Morocco: Moroccan Committee for Religious Minorities to stage conference

Under the title "Freedom of conscience and belief - between recognition and coexistence" Morocco"s first conference for religious minorities will be held in Rabat on 18 November 2017, as reported by Morocco World News on 4 November 2017. The conference aims to discuss the "marginalization and exclusion" faced by Christians, Jews and others within Moroccan society and is being organized by the Moroccan Committee for Religious Minorities (MCRM). Yonas Dembele, persecution analyst at the World Watch Research, comments: "Morocco is one of the countries in North Africa that is considered stable and tolerant. The country hosted the Marrakesh Conference in January 2016 that resulted in the publication of the "Marrakesh Declaration on Religious Minorities in Muslim Majority Countries". The Fifth Annual Law and Religion Conference in Africa was also held in Rabat in May 2017, which encouraged a group of Moroccan Christians to break their silence and publicly speak about their experience of converting to Christianity, as reported by Moroccan World News on 1 May 2017. There are still many challenges that religious minorities face - especially converts with a Muslim background. Only Sunni Islam and Judaism are recognized religions in Morocco." Yonas Dembele adds: "This upcoming conference is likely to have two conflicting outcomes: 1) It can embolden converts to speak out and assert their rights. 2) It can expose converts to unnecessary attention. It is therefore critical to thoroughly analyze the pros and cons of staging such an unprecedented conference."