A new report has questioned Morocco’s claims to religious tolerance, arguing that laws relating to Ramadan observance, burial and conversion continue to limit freedom of religion despite constitutional protections.
The report, “Freedom of Religion in Morocco,” was written by Kam Billings, Rebekah Belonga, Claire Lee and Cianna Jones of Regent University’s Center for Global Justice, with legal analysis from Colton Grellier of International Christian Concern.
It examines Moroccan law alongside the country’s obligations under international human rights agreements, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Morocco’s 2011 Constitution identifies Islam as the state religion but, per Article 3, “guarantees to all the free exercise of beliefs.”
However, the authors argue that this commitment is weakened by other laws and practices that favour Islam and restrict expressions of belief outside the country’s dominant religious framework.
The report describes what it calls a “persistent and deliberate gap between formal guarantees and lived realities”, arguing that this is particularly evident in laws regulating Ramadan, religious conversion and burial.
One of the provisions examined is Section 222 of Morocco’s Penal Code, which makes it an offence for a person “notoriously known to belong to the Muslim religion” to publicly break the Ramadan fast without a religiously acceptable exemption.
The offence can result in a prison sentence of up to six months as well as a fine, but according to the report, the wording creates uncertainty over who may be regarded as Muslim, particularly where a person has converted to another religion or no longer identifies with Islam.
The authors question how “broadly” the requirement that non-observance be public or “ostensible” is applied in practice, arguing that perceptions within a person’s community can become more significant than their own declared religious identity.
Section 220 of the Penal Code is also criticised. This provision criminalises attempts to “shake the faith of a Muslim” or encourage conversion through what the law describes as “means of seduction”.
The report argues that such terminology is insufficiently precise and gives authorities considerable discretion over what kinds of religious discussion, evangelism or persuasion may be considered unlawful.
It cites the case of Moroccan Christian convert Abdelmouttalib Ghaffar, whose identification documents were reportedly seized in 2019 and not subsequently replaced.
Burial practices are identified as a further area of concern, with the report saying that they are largely organised according to Islamic religious principles and that secular options are limited.
While Christian and European cemeteries exist in some areas, sometimes through consular arrangements, the report says access can be significantly more expensive than burial in a Muslim cemetery - 13 times that of a standard Muslim burial in some regions.
Such financial barriers may leave poorer non-Muslims and migrants unable to secure burial arrangements in line with their own beliefs or those of their families. Furthermore, repatriating the body of a deceased migrant to their country of origin could be prohibitively expensive, leaving some families with few realistic alternatives.
The report assesses Morocco’s laws against Article 18 of the ICCPR, which protects freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to adopt or change a religion or belief. Morocco became a party to the covenant in 1979.
Restrictions on religious practice are permitted under the ICCPR only in limited circumstances and must be “prescribed by law, necessary, proportionate” and directed towards a legitimate purpose such as public safety or the protection of the rights of others.
Drawing on decisions by the UN Human Rights Committee, the report argues that Sections 220 and 222 of the Moroccan Penal Code fail several parts of that test. Terms like “seduction”, “notoriously known” and “ostensibly” lack “sufficient precision”, while criminal penalties for peaceful religious persuasion or public non-observance of Ramadan cannot easily be justified as necessary measures to protect public order, according to the report.
The authors also consider other international standards, including Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose explicit protection of the right to “change” religion is presented as foundational to the ICCPR’s religious freedom guarantees and in tension with Morocco’s anti-conversion law.
The report concludes that Sections 220 and 222 are “difficult to reconcile” with Morocco’s international human rights commitments, and that the provisions operate less to address genuine threats to public order than to preserve “religious conformity and communal orthodoxy”.
It is also noted in the report that Morocco is the only country in Africa yet to ratify the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The report states: “Taken together, these laws and practices demonstrate a legal framework in which religious freedom is formally recognized but substantively limited whenever belief diverges from the state’s Islamic identity.
“By criminalizing peaceful religious exchange, coercing public observance of Islamic practices, and regulating burial according to imposed religious classifications, Morocco falls short of its obligations under the ICCPR.
“The covenant protects not merely the right to worship within accepted boundaries, but the deeper right of every individual to define, express, and live according to their own conscience.”
