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Morocco’s crackdown on islamists
The trial in Morocco of three Saudis and seven Moroccans accused of being part of an al-Qaeda plot has shaken the image many Moroccans hold of their country as a peaceful, tolerant Muslim state. Many here now fear their country is under threat from the import of radical, fundamentalist ideas from abroad. Anouar Zyne describes how his friend, Aziz Assadi, a young lawyer, was killed by a group of radical Islamists a year ago. "My friend Aziz was leaving a bar in the centre of Casablanca with two female friends, when he was accosted by five young men. They forced him into their car, and drove him to the outskirts of the city," he says. "There they carried out a sort of mock trial, and found him guilty of being an infidel because he drank alcohol and had female company. Then they slit his throat and dumped his body down a well."Police say the group responsible has been carrying out a number of similar murders across the country. In July, several men were detained for the killings and are now awaiting trial. The arrests appear to have been part of a crackdown against Islamist groups, including Salafists, a fundamentalist current of Islam. The arrests appear to have been part of a crackdown against Islamist groups, including Salafists, a fundamentalist current of Islam. Lahcen Ossimouah is a journalist on Morocco's biggest-selling daily newspaper, al-Ahdath al-Maghribia. "Last summer, the authorities arrested a number of young people belonging to radical Islamist groups like Salafist Combatants, who had committed crimes across the country. These groups came from urban slum areas, so the authorities closed down the mosques there, which were makeshift and unofficial," he says. "Also, it was discovered that thousands of books and cassettes with a fundamentalist message had been imported into Morocco illegally from Saudi Arabia for example, and so the bookshops selling them were closed down." Funny how Saudi always pops up when extremists are around. Mr Ossimouah believes there is a small core of radical islamists in Morocco, including those who fought in Afghanistan against the Russians. He says the authorities were right to move against them: "I think in Morocco, the young mujahideen who have returned from Afghanistan are going to want to do the same thing here as they did over there. I think we are faced with the seeds of violence, and if we hadn't done something to limit this phenomenon, it could have got out of control." Morocco is proud of its own brand of Islam which it sees as moderate and tolerant, and it wants to preserve that tradition. But critics of the government see the core of radicalism as having its roots in poverty and ignorance - something , they say, that is not being addressed by the current state crackdown. Posted by: Anonymous 2002-12-13 |
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