{"id":36623,"date":"2019-03-21T16:23:05","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T16:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=36623"},"modified":"2019-03-21T16:23:05","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T16:23:05","slug":"morocco-christians-urge-religious-freedom-before-pope-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=36623","title":{"rendered":"Morocco Christians urge religious freedom before pope visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1470396\/middle-east\" readability=\"49\">\n<p>\nRABAT: Morocco\u2019s Christian minority on Thursday called on authorities in the Muslim-majority country to guarantee religious freedoms, ahead of a visit by Pope Francis.<br \/>The Coordination of Moroccan Christians, a group representing converts to Christianity in a nation that is 99 percent Muslim, appealed for \u201cbasic freedoms of which we, Moroccan Christians, are still often deprived.\u201d<br \/>These include freedom of public worship as well as the right to have church or civil weddings and Christian funeral rites and education, it said in a statement.<br \/>\u201cWe dream of a free Morocco\u201d which embraces religious diversity, the group said, adding that it hopes Pope Francis\u2019s visit this month will be a \u201chistoric occasion\u201d for the country.<br \/>\u201cWe also call on the Moroccan authorities to no longer put pressure on the country\u2019s official churches, including the Catholic church in Morocco, to dissuade them from accepting\u201d converts to Christianity, the statement said.<br \/>The pontiff is due to visit the North African country on March 30-31 at the invitation of King Mohammed VI.<br \/>More than 40,000 Christians \u2014 mostly foreigners \u2014 are estimated to live in Morocco, whose king describes himself as the \u201ccommander of the faithful.\u201d<br \/>Religious pluralism is enshrined in the constitution and freedom of worship is guaranteed, according to the Moroccan authorities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RABAT: Morocco\u2019s Christian minority on Thursday called on authorities in the Muslim-majority country to guarantee religious freedoms, ahead of a visit by Pope Francis.The Coordination of Moroccan Christians, a group representing converts to Christianity in a nation that is 99 percent Muslim, appealed for \u201cbasic freedoms of which we, Moroccan Christians, are still often deprived.\u201dThese&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}