Proselytising is the act of converting someone to Christianity.
In Morocco it is a criminal offence to attempt to proselytise a Muslim under article 220 of the penal code. The offence carries a fine of like USD15 and more importantly six months in prison. However foreigners suspected of committing the offence are much more likely to be immediately deported and declared persona non grata. This is exactly what happened in March 2010 when 15 Christian missionaries including several US Citizens were deported over their work at the Village of Hope Orphanage in what can only be described as a full blown international incident.
Proselytising is also becoming a growing issue across the wider middle-east and north Africa region. With an Egyptian woman and her seven children each being sentenced to 15 years in prison in January 2013. In only the last few weeks up to 100 Christians were arrested and tortured by Libyan militia men for the crime. This obviously also has a knock on effect about the role of Christians and basically non-Sunni Muslims in a post-Assad Syria and in Iraq.
Therefore while I don't think it displays any overt Christian imagery the diplomatic thing to do would be for Rihanna's tour team to notify the Moroccan authorities about Intro segment of her Diamonds show before they enter the country. This shouldn't be too much of a problem for the CIA handlers because the whole point of pushing for concerts in places like Turkey and Morocco was raise just this sort of issue. However it's worth noting that Turkey has already gone on record to say that they find any comparison between Rihanna and Chris Brown's reunion and the Muslim tradition of arranged marriage to be deeply offensive.
In other Rihanna news the big rumour that's doing the rounds is that Rihanna plans to take a year off music following this tour. This was actually announced by US TV personality Ryan Seacrest on his radio show to several million listeners. Therefore it is certainly louder then your average rumour. I hope this is not true because after the damage to her reputation that the Unapologetic album and the Diamonds tour will do if Rihanna then takes a break it will be very difficult for her to come back. Therefore I think the rumour is an attempt to promote discussion about whether the US are about to disappear Rihanna from view because it's not as if the Rihanna/Chris Brown reunion is something the US can wear as a badge of pride.
Also while I've been writing this the news has broken that Rihanna has cancelled tonight's concert in Boston citing laryngitis. If that diagnosis is correct it proves my point about the stress of being challenged over Chris Brown manifesting itself as psychosomatic illness and it's likely to mean that the entire first US leg of the tour is now cancelled. Hopefully her people will finally get the hint, cancel the tour and sue Chris Brown and the LA County probation service to cover the loss.
16:15 on 10/3/13.
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