23 Foreigners Expelled Last Week

The Morocco Board News Service reports on the newest wave of expulsions, including 23 last week:

Morocco has expelled foreign Christians who tried to convert Muslims because, as a moderate Islamic state, it wants to foster "order and calm" and avoid a clash between faiths, its Islamic affairs minister said.

The government has expelled around 100 foreign Christians since March, many of them aid workers, in what Western diplomats have called an unprecedented crackdown on undercover preaching.

"These incidents (expulsions) were prompted by the activism of some foreigners who undermined public order," Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs Minister Ahmed Toufiq told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday.

"There are some who hide their proselytism and religious activism under the guise of other activities," he said.

I found this line of reasoning interesting. Factually, it is certainly correct. And in Morocco historically concerns over "order and calm" have regularly trumped individuals' freedom of conscience or religion, even if the discussion is limited merely to Muslims. Many Moroccans point to Algeria and its civil war as an example of what happens when you don't use government force to limit religious disagreements.

Thankfully, there hasn't been a civil war in Morocco nor has there been any sort of the extreme bloodletting along religious lines that we have seen in other parts of the Middle East. That is certainly due in large part to the strong arm of the state when it comes to these issues.

That being said, other comments from Minister Toufiq strike me as disingenuous if not blatantly false.

Converting Muslims is a crime in Morocco, punishable by up to six months in jail, but the authorities generally expel foreigners accused of proselytising rather than take them to court to avoid publicity and criticism from abroad.

Muslims make up 99 percent of Morocco's population and the north African country allows freedom of worship to mostly foreign Christians and a few thousand indigenous Jews.

Toufiq said Morocco was eager to foster respect and coexistence between its different faiths, but was also "protecting its religious community".

"Morocco wants to prevent a clash or conflict between religions. It is not necessary that one religion converts believers of another religion," he said, adding that he had explained this position to representatives of other faiths.

If it is not necessary that one religion convert believers of another religion, then why do so many Moroccan Muslims try to convert me to Islam?

Upon meeting a Moroccan, the second or third question is inevitably, "Are you Muslim?" often followed by others like "Do you pray?" or "What do you think of Mohammed?" or "What do you think of the Koran?" I can't count the number of Muslims who have tried to get me to repeat the Shahada (the statement of belief in one God and Mohammed's status as prophet, which when said, makes you a Muslim).

Perhaps it's not clear to Toufiq that Muslims also try to convert others, but from my vantage point it's as clear as day.

I usually shrug these events off with a joke. Or I quote an aya from the Koran to let my new Muslim friends know that I do respect them and I want to coexist with them.

But let's be real about this: most of them want me to be a Muslim. And I wish that they had a real knowledge of the Christian gospel and not the false representation they are all taught. And any sort of honest dialogue in respect has to start from those facts.

In a state where true religious liberty existed, where freedom of conscience was actually valued, we would be able to have discussions about these subjects in mutual respect and tolerance. We would be able to speak openly and the force of the state would not interfere in those discussions nor in the decisions that resulted.

Morocco is not that kind of state.