U.S. Religious Freedom Report highlights anti-Shia practice in Morocco

The U.S. Department of State issued a report on Thursday regarding religious freedoms in Morocco.

The report confirmed the “ongoing suppression of Shia thought by the authorities in the kingdom and the circumventing of the 2017 ban on wearing the burqa by some women who make and wear it at home.”

The annual report stated that “religious minorities in Morocco feel afraid of societal harassment, mockery, and discrimination, which drives them to practice their religious rituals silently and secretly.”

The report highlighted instances of suppressing Shia thought in Morocco in 2023, mentioning “the authorities’ approval of the extradition of Saudi Shia Muslim Hassan Al-Rubaie to Saudi authorities, and in April 2023, the Court of Appeals sentenced a person to two years in prison for attempting to convert his family to the Shia sect and other crimes.”

The U.S. report estimated, according to Shia Muslim leaders, that the number of Shia followers in Morocco is several thousand, with most residing in the northern cities of the kingdom.

Additionally, there are about one to two thousand foreign Shias residing in Morocco, coming from Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia.

The report noted that “according to religious leaders and legal scholars, the government’s refusal to allow Shia groups to register as associations continued to prevent Shia from legally gathering to hold their religious celebrations, and there were no known Shia mosques or ‘Husseiniyas’ in Morocco.”

The U.S. Department of State report continued: “Shia sources continued to say that Shia celebrated ‘Ashura’ privately to avoid societal harassment and to conceal their religious affiliation in areas where their numbers were smaller, especially since the authorities only allowed ‘Ashura’ processions for Sunni Muslims.”

On the other hand, the report highlighted the existence of guarantees for the freedom to practice religious rituals for Sunni Muslims, Jews, and Moroccan Christians, although the latter “are still unable to bury their dead in Christian cemeteries or bear Christian names.”