I am so impressed by this letters tone and content. What a Christlike response to a very difficult situation. Please pray for this situation, the children left behind, and the freedom to practice faith of choice in Morocco.
Below is a translation attempt of the official Arabic letter being prepared for distribution by a group of Moroccan Christians. Read and pray. =======================================================================================================
The International union of Moroccan Christians:
We as Christian Moroccans pray for our king our people and our nation.
We members of the international
union of Moroccan Christians declare that we are following closely and with serious
concern all the incidents (that happened recently) of arrests, investigations
against Moroccan Christians and the expelling of foreigners involved in
humanitarian work in Morocco.
We desire by the present to clarify the following points:
· We as Moroccan Christians have a rich history, some of us are
from the first generation and others are from second and third generation of
Christians. We are individuals and families that occupying different positions
in the Moroccan society or abroad. We live our daily life in harmony with our
Moroccan society. We make every effort serve our country with all energy and
means we have.
· Our faith in Christ is a faith by choice. It was never by
obligation or under any kind of pressure or under any financial or social
influence. Our faith, came solely from our personal convictions and not from
foreign influence according to some media that tries to destroy (nullify) the credibility
of our faith. This persecution from the Moroccan authorities, hurt us as
Christians, and prevents us from our basic rights that are guaranteed to us by
the constitution and the international human rights. The reality is in
contradiction with what the government declares via the minister of
communication, “that Morocco guaranties the freedom of
religion and the freedom of faith”. We wonder then if this is true why the Moroccan Christians are persecuted? Under what law are arrested and questioned?
· The declarations of the foreign churches in Morocco do not
represent the opinion of the Moroccan Christians. The freedom they are enjoying
as foreigners in the country is not given to the Moroccan Christian. The Moroccan
Christians do not have churches (buildings) and do not have the right to meet
to practice their faith whether secretly or publically. We are not even allowed
to defend our faith when we are asked about it. We are even prevented from
obtaining an Arabic or Berber Bible in our dear country. The Bible is
confiscated because it is considered a part of the proselytism literature.
· The persecution that we suffer from as Moroccan Christian is
a clear religious persecution and has nothing to do with any political view we may
have. We as Moroccan Christians, pray for our king, our people and our nation
from Tangiers to Guerra and we always wish them goodness prosperity and success.
And based what was said above we make the following requests to the Moroccan government:
· To stop all kinds of harassments (arrests, interrogations,
etc...) from the Moroccan authorities that are only aiming at humiliating the
Christians and try to force them to quit their faith.
· That the Moroccan government will open official communication
channels with the Moroccan Christians to discuss with the Christians for the
clarifications sake, transparency and common understanding.
· Official recognition of the Moroccan Christians and their
right in practicing their faith freely and without any conditions or harassments.
· Allow Moroccans to embrace any religion they choose including
Christianity, as the constitution allows them, without being subject to questioning or harassment.
The International Union of the Moroccan Christians
Monday March 15th 2010
Posts
