Marokkanske myndigheter deporterer stadig flere kristne hjelpearbeidere, anklaget for illegal misjonering. De tallrike deportasjonene har kommet som en overraskelse, da Marokko er blant de mest liberale muslimske statene. Til tross for at det er forbudt å konvertere muslimer fra islam, tolererer marokkanske myndigheter nærværet av andre religioner, og det finnes flere kirker og synagoger i landet.

I begynnelsen av mars ankom imidlertid politiet barnehjemmet Village of Hope, som er drevet av kristne, og begynte å forhøre personalet og barna som bor der. Først ble de forsikret om at forhørene var ren rutine, men det kom snart frem at det dreide seg om religion. De ble bla spurt om hvordan de ba, og barnehjemmet ble ransaket etter barnebibler. Kort etter ble 16 av personalet summarisk deportert fra Marokko på grunnlag av ulovlig misjonering:

«Most of the couples were there as foster parents and had raised these children since infancy,» Broadbent says. «When they were told that their parents had to leave, it was chaos — the kids were running after any adult they could find, and just holding on. It was the most devastating thing I’ve ever seen.» (See a TIME video on financial news in Old Fez.)

Deportasjonene later til å være en del av en omfattende aksjon mot kristne hjelpearbeidere i Marokko. Rundt 40 utlendinger – nederlandske, britiske, amerikanske og koreanske statsborgere – har blitt deportert bare i mars. Blant disse er en egyptisk katolsk prest, samt en koreansk protestantisk prest som ble arrestert mens han ledet en gudstjeneste.

And this past week, authorities searched an orphanage founded by American missionaries in the town of Azrou called The Children’s Haven. Salim Sefiane, a Moroccan who was raised at the orphanage and is still in touch with workers there, said the officials interrogated the orphanage staff and asked children as young as 8 years old to demonstrate how they pray. No action has been taken yet against the orphanage’s workers, Sefiane said.
(See below for a video of the workers at the orphanage being deported.)

The large-scale deportations came as a surprise in a nation that is among the most liberal of Muslim countries. Although trying to convert Muslims to other faiths is illegal, Morocco tolerates the presence of other religions and is home to a number of churches and synagogues.

– Det er flere slående trekk ved dette, sier den spanske journalisten Ignacio Cembrero, som har skrevet mange bøker om Marokko: – Det har vært flere tilfeldige deportasjoner, men aldri så mange på en gang og de har aldri utvist en katolikk før. Og at politiet går inn i en kirke på en søndag, under gudstjenesten, for å arrestere folk? Absolutt uten fortilfeller.

I følge den marokkanske regjeringen har alle de deporterte brutt loven ved å bruke sin status som hjelpearbeidere som dekke for misjonering. – De er skyldige i å forsøk på å underminere muslimers tro, sier innenriksminister Tayeb Cherkaoui i en pressemelding.

Men er de det?, spør Time:

But were they? Broadbent denies the charges. Part of his job at the Village of Hope was to ensure that staff members understood the rules prohibiting proselytizing, and he notes that all the orphanage’s children received instruction in Islam. «We weren’t teaching Christianity in any formal way,» he says. But asked if reading the Bible to Muslim children constitutes proselytizing, he said, «We understood that it wasn’t. And in any case, the authorities have always known that these children were being raised in Christian families.» In fact, Village of Hope had been operating for 10 years and had received «institutional» status from the Moroccan government this year — a designation meaning it meets government standards. Many of the other deported Christians had also been in Morocco for extended periods of time. So why were they evicted now? (Read: «Morocco’s Gentle War On Terror.»)

Christopher Martin, a pastor since 2004 at the Casablanca International Protestant Church, says he’s talked to three different people with connections «high up in the Moroccan government» and heard three different explanations for the action. But one common thread, he points out, is that the officials leading the crackdown — the Justice and Interior ministers — were both appointed in January. That suggests to many Christians in Morocco that the officials were eager to quickly make a mark on the political landscape with an initiative likely to have broad popular support.

Til tross for at den marokkanske regjeringen de siste årene har vedtatt dramatiske refomer i landets familierett for bedre å beskytte kvinners rettigheter og til og med har støttet programmer for å utdanne kvinnelige imamer, har offentligheten blitt stadig mer preget av religion. I september i fjor ble for første gang flere marokkanere arrestert for å ha spist offentlig under ramadan-fasten, noe som utløste formelle klager fra menneskerettighetsorganisasjonen Human Rights Watch.

Aaron Schwoebel, the information officer at the U.S. embassy in Rabat, says that the Moroccan government has told the embassy there will be more deportations, including other Americans. He said the government did not indicate when. «We urge the Moroccan government to act in accordance with its highest traditions of tolerance,» Schwoebel says, «And respect the human rights of the members of these religious minority communities, including those of our own citizens.»

Now living in Spain after the gendarmes escorted him and his family to a departing ferry in Tangier, Broadbent hopes for the same thing. The last he heard, the Village of Hope children were still living at the orphanage, but he suspects they may soon be sent to other homes. «We’d like to open a dialogue that would lead to reuniting these families,» he says. But in the meantime, he can only wonder about the meaning of it all. «Is this an isolated incident?» he asks. «Or is Morocco steering away from its tolerant past?»

Time: In Morocco, a Crackdown on Christian Aid Workers