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| Marching for her future:
Young and old march in support of the Kingdom’s
values. |
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Photo by Maxwell Johnson
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In future decades, historians will look to the
opening years of the 21st century for an understanding
of the confluence of events that determined the
course of Morocco’s history. The situation
in the Kingdom of Morocco today casts in bold relief
the struggle between the Islam of tolerance and
openness that has historically been a part of Moroccan
life, and the backward, repressive misinterpretation
of Islam that al-Qaeda and its followers practice.
The Kingdom erupted with joy at the May 8, 2003,
announcement of the birth of Crown Prince Moulay
Al-Hassan, the royal couple’s first-born child,
which marked the beginning of a week of nationwide
celebrations. The party was still underway on May
16, when, in an instant, everything changed.
At exactly 9:30 pm on that mid-spring Friday evening,
the people of Morocco heard the first shots in the
war for the Kingdom’s soul. A group of 14 al-Qaeda
inspired radical Islamists simultaneously detonated
explosive devices at six locations throughout downtown
Casablanca, the financial and industrial heart of
the Kingdom. In the gruesome aftermath, 44 people
were killed and more than were 100 injured. The
bombers hit the upscale Farah Hotel, frequent host
to Israeli tour groups, the Belgian consulate, next
door to a popular Jewish-owned Italian restaurant,
the Jewish cemetery, a Jewish Community Center closed
for the Sabbath, and Casa de Espana, a popular Spanish
restaurant and social club frequented by Western
diplomats and businessmen.
Almost immediately, His Majesty King Mohammed
VI ordered a massive law enforcement response, mobilizing
all available investigative resources to track down
any accomplices. Because of the long history of
friendship and amity between the two nations and
Morocco’s unwavering commitment to the post-9/11
global war on terror, President Bush offered His
Majesty the full resources of the U.S. government’s
formidable counter-terrorism apparatus to hunt down
the instigators of the horrific attacks.
President Bush made it clear in his official statement
on the bombings that the goal of the terrorists
was to attack everything that the Moroccan people
hold dear.
“I strongly condemn the terrorist bombings
in Casablanca, Morocco, that have taken many innocent
lives. On behalf of the American people, I extend
condolences to the families of the victims and our
hopes for a quick recovery to those injured. These
acts of murder show, once again, that terrorism
respects no boundaries nor borders. Casablanca is
a city well-known for its tolerance and its diverse
range of religious and ethnic communities. These
acts demonstrate that the war against terror goes
on. Morocco is a close friend of the United States
and we offer assistance to the government of Morocco
to help track down and bring to justice those responsible.
“
During the following weeks, the Moroccan authorities
arrested dozens of radical Islamists from the impoverished
Casablanca bedonville (slum) of Carriere Thomas,
home to all of the suicide bombers. Many more alleged
accomplices were apprehended in Spain, home to a
large community of Moroccan expatriates. The national
coordinator of the attacks, a 30 year old cobbler
from Fez, died in police custody in late May after
intense police interrogation.
In the wake of these attacks that killed far more
of the bombers’ fellow Moroccans than any Western
victims, an unprecedented groundswell of popular
outrage erupted. In discussions with Moroccans in
the days and weeks after the bombings, the refrain
“This is not Morocco,” could be heard
more than any other. Person after person went to
great lengths to voice their disgust and outrage
at the attacks and the attackers, to make sure that
a foreigner understood the difference between the
Islam of real Moroccans and the distorted, un-Islamic
beliefs of the bombers. Morocco’s Minister
of Habous and Islamic Affairs, Ahmed Toufiq stressed
that “these attacks were perpetrated by individuals
embracing ideas that nonchalantly accuse other people
of being apostate and of heresy,” while “the
suicide bombings are contradictory to Islam, which
like all revealed religions, bans suicide as an
inadmissible and unjustified act.”
On May 25, 2003, nine days after the attacks,
Casablanca was the site of one of the largest demonstrations
in the history of the nation. An estimated 750,000
to one million people from every corner of the Kingdom
converged upon the city to condemn the attacks and
the worldview of those who instigated them. Even
people from villages deep in the High Atlas Mountains
who had never before ventured down from their ancestral
homes took part. They joined hundreds of thousands
of their fellow Moroccans to register their rhetorical
vote for tolerance and the traditions of the Moroccan
nation and against the “obscurantism”
that these foreign-inspired acts of murder and destruction
represented. “It is crucial to understand the
reasons behind how Moroccans were indoctrinated
with extremist ideas that harm culture and democracy
through practices and behaviors that are alien to
Moroccan society,” said Minister Toufiq.
On May 29, 2003, His Majesty delivered an impassioned
address to the Kingdom to provide comfort to his
subjects and to give voice to the indignation and
outrage felt by the vast majority.
“…The terrorist aggression is incompatible
with our identity and with our tolerant faith.
Furthermore, its instigators, like the perpetrators,
are wretched rogues who can in no way claim to
be Moroccans or true Muslims, as they do not even
know that tolerance is one of the characteristics
of Islam which forbids bloodshed and considers
that taking the life of a human being unjustifiably
is tantamount to slaying the whole of mankind…”
In the wake of the Casablanca bombings, His Majesty
and the Moroccan government are redoubling their
efforts to address the endemic poverty that proved
to be such an accommodating recruitment environment
for the instigators of the attacks. With any luck,
the tide of radical Islamist thinking that has invaded
the Kingdom can be pushed back and the people of
Morocco can continue their efforts to create a model
of progressive thinking and sustainable development
for the rest of the Islamic and developing world
to emulate.
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