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MOROCCO-VATICAN-POPE-FACTS
Muslim Morocco counts small Christian community
RABAT, March 27, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Islam is the state religion in Morocco,
but the country has a small Christian community dating back to Roman times,
and kept alive mainly by devotees arriving from sub-Saharan Africa.
The Roman Catholic Church in the country, governed under a decree adopted
in 1984 before the ground-breaking visit of then pope John Paul II in August
1985, has about 30,000 to 35,000 members.
There are about 3,000 Protestants, while several thousand believers follow
other Christian movements, according to one expert.
– Europeans, sub-Saharans-
More than 90 percent of the Christians hail from sub-Saharan Africa, and
many of them are students drawn by grants for Morocco’s universities. There
are also growing numbers of immigrants, who come to Morocco hoping to make
their way to Europe across the Mediterranean.
The number of European Christians, either expatriates or descendants of
French colonial families, has been falling since 1956.
Back then Morocco counted more than 200 Catholic churches, with about
300,000 practising faithful. But former holy places have gradually been
turned into mosques or cultural centres, while some have just been abandoned
and fallen into ruins.
Today about 44 churches remain, with some 57 priests of about 15
nationalities, led by two bishops in Rabat and Tangiers.
– Converted Christians –
Most of the Christians in Morocco are foreigners, but there are also
several thousand Moroccans who have converted, mostly to the Protestant
church. The Paris-based Observatory for Religious Freedom put the number at
8,000.
Morocco touts its policy of religious tolerance. And indeed its
constitution states that “Islam is the state religion which guarantees to all
the freedom to practise their faith”.
The king as “the commander of the faithful, guards over respect for
Islam”. And King Mohammed VI has vaunted himself as the defender of a
“moderate Islam” and the protector of religious minorities.
Christian foreigners linked to the “official” church enjoy the protection
of the authorities, but unlike Jews, they do not have a legal status in the
state’s eyes.
Moroccans who have converted must practise their faith discreetly and risk
being accused of proselytising if they engage in public expressions of any
religion other than Islam.
It is a criminal offence under Moroccan law to try to proselytise or “rock
the faith of a Muslim or to convert him to another religion” punishable by
six months to three years in prison.
Two associations which are not recognised by the state — The Moroccan
Christians’ Coordination and the Moroccan Association for the Rights of
Religious Minorities — have been campaigning for new legal clauses
recognising religious freedoms and condemning discrimination against Muslims
who have converted.
– Muslim majority –
Religious minorities — Christians, Jews, Baha’is and Shiites — represent
less than one percent of the population of the kingdom, which is
overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.
The Jewish community has fallen from about 300,000 to less than 3,000
since the the creation of Israel in 1948 and Morocco’s independence eight
years later, according to some estimates.
The number of atheists is unknown, as such a stand is usually rejected by
Moroccan society.
And there are very few people who dare to publicly break with the daytime
fast observed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan — something which is
punishable by up to six months in prison.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1120 hrs