Advocacy group International Christian Concern has expressed concern over proposals to make Muslims who abandon their religion in Morocco subject to the death penalty.
The Supreme Ulema Council in the country last week published a fatwa calling for the death penalty to be applied to Muslims who abandon their faith, according to reports. The fatwa was apparently issued earlier in the month but only published last week in an Arabic language daily newspaper.
The government have denied receiving the fatwa on apostasy but media reports have provoke a strong reaction. Moroccan law doesn’t currently direct prohibit someone leaving the Muslim faith.
Aidan Clay, regional manager for the Middle East with the ICC, says the organisation is “deeply concerned” about the proposed fatwa.
“We urge the Moroccan government to safeguard the religious freedoms of all Moroccans and to reject edicts that would constitute a breach of the country’s international human rights obligations,” he says.
Mr Clay says the country lost credibility with the international human rights community when it deported more than 70 Christian foreign aid workers on charges of proselytising in 2010 and adds that a Moroccan Christian, Jamaa Ait Bakrim still remains in prison after he was arrested in 2005 and given a 15 year sentence for allegedly sharing his faith with a Muslim.
