A trip to the south. Discovering eSwatiniWestern Sahara is one of the oldest and most complex territorial disputes in contemporary history and dates back to colonial times. This region, in fact, constituted a Spanish province known as Spanish Sahara and was claimed in 1975 (end of Spanish colonial rule over the region) by both Morocco and Mauritania.
The Western Sahara issue
The area has always been inhabited by the Saharawi people, who speak the Arabic language "hassaniya" (a particular form of Maghrebi Arabic that differs in part from Moroccan) and belong to the ethno-linguistic group of the Moors (Arabized Berbers).
Already in 1973 the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro had been created with the aim of achieving the independence of the region. In 1975, after the Green March (a massive demonstration organized by the Moroccan government to achieve the independence of the Saharawi region from Spain and its annexation to Morocco), Spain withdrew from the area, which was then invaded by Morocco and Mauritania, triggering an armed conflict with the Polisario Front. In 1976, the latter proclaimed the birth of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), recognized by several countries and the African Union, but not by the United Nations.
In 1979, Mauritania relinquished its claims to Western Sahara, leaving Morocco in control of most of the territory. The conflict lasted until 1991, when the United Nations negotiated a cease-fire and established the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), with the aim of organizing a referendum to determine the future of the territory. However, this referendum was never held, due to disagreement between the parties over both the composition of the electorate and the manner of voting.
Morocco continues to consider Western Sahara an integral part of its territory and has launched a policy of development and investment in the region. On the other hand, the Polisario Front continues to fight for independence and runs Saharawi refugee camps in neighboring Algeria, where many refugees have been living for decades (Morocco is at odds with Algeria mainly over this issue, as Algeria has always supported the Polisario Front also to destabilize its neighbor).
There have been important diplomatic breakthroughs in recent years, such as the U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2020, in exchange for the normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel. However, the international community remains divided on the issue, and the future of Western Sahara is more uncertain than ever.
The Jews of Morocco
Currently, 99% of the Moroccan population is Sunni Muslim. However, a very ancient Jewish community, one of the most important in the Arab-Islamic world, has been present in the country for thousands of years. Various legends trace its origins back to the time of Joshua. The communities that had already been living in Morocco for several centuries were later reinforced by the wave of Israelite refugees expelled from Spain in 1492, who brought to Morocco the splendor of the Andalusian golden age.
For centuries, Muslims and Jews coexisted productively in the Maghreb country, and the Israelites, who were encouraged by Muslim rulers to live with the rest of the population in mixed neighborhoods, preferred instead to live in separate neighborhoods, which took the name "mellah", a typically Moroccan toponym for the land by which part of the city of Fez was known.
In 1764, King Mohammed III ordered many Jewish merchant families to settle in the new city of Mogador. A new privileged merchant class was thus formed, which took the reins of a vast commercial activity throughout the Mediterranean. However, despite this new status, Moroccan Jews, largely excluded from this economic process, continued to engage in traditional trades, especially craftsmanship.
With the Algeciras conference of 1906, the Moroccan territory was divided into two zones of influence, one French and the other Spanish, and in 1912 two different protectorates were established.
However, the northern part (the French part, i.e. Morocco proper) continued to enjoy a certain autonomy, so that the Moroccan Jewish community was able to preserve itself from the racial laws applied in the rest of the Maghreb (Algeria and Tunisia) during the Vichy regime, since King Mohammed V (Morocco was a protectorate of France) refused to make them operative in his country.
Apart from the serious pogrom in Oujda, in 1948, after the proclamation of the State of Israel, which caused 40 deaths among the Israeli population of the city, after the independence of Morocco in 1956, the attitude of the Moroccan authorities towards the Jews was, at least to a certain extent, commendable. Moroccan Jews, in fact, had long been considered citizens like the others and therefore less influenced by French culture than their Algerian and Tunisian co-religionists. They spoke mostly Spanish or Arabic, held important positions in the government and some of them were members of the regular army.
However, if in 1956 the Moroccan population of Jewish religion amounted to 263,000 people, in 1961, the time of the first real crisis in the relations between Jews and Muslims, 40,000 Jews had already left the country. Until 1978, emigration did not cease, to the point that today only 2 or 3 thousand citizens of the Jewish religion remain in the country, most of whom live in Casablanca, Marrakech and Rabat.
Christianity in Morocco
Christians in Morocco are a tiny minority, between 20,000 (according to the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures, GRF) and 40.000 (according to the U.S. State Department), nothing compared to ancient times (Christianity arrived in Morocco already in Roman times when it was practiced by the Berbers of the then province of Mauretania Tingitana, but in fact disappeared after the Islamic conquest) and the colonial era (the European presence in the country had raised the number of Christian believers to more than half a million, almost half the population of Casablanca, of which at least 250,000 were Spanish).
After independence in 1956, many Christian institutions remained active, although most of the European settlers left the country in the years that followed. Despite this, the Christian community has been able to continue to exist thanks mainly to expatriates and emigrants, especially from sub-Saharan Africa: these constitute a large part of the Christian faithful in Morocco, along with a very small number of Moroccan converts.
However, there are no official figures, partly because of the fear of many converts to Christianity from Islam. There is talk of 5,000 expatriate Christians and 3 to 45,000 local converts (the latter figure is provided by the NGO Voice of the Martyrs, VOM), and the practice of apostasy from Islam is secretly spreading not only in the cities, but also in rural areas.
The fear of apostates from Islam declaring themselves Christians derives both from religious traditions (in Islam, apostasy is punishable by death) and from the rules sanctioned by the Penal Code, which prohibits proselytizing and conversion from Islam to other religions (once more common, especially under the French protectorate), even though the most recent Moroccan Constitution of 2011 states (Article 3) that "Islam is the religion of the State", but the State itself "guarantees to each one the free exercise of his religion".
In fact, the Moroccan Penal Code (which still considers breaking the fast in public during the holy month of Ramadan, sexual relations outside marriage or blasphemy as crimes) states, in Article 220, that anyone who induces or encourages a Muslim to convert to another religion is liable to a prison sentence of three to six months and a fine of 200 to 500 dirhams.
Therefore, if apostasy on the part of the one who commits it is not in itself a criminal offense (it is for those who induce a Muslim to convert), it does in fact entail a kind of "civil death", since the apostate, according to the Family Code of the country, is affected by a series of serious impediments, especially in matters of marriage, custody of children and inheritance. In fact, the marriage of a Muslim who converts to another religion is dissolved and the right to custody and guardianship of his children is revoked. If the apostate, therefore, is a woman, she may only have custody of the child until the age at which she has the capacity for religious discernment. As for succession, the apostate has no right to inheritance, which is guaranteed exclusively to Muslim heirs.
Among the Christian communities, the most numerous is the Catholic community, with several parishes, charitable institutions and especially schools throughout the country, especially in Casablanca, Rabat and other large cities. The Protestant and Orthodox Churches are also present. All the Churches are particularly committed to assisting and welcoming expatriates, but also and especially refugees, displaced persons and immigrants, especially sub-Saharans.
In recent years, efforts have been made to promote interfaith dialogue. King Mohammed VI has expressed his commitment to religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence between the different communities, and events such as the visit of Pope Francis in 2019 have stressed the importance of dialogue between Muslims and Christians to foster peace and mutual understanding.
