The Moroccan government warned Thursday it would take a tough line against proselytisers two days after 20 foreign Christian missionaries were expelled.
Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said the government would be "severe with all those who play with religious values".
The Christians were expelled after religious authorities accused them of proselytism, illegal in the North African majority Sunni-Muslim country.
The warning also referred to Muslims of the radical Salafia Jihadia movement and certain Shiite Muslim teachers, the minister said.
The expelled missionaries included couples from Britain and The Netherlands who had adopted Moroccan children, the Open Doors international Protestant evangelical organisation said.
It criticised the government's move, asking in a statement whether "Morocco was taking a step backwards on the road to openness and respect for human rights."
Naciri dismissed the charge, stating that "Morocco has always been and remains a land of openness and tolerance."
"All churches have their place on the street in Morocco and Christians practise their religion freely," the minister said.
"The rare cases of expulsion have nothing to do with the practice of Christianity but with acts of proselytism."
Naciri said the expelled missionaries "took advantage of the poverty of some families and targeted their young children, whom they took in hand, in violation of the kafala (adoption) procedures for abandoned or orphaned children."
The children have been placed in a care home.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Rabat, Vincent Landel, and the president of the Evangelical Church in Morocco Father Jean-Luc Blanc said Wednesday those who were expelled "were not acting in accordance with the law of the Catholic Church."
Proselytism was "an act to be condemned," they said.
"Our goal is to take part in the building of a Morocco where Muslims, Jews and Christians are happy to share their responsibility in building a country where people can live together in justice, peace and reconciliation," they said.
Rabbi Joseph Israel, president of the rabbinical chamber at the court in Casablanca, also spoke out against proselytism.
"Morocco is a nation of tolerance," he said, according to the MAP news agency. "Here, we practise all religions -- Islam, Judaism and Christianity -- without constraints or limits."
"There is no place for the practice of proselytism."
On Thursday, Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui and Minister of Islamic Affairs Ahmed Touqif had a meeting with Archbishop Landel, Father Blanc and Rabbi Israel, MAP reported.
The government ministers wanted to give the representatives of the other faiths "the thanks of the Moroccan authorities for their firm reaction and their immediate condemnation of acts of proselytism aimed at undermining our beliefs and our spiritual religious values," the news agency said.
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
