Catholics Also Targeted in Crackdown

Evangelicals have operated for years in Morocco, with their main purpose being the conversion of Muslims. Catholics have operated for longer, but purposefully have not engaged in proselytizing. So it came as a surprise that a Catholic priest was also detained and then exported during last week's crackdown.

The following passage comes from a Franciscan friar who teaches language classes in Morocco:

On Sunday the 7th of March, five minutes before mass began; the police in the city of Larache entered our friary and arrested one of our confrères, Rami Zaki, a young Egyptian friar still in initial formation who was spending a year with us. He was ordered to go with the police, had no possibility to collect anything, and was given no explanation for his arrest.

Simeon, who was preparing to celebrate mass, had little opportunity to react other than to ask the reason for the arrest, to which he was told to be quiet or he'd be arrested too. Simeon immediately phoned our major superior, Manuel, who drove from Rabat to Larache (c. 1.5 hours); and, after mass, they went together to the police station to inquire about Rami.

The police in Larache were just preparing to transport Rami to Rabat and were not willing to talk about anything. So Manuel and Simeon followed the local police to Rabat. Once there, the Rabat police took charge of the case. They demanded Rami's passport, but Manuel refused to give it to them unless they provided a reason for his arrest. After a lengthy discussion and the assurance by the police that Rami would be returned to Larache within a short time, Manuel surrendered the passport. Fifteen minutes later, the police informed Manuel that orders had been changed and Rami was to be taken to the airport in Casablanca and put on a midnight flight to Cairo.

Again Manuel and a few other friars loaded into the car and followed the police for another hour and a half. At the airport, the Rabat police handed Rami over to the jurisdiction of airport security, who permitted him to talk briefly with Manuel and the others before he was put into isolation.

The friars returned to Rabat, but learned later that evening that Rami was not on the plane. The next morning, Monday, they attempted to make contact with Rami although they were unsure where he was. As it turned out, Rami was kept in isolation for another 24 hours and was put on the Monday midnight flight to Cairo. By the time he was put on the plane, he had already spent more than thirty-six hours in police custody deprived of all rights to contact anyone and without any reason being given to his guardians for his arrest. We do not know how he was treated: but certainly there was an interrogation and it is reasonable to think that the police were not concerned about any of his immediate needs or comforts, such as food, adequate clothing, cleanliness, or rest.

When Rami was put on the plane, his passport was taken from him and given to the pilot who later surrendered it with Rami to the police in Cairo. He was detained by the police in Cairo for another seven hours for interrogation before he was permitted to telephone his community of friars. From Sunday, the morning of his arrest, to Tuesday afternoon, when he was released – a total of more than 50 hours – Rami was deprived by the police in Morocco and Egypt of any of his human rights.

THE CONTEXT:
This action by the various levels of Moroccan police was a well orchestrated event. It occurred at exactly the same time that sixteen evangelical protestants were arrested in different parts of the country: fifteen who took care of an orphanage near the town of Azrou (where we Catholics have a chapel and where we friars go weekly to say mass), and one who was at prayer in his church in Marrakesh. Obviously it was their intent to make the arrests on a Sunday, when there was little possibility for members of the Christian communities to contact superiors, embassies, officials of the Moroccan government, or the press.

In the recent past, a number of protestant evangelicals have been expelled for breaking the law of the country which prohibits proselytising. The mainline churches – Catholic, Orthodox, Reform, Anglican, and others, as well as Jews – have always expressed their gratitude for the tolerance shown them and for the permission to celebrate in their churches. Furthermore, they (or at any rate, Catholics) have insisted that conversions should not be sought and that we live and work alongside and with the Moroccan people, witnessing thus to our common faith in one true God.

It is not unusual to have occasional waves of Islamic protest and arrests; typically they are the results of local incidents (such as the intrusion and involvement of various Christian groups into the local society, thus begetting reactions of suspicions of proselytising, etc.); but we Catholics have not experienced any arrests or expulsions for the past thirty years.

...

As concerns Rami, it is possible that his teaching children in our Franciscan educational centre at Larache might have been an immediate pretext. If he was actively trying to convert his young students and corrupt their belief, then he deserves to suffer the consequences of the law of the country. It is difficult, however, to accept his total deprivation of rights, the police's refusal to state the charge, the involvement of three different levels of police, and the Interior Minister's, at least, tacit approval – many of which are a corruption of their own civil law: When Manuel finally spoke to the Interior Minister, he denied any knowledge of the event, said the Governor of the province of Larache took the decision, and gave Manuel a telephone number where the governor could be contacted!

The Catholic line in both speech and practice has been that of avoiding proselytizing. Like the US ambassador, this friar only asks only for transparency and due process in the expulsions.