Often touted as a bastion of a moderate cultural Islam, Morocco is just as susceptible to jihadist recruitment as anywhere else -- witness the Moroccans in the Al-Qaeda cell.
By Sammy Ketz for Agence France-Presse (thanks to all who sent this in):
MOROCCO'S security forces were on maximum alert today after "established terror threats" by what experts said was the regional branch of al-Qaeda.Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa informed the country's security experts yesterday of a “current threat” against the northwest African country.
The alert demands the full mobilisation of the security services and the “redoubling of vigilance”, the interior ministry said after the meeting.
Morocco has been on edge since a series of suicide bomb attacks earlier this year which killed a police officer and injured 45 people.
“Reliable information relayed in recent days to the interior ministry described the preparation of acts of terrorism in Morocco,” a Moroccan security source said on condition of anonymity....
In Britain eight people were detained after failed attacks in London and Glasgow last week and in Spain police arrested four Moroccans suspected of having links to an al-Qaeda cell.
But Mr Darif said authorities also reacted to a video cassette, attributed to al-Qaeda, in which Moroccan Islamists threaten the kingdom....
FBI chief Robert S Mueller was in Rabat last week and Germany's junior interior minister August Hanning discussed anti-terror measures with Moroccan colleagues this week.
where ever islam controls or numbers get high enough you will always have jihadist recruitment followed by bombings, murder and general mayhem, its what you call being a pious muslims achieves in any country where islam is practiced.
Well, Morocco used to be apart of the Islamic caliphate, back in the days of Islamic conquest.
Since it is the duty of all Muslims to ensure that land which was once under dar-al Islam, stays under dar-al Islam. We will undoubtedly see Muslims attempting to create an Islamic state there, with Sharia law enforced for all.
It's happening all over the world, really, but moreso in lands which were once apart of the caliphate.
http://google.com/trends?q=jihad
Six months ago, Morocco topped the list for Google searches of 'Jihad'.
Now Morocco is second to Lebanon.
And all the "thick description" of Cllifford Geertz who, en depit d'Andre Weil, managed to get his professorship at the Institute for Advanced Study, which he supplies in "Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia" will be irrelevant. Islam may not be "monolithic" -- different kinds of clothing, from dishdashas to kalmiz shalwar, all kinds of turbans and footwear, many different cuisines -- but still in the end the Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira, that provide the three stools of the Total System of Islam, which purports to offer, which does offer, a Complete Regulation of Daily Life and a Total Explanation of the Universe unify the members of the umma al-Islamiyya.
Claiming Sherifian descent, the kings of Morocco have had a long run. Their police state -- see what happened to Ben Barka (google "L'enlevement de la France" while you are at it), snatched from the sidewalk in front of the Brasserie Lipp, see what happened to Mohammad Oufkir -- may or may not be effective enough to deal with this threat to the regime, corrutp of course but not as corrupt as some -- as Mubarak, say, with his Family-and-Friends Plan, or the incredibly greedy and malevolent Al-Saud -- because there is just less money to steal, and besides, without oil, Morocco relies on tourism, dates, and the use of its couleur locale for the revenues to be obtained from the tournage of Western movies -- (a Felliniesque "Ciak!" to be inserted right here).
Morocco is not "our ally." Morocco is not a wonderful place. Morocco is just -- Morocco.