Continued Moroccan Coverage of Christian Expulsions

Two weeks after the expulsions of a number of missionaries and also of orphanage workers from Morocco, the Moroccan media has produced a number of more nuanced reports on the events.

The first few accounts parroted the government's line and involved no further investigation. When they did go further, like Aujourd'hui Le Maroc in their 12-14 March 2010 issue, they interviewed Moroccans who made inflammatory comments against Christians and foreigners. In one interview, Najia Adib insinuated that foreigners living in Morocco were very likely evangelists or pedophiles and that Moroccans must be suspicious of all of us.

Most coverage used the government's terminology when referring to the individuals expelled. They operated in "cells", bringing to mind terrorist cells. And the orphanage workers were "missionaries" by definition, despite 10 years of unproblematic existence and their protestations to the contrary. The media repeated the claim that they had stashes of proselytism material, CD's and tracts. The materials have never been produced and the local media has not questioned the claim (until now).

In the case of television coverage, this first coverage from the Moroccan state owned channel 2M is about par for the course. Christian books, almost all of them written in English and obviously not intended for Moroccans are laid out as if they were drug paraphernalia. Some, such as "The Schizophrenic Church" can hardly be considered positive about the current state of Christianity, let alone material for proselytism. Christian music CD's and hymnbooks from the "bust" are on display. At one point, a long shot on a page of the secular Christmas song "Jingle Bells" makes for a laughingly ridiculous argument against the orphanage families. Of course, to Moroccans it all looks threatening.

In a change from this original coverage, the periodicals that came out at the end of last week bore a more nuanced take on the situation. L'observateur du Maroc carried a series of editorials, articles, and interviews that gave time to all involved. It began with an editorial by Ahmed Charai that criticized Western governments defending the orphanage workers and remarking that "Freedom of worship does not mean open door to proselytism", all without actually engaging the actual claims of the orphanage workers themselves.

The next article, written by Salaheddine Lemaizi, focuses on the misery of Ain Leuh, where the Village of Hope was found and quotes a few locals, particularly the local imam. He alleges that the directors of The Village of Hope encouraged the local prostitutes to have children and paid them generously. On the next page, Herman Boonstra, director of the Village of Hope refutes that claim in an interview, saying, "We never had contact with the world of prostitution. Moroccan men were the ones who had contact with the prostitutes, not us."

Two points of conflict appear to be four Moroccans who converted to Christianity and the religious education of the Moroccan children by the orphanage families. Boonstra says that the two anonymous individuals M.A. and M.K. converted to Christianity on their own and not because of The Village of Hope.

The rest of the coverage includes a profile of another foreign orphanage at Ougmas, reactions from various religious and political leaders, and a profile of those "Fools for Jesus" evangelicals. Of course, like so many media outlets, it engages in typical bait and switch argumentation. They take Pat Robertson as an example of evangelicals and then use statistics about money and conversion among all evangelicals to make it appear as if the ideas of Robertson are much more widespread than they actually are. Once again, Moroccans not knowing any better, read this information and feel under siege by a radical foreign religious ideology. It is hardly surprising that attacks have occurred against Christian institutions in good standing.

The coverage in this week's Nichane and Tel Quel is much more critical of the government. The two magazines are run by the same editor, but Nichane is in Arabic and Tel Quel is in French and their stories are not exactly the same.

They begin with an editorial by the editor Ahmed Benchemsi entitled "Shameful!" It takes the Moroccan authorities to task for depriving poor Moroccan children of the love and care they otherwise would never have received. Benchemsi points out the decade-long existence of the institution and the agreements made about religion. He also points out the blatant hypocrisy in the allegation that the state had the children's best interests in mind. In very strong language, he argues that Morocco moves further and further from being a country with the rule of law.

An interesting aspect of this week's Tel Quel coverage is the relationship between the main article and the coverage of The Village of Hope. The main article gives a profile of the new Minister of Justice Mohamed Naciri, the man who ordered the expulsions. We learn that he is a pious rich man at the end of a long career as a lawyer for the royal family. In one notable event he successfully took on the influential French newspaper Le Monde for negative comments it made about a member of the royal family. However, at no point in the profile does it mention The Village of Hope nor the recent crackdown on Christians.

Turn the page, though, and the next article is about the orphanage family expulsions. Like L'observateur du Maroc, Tel Quel goes to Ain Leuh to interview locals. However, they find individuals much more friendly to the orphanage. An educator says that everyone knew the families were Christians and it was never a problem. She further adds that the families never tried to convert the locals and even observed Ramadan out of respect for them. According to Tel Quel's sources, the accusation of proselytism originated with the imam a few years ago and some locals became convinced.

The coverage ends with a discussion of the alleged CD's and tracts that provide evidence of The Village of Hope's malfeasance. As I have pointed out before, the government has not produced any evidence of materialism for proselytism beyond a book of children's stories about Jesus in Arabic and an Arabic/English Bible seen in the 2M coverage. While likely illegal, they are far from a strong case against the orphanage.