them
even before the forced deportations of foreigners, and that pressure from
officials only intensified in March and April.
 
Since the deportations started in early March, it seems that authorities,
extremists and society as a whole have colluded against them, local Christians
said. Dozens of Christians have been called to police stations for
interrogation. Many of them have been threatened and verbally abused.
 

“They mocked our faith,” said one Moroccan Christian who requested
anonymity. “They didn’t talk nicely.” 
 
Authorities interrogated the convert for eight hours and followed him for
three weeks in March and April, he said. During interrogation, he added, local
police told him they were prepared to throw him in jail and kill him.
 

Another Moroccan Christian reported that a Muslim had taken him to court
because of his Christian activities. Most Moroccan Christians that spoke to
Compass said the attitudes of their Muslim relatives had shifted, and many have
been kicked out of their homes or chosen to leave “to not create problems” for
their families.
 

Moroccan converts meet in house churches. Some of them have stopped meeting
until the pressure subsides.
 
“The government is testing the reactions,” said Moroccan lawyer Abdel
Adghirni of the recent pressure on Christians.
 

The lawyer, known as one of the strongest defenders of Berber rights in
Morocco, said that although the government’s recent reactions seem regressive,
they are part of the nation’s societal transformation process.
 
“The government is trying to dominate,” said Adghirni. “They are defending
themselves. They feel the wind of change. All of this is normal for me – like a
complex chemistry that activates as different elements come into contact. Things
are moving.”
 

Congressional Hearing

In an effort to alert U.S. Congress to the sudden turn against religious
tolerance in Morocco, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission is holding
congressional hearings today on the deportations of foreign Christians from the
country. 
Earlier today, the National Clergy Council held a press conference at the
National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to congratulate the Moroccan government
on religious tolerance. Organizers of the congressional hearings said they view
the council’s press conference as an effort to counter the hearings.
 

The Rev. Rob Schenck, who heads the council, has had numerous exchanges
with Moroccan Islamic leaders and in early April met with the Moroccan
ambassador to the United States. “I have enjoyed a close friendship of several years with the ambassador,”
Schenck stated on his website.
 

Organizers of the congressional hearings have said they are baffled that
the National Clergy Council, and in particular Schenck, would speak so highly of
the Moroccan government at a time when it is in such blatant violation of human
rights.
 
“There’s good and bad in every country, but what Morocco has done on the
whole to advance religious liberty in that region of the world is
extraordinary,” Schenck said in a media statement yesterday on Christian
Newswire. “We hope to present a fair and balanced picture of this unusual
country.”
 

Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.), co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights
Commission, said that the Moroccan government has deported nearly 50 U.S.
citizens.
 

“In spite of this, the U.S. government has pledged $697.5 million to
Morocco over the next five years through the Millennium Challenge Corporation,”
he said. Wolf is advocating that the United States withhold the nearly $697.5
million in aid that it has pledged to Morocco. 
 
“It is inappropriate for American taxpayer money to go to a nation which
disregards the rights of American citizens residing in Morocco and forcibly
expels Americans without due process of law,” he said.
 

Among those appearing at the hearing today is Dutch citizen Herman
Boonstra, leader of Village of Hope, who was expelled in March. Boonstra and his
wife were forced to leave eight adopted children in Morocco. Moroccan
authorities have refused re-entry for the couple, as they have for all deported
Christian foreigners.
 

Lawyer Adghirni said he believes Morocco cannot survive and develop
economically – and democratically – without national diversity.
 
“We can’t be free without Christians,” Adghirni said. “The existence of
Christians among us is the proof of liberty.”