Casablanca — Mohamed Said, a Moroccan who converted to Christianity, says he survived an attempted murder on the night of Friday, October 4 in Casablanca.
Casablanca — Mohamed Said, a Moroccan who converted to Christianity, says he survived an attempted murder on the night of Friday, October 4 in Casablanca.
The Casablanca police have shied away from calling the incident an attempted murder and instead qualified it as “attempted assault,” reports Yabiladi. The General Directorate of National Security approved the police’s decision.
Said’s complaint, which was filed on Monday, October 7, claimed that two individuals aboard a “Kangoo” type vehicle waited for him near his apartment building. One of the men had a knife and attacked Said upon seeing him. But the aggressors apparently let down after witnesses showed up.
Given Said’s testimony, which claimed that his aggressors clearly threatened to kill him, and security camera footage, it is now the police’s responsibility to determine whether or not they qualify the incident as an attempted assault or an attempted murder.
Said, just like other Moroccans converted to Christianity, face discrimination on a daily basis. Article 220 of the Moroccan penal code condemns “anyone trying to diminish the faith of Muslims” with up to three years in prison. Though there is no explicit law that prevents Moroccans from converting to another religion, it is widely frowned upon.
No one knows how many Christian Moroccans there are exactly, but a Facebook group called “Christian Moroccans” suggests there might be approximately ten thousand.
