(AFP) – Feb 21, 2008

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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