More than 40 Christians have been kicked out of Morocco this week, including members of a group that helped run an orphanage in the country.
The Moroccan authorities are really ratcheting up the intimidatory pressure on Christians, which is disturbing. I posted about this back in February and wrote:-
This is a worrying escalation against the Christian community in Morocco.
Morocco is strategically very important for the Gospel, as it is the entrance point to Islamic North Africa and being geographically so close to Southern Spain, provides a very convenient jumping-off-point.
Of course the Moroccan authorities know this only too well.
And now this new “episode”:-
Expelled Christians Forced to Leave Orphans Behind
More than 40 Christians have been kicked out of Morocco this week, including members of a group that helped run an orphanage in the country.
The government says the missionaries were proselytizing, which is against the law in Morocco.
Many of the Christians worked at the Village of Hope where 33 orphans are currently housed. For the Moroccan children there, Christian aid workers are the only parents they’ve ever known.
The Village of Hope Web site shows a picture of two workers clearly devastated by the government order to leave the Islamic country.
The series of deportations began when a pastor visiting from the U.S. was expelled last February. To protect his identity, CBN News will not reveal his name.
“Understand that there were 60 officers involved, from Secret Service, from the police station and from the Army,” he recalled. “There were clearly-drawn weapons as we were escorted downstairs.”
The pastor added, however, that some of the police officers were secretly supportive.
“About 3 o’clock in the morning, one of the armed, dressed police officers went out and bought us a ‘tarjin’ and brought it in and set it down on the table for us… and we began eating,” he said. “I wanted the locals to be blessed with the food. He clearly wanted me to sit at the table. I sat down. He looked me straight in the eye and he said ‘God bless you.’”
Pastors around the world are calling for an international outcry on behalf of the Moroccan children who they say will suffer the most from the government’s actions.
The expulsion of foreign Christians could be linked to the rise of radical Islam in Morocco– a threat that CBN News has reported for years.
“I think we should be very concerned about the continued operation, cultivation, support and probably growth of al Qaeda cells in North Africa,” radical Islam expert Steven Emerson told CBN News in 2005.
Meanwhile, the workers expelled from Morocco are praying for their children and for the government to allow them to continue caring for the orphans.
UPDATE:-
If you have stumbled onto this blog and are not a Christian, get yourself a hot drink, pull up a comfy chair and then tuck into the following article written by one of the best in the business:- All Of Grace by Charles Spurgeon
Tags: Christian Persecution