Due Process for This Wave of Expelled Christians

MoroccoBoard has helpfully translated an article from this week's Tel Quel about the continuing expulsions of Christians from Morocco.

Unlike the previous waves of expulsions this year, this one has involved judicial proceedings. As such, Morocco can say that is giving foreign Christians due process.

"Every three months, since the beginning of the year, the Moroccan authorities are expelling Foreign Christians with a vengeance. The novelty now is that they are providing a legal document called "the Order of expulsion of foreign resident " allowing the victims to challenge the decision before a Moroccan court, whereas before no formal written orders were provided ", says member of a Church in the capital city of Rabat who wishes to remain anonymous.

It is unfortunate that this opportunity was not accorded the workers at the Village of Hope orphanage or the Egyptian friar who were suddenly and mysteriously expelled in March. Nonetheless, it is a welcome development.

Previously American Congressman Wolf had accused the American embassy in Morocco of being "AWOL" in regard to this issue, especially compared with the efforts of other nations. This article, however, calls into question that version of events.

"The Spanish, French, Swiss nationals have not been supported by their embassies as much as the Americans were, " said Moroccan Attorney Mr. Dgharni. 

The Embassy of France’s position is clear: "The consulates of France have been informed about the evictions, these are decisions of a sovereign state and it is not for us to comment."
The other concerned embassies did not wish to issue a statement on the issue.

Scenes From Morocco: Marrakesh Motos

More so than in other Moroccan cities, the moto is one of the most popular forms of transportation. Also in marked contrast to other Moroccan cities, you will also see large numbers of women driving them.

Teaching With Skype

I am currently in the middle of a ten-day summer intensive session. Rather than sessions once or twice a week for ten weeks, an entire course is crammed into ten straight days.

It's a quick turnaround. If the students are bad, I needn't worry. They'll soon be gone. But it's also difficult to stay on top of preparation and keep the students' interest when they're spending so much time with me.

Yesterday to mix things up a bit, I had them prepare some questions and then led them in a 20-minute Skype conversation with my sister. She lives in Alaska and has never visited Morocco. Nor does she speak Arabic or French. So my students and my sister were about as culturally isolated from each other as possible, connected only by the English language, imperfectly mastered by my students as it was.

But that made the conversation all the more interesting.

One of the first things my students asked her aboutwas about the time difference. It was around 5 PM for us, and 8 AM for her. She had been up since 6:30 AM, which absolutely astounded by late-rising students.

They asked her what she thought about Morocco and what Alaska was like. They asked her if she had ever eaten Moroccan food. At one point there was some confusion because she said the temperature was in the 50's. The students thought in terms of the Celsius scale and imagined temperatures Morocco rarely reaches, when in reality it was just a typically chill Alaskan morning.

As a speaker of Arabic and French and as someone familiar with Moroccan culture practices, I often understand what Moroccans are trying to say in English where a typical American wouldn't. So, one of the challenges for any non-native speaker is moving beyond that crutch to communicating with a native speaker who is culturally and linguistically separate. Trying to do it with a temperamental technology like Skype makes it even more difficult.

But my students did excellently. I'm proud of them. I might even have to try the activity again during the longer courses.

Scenes From Morocco: Marrakesh McDonald's

As in many developing countries, McDonald's caters to a middle to upper class clientele in Morocco. The location of the franchises are inevitably found on pricy pieces of real estate near the intersection of the old and new cities.

Third Wave of Deportations Cancelled

Perhaps I was wrong.

From MoroccoBoard.com:

At the end of last week, at least a dozen American Christian evangelicals who have settled in Morocco and who had received verbal orders of deportation for proselytizing were informed by the Moroccan police or by the U.S. consulate in Casablanca, that these deportation orders had been canceled. The canceled deportation orders were part of an apparent third wave of expulsion of Christians from the country for "proselytizing" and "attempting to break the faith of Muslims" two offenses covered by the Moroccan penal code that could have lead to a court trial which the Moroccan authorities wanted to avoid.

Since last March, Morocco has expelled more than a hundred Christians, half of them Americans-including the Casablanca-based-George Washington Academy founder and director Jack Rusenko and two senior school administrators. 


The abrupt course reversal of the Moroccan Ministry of Interior is due to the forceful reaction of the U.S. administration. According to Spanish daily El Pais, the US Ambassador in Rabat, Samuel Kaplan, called the Minister of Interior, Mr. Taieb Cherkaoui to protest and to ask for a meeting. At the same time, according to El Pais, the U.S. Embassy is urging its citizens not to obey the verbal orders by the Moroccan police and hold out for for written expulsion orders so that they can eventually contest them in a Moroccan court.

Kaplan strong reaction was probably due to the hearing by the U.S. Congress Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held last week and co-chaired by Republican Rep. Tom Wolf (R) of Virginia, on the expulsion of US Christians from Morocco.

Scenes From Morocco: The Beach

A couple on the beach in Essaouira, Morocco.

Morocco For Tourists

A Brazilian guy and an English/New Zealander gal met in Russia while teaching English. They got married and are spending a year traveling the world as part of their honeymoon, which is documented on this blog. I met them while they were in Meknes.

They have now moved on to Egypt, but here is longish quote giving their final reflections on Morocco. I found it particularly insightful in its comparison of tourist publicity and tourist reality:

When I think of Morocco, I think of; raw energy, magnificence, reserved people, natural, loud noisy music, spicy cumin, the heat, dust, unexpected patches of green, sand, decorations, huge bunches of mint, toothless old men and women, relaxed stunningly rugged coastlines, huge, splendid Atlas and Rif Mountain Ranges, the desert, camels, long bus rides, fresh baked bread and honey for breakfast, incredible beauty, Kif in the Rif, sad donkeys, beggars, dirt, the sun, women in head-scarves, men in djellabas, old bicycles, haggling, and all of it very last minute.

Morocco is nothing like how I expected it to be and I've been wanting to come for a very long time, ever since seeing it on 'Wish you were here' an old holiday programme providing precious escapism from the humdrum of school/home life.

Everyone is in your face from the moment you leave the house/airport/bus/shop. They work so hard on getting you in their shops or on making a sale it's a strange feeling that as soon as you've capitulated and take a look, they lose all interest in you and don't care about charming you (if they ever did) just as long as you buy something (for at least three times the price it's worth), apparently it's all in the chase. In Marrakesh I watched a woman selling handmade raffia bags to a tourist she had hassled to make a sale. As soon as she had the money in her hot little hands she was away like a shot and the man had to chase after her to get his change back, which she was reluctant to give and practically threw at him while still shuffling off at high speed to find someone else to sell to.

We've made very few real friends from the locals despite them being so friendly. Mind you nine times out of ten the friendliness is just a prelude to an invitation to part with our hard earned money, whether it is after (minimal) services rendered as an unwanted guide, or to a shop if someone shows you the way somewhere 'for free, as a friend' and invites you back to their home! While we were in Fez a young student took us to a small terrace which was public but you'd never have found the way there, he and Djalma talked about different things while I stood further away feeling uneasy about this free service, after all we don't know the guy and it's is truly rare that one will want to help another (especially that other who perceived to have more) without harbouring any ulterior motive. So I was quite relieved that when he invited us back to his family home for some real Berber tea and it was actually a family run factory where his half sister gave us a very soft sell. She showed us photos of their family, all doing camel tours (which surprise! They also offered as well as carpets and cushion covers) and spoke to us about what they all did.

The real down side is that when, on the rare occasion, we do meet someone who is genuine, honest and helpful, I am so sceptical that they are as they seem that I end up missing out on opportunities and feel rude and mean spirited when their lack of agenda becomes apparent.