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Jordan rejects charge of crackdown on expat Christians

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  • Jordan rejects charge of crackdown on expat Christians

    Agence France Presse
    Feb 21 2008


    Jordan rejects charge of crackdown on expat Christians
    6 hours ago

    AMMAN (AFP) - Parliament on Thursday slammed a media report that
    Jordan has increased pressure on expatriate Christians, a day after
    Amman said foreigners had been deported for illegal missionary
    activity.

    "We categorically condemn and reject the false report which is aimed
    at damaging Muslim-Christian relations in Jordan," the 110-member
    lower house of parliament said.

    In January a Christian news agency, Compass Direct News, said that
    last year Jordan deported or refused residence permits to at least 27
    expatriate Christian families and individuals, including Americans,
    Europeans, South Koreans, Egyptians, Sudanese and Iraqis.

    The agency quoted some deportees as saying that Jordanian
    intelligence officers had questioned them over "evangelism of
    Muslims."

    Jordan acknowledged the deportations on Wednesday.

    Acting Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told parliament that the
    authorities had deported several expatriates for breaking the law and
    preaching illegally "under the cover of doing charity" work.

    Converting from Islam to Christianity is not allowed in Muslim
    conservative Jordan and foreign missionary groups are banned from
    seeking converts.

    The lower house insisted that "Christians in Jordan are an integral
    part of the society," holding posts in parliament, the government and
    the armed forces and "living in peace and harmony with their Muslim
    brothers."

    But the deportees, in said in a statement, aimed to undermine these
    ties.

    "After the kingdom opened its doors to some groups to do charitable
    work, they began missionary activities in cheap ways that feed
    religious feuding and threaten national security," it said.

    Last week Jordan's Council of Churches, representing the country's
    Christian community, warned about what it called 40 "sects" in the
    kingdom.

    It said the actions of the sects, which it did not identify,
    "threaten the security of the country" and "create religious discord
    at the heart of the Christian community and between Muslims and
    Christians".

    Jordan's Christian community is estimated to number around four
    percent of the 5.8-million-strong population and comprises Greek
    Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Armenians and Latins.
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