MOROCCO: Moroccans who secretly converted to Christianity are demanding the right to practice their faith openly in a country where Islam is the state religion and “apostasy” is condemned.
At an apartment in a working-class part of the southern town of Agadir, Mustapha listened to hymns emanating from a hi-fi under a silver crucifix hung on the wall.
The 46-year-old civil servant, son of an expert on Islamic law from nearby Taroudant, was once an active member of the banned but tolerated Islamist Charity and Justice movement.
He said he converted in 1994 to “fill a spiritual void.”
“I was tired of the contradictions in Islam,” said Mustapha.
“I became interested in Christianity through a long correspondence with a religious center in Spain in the late 1980s.”
He went on to qualify as a Protestant pastor and received a certificate from the United States after taking a correspondence course.
Mustapha kept his faith secret for two decades, but a year and a half ago he published a video online in which he spoke openly about his conversion. The reaction was immediate.
“Family and close friends turned their backs on me, I was shunned at work. My children were bullied at school,” he said.
Converts to Christianity form a tiny minority of Moroccans. While no official statistics exist, the American State Department estimates their numbers at between 2,000 and 6,000.
Over the Easter weekend, Mustapha and a dozen fellow converts met for an “afternoon of prayers” in the living room of Rachid, who like Mustapha did not wish to give his full name.
Rachid, who hails from a family of Sufis — a mystical trend of Islam — embraced Christianity in 2004 and eventually became a Protestant pastor.
A father of two, Rachid said he became interested in Christianity when he was a teenager after listening to a program broadcast by a Paris-based radio station.
He researched Christianity at a cyber-cafe, contacted a specialized website and they sent him a copy of the Bible.
“I read the entire thing, studied the word of God, took courses,” he said. “At the age of 24, I was baptised in a Casablanca apartment.”
In April, Mustapha, Rachid and other Moroccan converts submitted a request to the official National Council of Human Rights (CNDH) calling for “an end to persecution” against them.
“We demand the right to give our children Christian names, to pray in churches, to be buried in Christian cemeteries and to marry according to our religion,” Mustapha said.
Islam is the state faith of Morocco but the country’s 2011 constitution, drafted after it was rocked by Arab Spring-inspired demonstrations, guarantees freedom of religion.
Foreign Christians and the country’s tiny Jewish community — of about 2,500 people — practice their faiths openly.
Moroccan authorities boast of promoting religious tolerance and a “moderate” form of Islam, and the country’s penal code does not explicitly prohibit apostasy — the act of rejecting Islam or any of its main tenets.
But in Morocco proselytising is punishable by law and anyone found guilty of “attempting to undermine the faith of a Muslim or convert him to another religion” can be jailed for up to three years.
“The subject is ultra-sensitive because it relates to the history of colonization and to the idea that Christianity constitutes a danger to the unity of Morocco,” a sociologist of religion told AFP.
But Rachid said the lines are shifting.
“The arrests have almost stopped, which is a big step,” he said. “Harassment has become scarce.”
Rachid, who says “I am Moroccan before being Christian, practices his faith openly and lives a normal life in a working-class district of Agadir alongside his Muslim neighbors.
Most Moroccans who have converted to Christianity live in Agadir and the central city of Marrakesh, and the majority have said they are Protestants.
With the exception of local Jews, Moroccans are automatically considered Muslims and King Mohamed VI holds the official title of Commander of the Faithful.
Mustapha said the 2011 constitution and actions by the king “in favor of tolerance and coexistence” have helped bolster human rights in Morocco.
But “the penal code, political parties and society have not followed suit,” he said.
Morocco’s Christian converts emerge from the shadows
Morocco’s Christian converts emerge from the shadows
Kingdom arrests 19,541 illegals in one week
RIYADH: Saudi authorities arrested 19,541 people in one week for breaching residency, work and border security regulations, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.
According to an official report, a total of 11,402 people were arrested for violations of residency laws, while 4,775 were held over illegal border crossing attempts, and a further 3,364 for labor-related issues.
The report showed that among the 953 people arrested for trying to enter the Kingdom illegally, 58 percent were Ethiopian, 40 percent Yemeni, and 2 percent were of other nationalities.
A further 129 people were caught trying to cross into neighboring countries, and 27 were held for involvement in transporting and harboring violators.
The Ministry of Interior said that anyone found to be facilitating illegal entry to the Kingdom, including providing transportation and shelter, could face imprisonment for a maximum of 15 years, a fine of up to SR1 million ($260,000), as well as confiscation of vehicles and property.
Suspected violations can be reported on the toll-free number 911 in the Makkah and Riyadh regions, and 999 or 996 in other regions of the Kingdom.
Damascus Airport to resume international flights starting January 7
DAMASCUS: Syria said on Saturday that the country’s main airport in Damascus would resume incoming and outgoing international flights starting next week after commercial trips were halted following last month’s rebel takeover.
“We announce we will start receiving international flights to and from Damascus International Airport from” Tuesday, state news agency SANA said, quoting Ashhad Al-Salibi, who heads the Civil Aviation and Air Transport Authority. International aid planes have already been landing in Syria, and internal flights have also resumed.
Chinese dams to be discussed in India visit of US national security adviser
- Washington and its Western allies have long viewed India as a counter to China’s rising influence in Asia and beyond
- New Delhi says it has conveyed concerns about China’s plan to build a hydropower dam in Tibet on Yarlung Zangbo River
WASHINGTON: US national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s visit to New Delhi from Jan. 5-6 is expected to include discussions with Indian counterparts about the impact of Chinese dams, a senior US official said late on Friday.
Washington and its Western allies have long viewed India as a counter to China’s rising influence in Asia and beyond.
“We’ve certainly seen in many places in the Indo-Pacific that upstream dams that the Chinese have created, including in the Mekong region, can have really potentially damaging environmental but also climate impacts on downstream countries,” a senior US official said ahead of Sullivan’s visit.
The official added that Washington will discuss New Delhi’s concerns in the visit.
The Indian government says it has conveyed its concerns to Beijing about China’s plan to build a hydropower dam in Tibet on the Yarlung Zangbo River which flows into India. Chinese officials say that hydropower projects in Tibet will not have a major impact on the environment or on downstream water supplies.
The construction of that dam, which will be the largest of its kind in the world with an estimated capacity of 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, was approved last month.
Washington also expects that topics such as civilian nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence, space, military licensing and Chinese economic overcapacity will be brought up in the visit, the US official said.
American officials will not be meeting the Dalai Lama during the visit, another US official said.
Washington and New Delhi have built close ties in recent years with occasional differences over issues like minority abuse in India, New Delhi’s ties with Russia amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and alleged assassination plots against Sikh separatists on US and Canadian soil.
Five injured in shooting at aid convoy en route to violence-hit Pakistani district
- More than 130 people have died in the remote district since Nov. 21 in clashes over land, sectarian disputes
- The clashes have disconnected Kurram from the provincial capital, causing medicine, food and fuel shortages
ISLAMABAD: Five people, including a top administration official, were injured after unidentified gunmen opened fire on an aid convoy en route to a restive Pakistani district that has been hit by sectarian clashes in recent weeks, officials said on Saturday.
Kurram, a northwestern district of around 600,000 people in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been rocked by tribal and sectarian clashes since Nov. 21 when gunmen attacked a convoy of Shia passengers, killing 52.
The attack sparked further violence and blockade of a main road connecting Kurram’s main town of Parachinar with the provincial capital of Peshawar, causing medicine, food and fuel shortages in the area, as casualties surged to 136.
Saturday’s gun attack occurred near Bagan, a tense locality in the district’s center, as Deputy Commissioner (DC) Javedullah Mehsud and other officials led an aid convoy to Kurram, leaving the top officials and four security men injured.
“The deputy commissioner has been shifted from Alizai Hospital to Tal CMH [Combined Military Hospital],” said Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for the KP provincial government.
“The deputy commissioner’s surgery is ongoing, but his condition is out of danger.”
Kurram police spokesman Riaz Khan told Arab News the attack injured DC Mehsud, his police guard and three members of the Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary force.
“The deputy commissioner suffered gunshot injuries to his legs and shoulder,” the police official said.
Mehsud was leading the convoy of 17 trucks, which were carrying tents, blankets, medical kits, tarpaulins, solar lamps and sleeping bags.
“The convoy has been temporarily stopped,” Saif said. “The clearance process is ongoing, and the convoy will be sent to Kurram soon.”
Provincial authorities have previously air-dropped relief goods and airlifted ailing and injured people from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters.
Saturday’s gun attack comes days after a grand jirga, or council of political and tribal elders formed by the KP provincial government, brokered a peace agreement between the warring Shia and Sunni tribes, following weeks of efforts.
Under the peace agreement signed on Wednesday, both sides had agreed on the demolition of bunkers and the handover of heavy weapons to the authorities within two weeks, but the attack on the aid convoy has once again cast a cloud on peace in the restive district.
“The situation is under control and security is on high alert. The government will restore peace in the region at all costs,” Saif said, urging both Sunni and Shia sides to remain peaceful and not fall prey to the “conspiracy.”
According to the peace agreement, any party that launches an attack after the signing of the deal will be considered a “terrorist” and action will be taken against it. Another point of the agreement says that a fine of Rs10 million ($35,933) will be imposed on those who would violate the terms of the deal by using weapons against each other.
Land disputes in the volatile district will be settled on a priority basis with the cooperation of local tribes and the district administration, according to the peace agreement. Opening of banned outfits’ offices will be prohibited in the district, while social media accounts spreading hate will be discouraged via collective efforts backed by the government.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur condemned the shooting incident near Bagan.
“The incident is a deliberate and nefarious but unsuccessful attempt to sabotage peace efforts,” CM Gandapur was quoted as saying by his office.
“The provincial government, with the cooperation of the area elders, will continue its efforts until complete peace is restored in the area.”
World’s oldest person dies at 116 in Japan
- Tomiko Itooka was born on May 23, 1908 in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya
- As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older
TOKYO: The world’s oldest person, Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, has died aged 116, the city where she lived, Ashiya, announced on Saturday.
Itooka, who had four children and five grandchildren, died on December 29 at a nursing home where she resided since 2019, the southern city’s mayor said in a statement.
She was born on May 23, 1908 in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya – four months before the Ford Model T was launched in the United States.
Itooka was recognized as the oldest person in the world after the August 2024 death of Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera at age 117.
“Ms Itooka gave us courage and hope through her long life,” Ashiya’s 27-year-old mayor Ryosuke Takashima said in the statement.
“We thank her for it.”
Itooka, who was one of three siblings, lived through world wars and pandemics as well as technological breakthroughs.
As a student, she played volleyball.
In her older age, Itooka enjoyed bananas and Calpis, a milky soft drink popular in Japan, according to the mayor’s statement.
Women typically enjoy longevity in Japan, but the country is facing a worsening demographic crisis as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labor force to pay for it.
As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older – 88 percent of whom were women.
Of the country’s 124 million people, nearly a third are 65 or older.
