Air Arabia Moroccan hub - update

Following on from our earlier story, Merième Addou, AfricaNews reporter in Rabat, reports on the detail of the Air Arabia moves into Morocco.

Air Arabia is set to launch a new hub in the Moroccan capital of Rabat that will allow it to carry passengers to North Africa, Middle East and Europe. It is a low-cost airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is expected to begin operations by the close of 2008 or early 2009 with a dedicated fleet of A320 aircraft.

A management agreement between Air Arabia and Regional Air Lines, the leading private carrier in Morocco has been signed.

Under the terms of the agreement, Air Arabia intends to assume management control of the Morocco-based carrier and it will apply its successful low cost business model to the management of Regional Air Lines. Also, it will jointly establish a new low-cost carrier that will provide affordable and convenient service to a broad range of international destinations.

With this new agreement, Morocco expects to welcome an estimated 10 million tourists a year by 2010 since the agreement provides the opportunity to reach into fast-growing markets in North Africa and across the Mediterranean into southern Europe.

Launched in 2003 and modeled after leading American and European low-cost carriers, Air Arabia is the first and largest low-cost carrier in the Middle East and North Africa and currently provides services to 41 destinations.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Ramadan - careful how you drive!

Amira Al Hussaini, writing on Global Voices has collected the thoughts of Arab bloggers about the upcoming end to Ramadan. Included is an interesting blog entry on driving standards during Ramadan:

From Saudi Arabia, Stilettos in the Sand posts a similar complaint about driving. She explains:

Driving While Fasting… Dangerous. Driving in the Sandbox is scary under the best of conditions! To say that driving, here, is challenging is the understatement of the century if there ever was one - and you literally take your life in your hands the moment you step into a vehicle, whether as the driver or as a passenger. The chances of being in an accident are exponentially multiplied during Ramadan as “drivers, eager to reach their destination, throw all driving sense and caution to the wind.” Yep. ‘Tis true. Today's Saudi Gazette has an article that says, “The standards of driving are known to be erratic in the country and it only gets worse in the holy month of Ramadan.”

Read Amira Al Hussaini's article here: Arabeyes: Ramadan Thoughts


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

The festival of Madih and Samaa in Fez

The festival of Madih and Samaa September 29 to October 1 in Fez

Madih style songs are eulogies to the Prophet Mohamed and in Samaa’ are spiritual poems.

La ville de Fès abritera du 29 Septembre au 1er Octobre le festival du Madih et Samaa, organisé sous le thème "Madih et Samaa, science, art et éducation", à l'initiative de la commune urbaine de Fès.

The city of Fez house of 29 September to 1 October festival Madih and Samaa, held under the theme "Madih and Samaa, science, art and education" at the initiative of the municipality of Fez.

Cette rencontre culturelle et artistique annuelle verra la participation de troupes spirituelles et musicales de plusieurs villes du Maroc, du monde arabe ; notamment du Liban, de la Tunisie, de la Libye, du Pakistan, de la Palestine et du Sénégal.

This cultural and artistic encounter is held annually and will involve the spiritual music of several cities in Morocco, the Arab world, including Lebanon, Tunisia, Libya, Pakistan, Palestine and Senegal.

(Photo credit: Sandy McCutcheon)

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Teaching English or evangelising in Morocco?

Guest Opinion from Mourad D, in Fez, Morocco.

Evangelising via English

Morocco has had a long history of religious tolerance and is unique in the Islamic world for its protection of religious minorities including its Jewish citizens. However there are laws in place protecting Moroccans from Christian evangelists hell-bent on converting (saving?) Muslims.

Over the years evangelists have tried all kinds of ways of getting into Morocco to "spread the word". Some methods have been plain stupid (smuggling bibles in the door panels of cars) and others, like setting up business fronts, quite sophisticated. In Fez, we have even seen houses purchased in order to set up prayer meetings.

Recently I came across the story of Jennifer Beck who spent five weeks in Morocco this summer traveling and teaching high school English. Now had this been all she was doing it would have been fine. And if she talked to people about her faith in her own time it would not be a problem. However, Jennifer returned home and talked to the University website; Whitworthian and what emerges is a disturbing picture

According to Ms Beck, she chose a Christian organisation called TeachOverseas as her program because it offered her an opportunity to teach in Africa during the summer months.

“I wanted to go through a Christian organization, but not one that was all about door-to-door evangelism. I liked that they chose to go out and represent Christ through teaching,” Beck said. “The organization works with countries that are ‘unreached’ groups where Christianity isn’t a part of the culture.”

Before leaving for Morocco, Beck met up with her three other female teaching teammates in Pasadena, Calif. There, they were taught cultural norms, taught how to teach English and make lesson plans. Even over a week of training, Beck said she was unsure of what Moroccan culture would be like.

One thing that continually surprised and confused Beck was how to interact with people of the opposite sex in Morocco’s predominantly male-dominated culture. The differences were compounded with the problem of combating the widely held belief in Morocco that U.S. women were promiscuous.

“In public, if a man says anything to a woman, a woman cannot reply or else it is seen as a sexual advance and for us, it was really odd to adjust to this,” Beck said. “We would be followed or stared at for very long periods of time.”As a resident of the Open Door theme house, Beck is no stranger to the concept of hospitality.

The members of the Open Door theme house make it their goal to keep their home available as a refuge for Whitworth students. At any time, students are encouraged to come over for a place to relax, do homework and fellowship together.

The theme house has a prayer room, where anyone can come and pray in a quiet location out of residence halls. Additionally, three nights a week, students can sign up to come over for free home-cooked meals.

The Moroccan locals also used food as a means of ministering to Beck and her fellow U.S. teachers. The school maids often invited the teaching team to their homes to learn how to prepare Moroccan food.

So what is this English Language teaching organisation?

According to their website:

TeachOverseas is a unique interdenominational ministry that offers you the wisdom of experience with a cutting edge sensibility. Since 1981, we have transformed lives in a dozen different countries through hundreds of summer and year-long programs teaching conversational English.

Each year, we train and send hundreds of Christians to teach English, Business and other subjects in: China, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Vietnam. To date, over 100,000 students around the world have benefited from our teachers' commitment to excellent teaching and Christ-like service. We are an openly Christian organization and have developed an excellent reputation with national governments and local school administrations.

Teaching English is perhaps the best overseas opportunity for Christians. It deals with people face to face; leads to discussions that point to truth; and is needed everywhere in the world. — Ralph Winter

Teaching English as community service is a very worthwhile vocation, but using teaching of English as a way of evangelising is at best dubious, at worst subversive. It is hard to find anyone in the Moroccan Government who is aware of this program's Christian purpose. Christians are very welcome in Morocco - Evangelists not.


Here is a list of earlier stories on evangelical work in Morocco;

German Evangelist Flees

Evangelists Target Morocco

Smuggling Bibles

New Christian Crusade in Morocco

France's supreme court outlaws veil for Muslim women

France's supreme court upheld a decree that refused citizenship to a Muslim woman from Morocco, ruling that she had failed to assimilate French culture. It was ruled that her radical practice of Islam is incompatible with French values.

On June 27, 2008, the Council of State (Conseil d’Etat), the French Supreme Administrative Court, upheld a Prime Minister’s decree refusing citizenship to a Moroccan woman who was married to a French national and had two French children. The Council’s decision was based on the grounds that the woman lacked assimilation to French society because of her radical practice of religion, deemed incompatible with the essential values of the French community, in particular equality of the genders. These findings were supported by elements in the court file that the Moroccan woman was a Salafist Muslim and wore the Burqa.

Citizenship is not a guaranteed right for foreign spouses under French law and the authorities can deny it under the control of administrative courts for reasons of lack of assimilation. However, this does not mean that the State can discriminate and deny citizenship because of the practice of a religion. In this case, the Council of State did not base its decision on motives of public order, such as membership in extremist groups like it has done in the past, or because of problems of identification because the Burqa covered the woman’s whole face, but has ruled for the first time on the basis of the domestic practice of a religion, thereby entering the sphere of private life and beliefs. Such a decision contravenes international human rights standards.

This is a potentially dangerous trend which could lead to further discriminatory evaluations in the area of private religious practice. However, the case law of the Council of State has not followed such a trend in the past. On the contrary, for years it has played a neutral role concerning the wearing of the Muslim veil.

This decision must be understood in the context of French history, where longstanding conflicts have opposed the partisans of moderate secularism and those who wanted to eradicate the manifestation of religious beliefs from the public place under a radical interpretation—or extrapolation—of secularism.

The same argument—prevention of proselytizing—used by these radicals to claim the prohibition of the clerical robe during the debates for the vote of the 1905 law on separation of Churches and State has been used to enact the 2004 law prohibiting wearing conspicuous religious signs in public schools. This latter law was passed in order to reverse the jurisprudence of the Council of State, which used to be neutral and respectful of international human rights norms by defining secularism as neutrality of teachers and programs along with freedom of conscience of the pupils, including their right to express their religious beliefs.


After the vote of the 2004 law, the Council of State’s case law has been totally re-oriented, considering prohibitions against "the insignias and attire, including the Islamic veil, the Jewish kippa, or big crosses, the wearing of which by itself expresses conspicuously a religious adherence." With these grounds, it has upheld expulsions from public schools, sanctioning wearing any version of the Islamic veil and the Sikh Keshi (under turban).

Certainly, the law on religious insignias violates international human rights norms. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, as part of its periodic review of the Member States compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has excoriated the law in its Concluding Observations of July 22, 2008 by finding that "respect for a public culture of secularism would not seem to require forbidding wearing such common religious symbols [as] a skullcap or kippa [or] a headscarf or hijab." The Human Rights Committee recommended that France review its law, which infringes on Article 18 of the Covenant.

The Council of State’s jurisprudence has followed a similar trend concerning accession to citizenship. Under laws passed in 2003 and 2006 promoting "selected immigration," the construction of "lack of assimilation" has been extended to include the June 27, 2008 decision, allowing assessment by authorities and Courts of religious practices to determine if they conflict with French Republic values. Not to mention the fact that the finding by the Council of State that Salafism is a "radical practice" of Islam amounts to deciding an internal conflict within Islamology.

Such an evaluation contravenes the European Court of Human Rights case law as well as international human rights standards. The European Human Rights Court has consistently ruled that the States have a duty of neutrality and impartiality and that "the right to freedom of religion as guaranteed under the Convention excludes any discretion on the part of the State to determine whether religious beliefs or the means used to express such beliefs are legitimate."

It remains to be seen to see if an application is filed with the Human Rights Court to challenge the decision of the Council of State and, if so, what the outcome will be.

The author of the article, Patricia Duval, is a contributor to the Cutting Edge News and a member of the Paris Bar.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Air Arabia to launch Moroccan hub.

Sharjah-based low cost carrier Air Arabia’s launch of a hub in Morocco with a dedicated fleet of A320s is “very imminent”, according to the airline’s chief executive officer.
“We don’t have a firm date yet, but it is likely to be at the end of this year or early 2009,” Adel Ali said on Sunday.

Air Arabia announced, at the end of last year, that it would establish a hub in Morocco’s capital Rabat, providing a platform to reach Europe, Africa and those parts of the Middle East beyond it’s reach in Sharjah. Air Arabia operates 15 Airbus A320 with 49 on order.

Ali said four were being delivered per year but it was likely to place an order for more A320s for the Morocco hub, which will require it’s own fleet and aircraft.

He said Air Arabia would also look at leasing planes to fill any gap or delays of delivery.“We’ll need more aircraft for Morocco and we’ll stick with the A320s as we’re happy with them.” “It’s always a good option to have a mix of leasing or purchasing.”

The airline has already signed a management agreement of Morocco’s leading private carrier Regional Air Lines, as part of its hub plans. While Ali recognised that high oil prices had put pressure on airlines worldwide, he said Middle East airlines had benefited from the economic boom that came with high oil prices.

Despite a “challenging year” for the airline with fuel prices and the economic downturn, Ali said the carrier expected “reasonably good profits” and it’s expansion plans and aircraft orders were on track.

“While oil does put pressure on us, Air Arabia has a strong balance sheet,” Ali said.“Middle Eastern economies are good and people are still traveling in this region.”He denied concern regarding the competition posed by low cost carrier FlyDubai.

“One more airline will bring more business. There are already ten – they’ll be eleven. They have to work hard as well.” Air Arabia established Nepal as its second hub in January with majority-owned Nepalese unit FlyYeti.com.

However, services ceased due to a change of government and there is no date set for the services to resume.

“The challenge was a change of administration. We weren’t sure of the new policies. We just want to make sure it’s all addressed before we go back in there,” added Ali.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Moroccan News Roundup #3508

Fatwa scandal gets international attention

The fatwa issued by a Moroccan religious figure has made the international news. (see our earlier story here). The condemnation of the cheik and his fatwa has been almost universal.

Cheikh Mohamed ben Abderrahmane Al-Maghraoui recently published a religious decree on an internet site calling for girls as young as nine years of age to become wives. A lawyer as well as human rights activists have joined the ever swelling number of critics to denounce this call to legalise paedophilia.

Al-Maghraoui has driven Moroccan human rights activists into a frenzy. According to a story published by Al Jarida Al Oula [a Moroccan journal] September 1st, the religious leader called for a fatwa on an Islamic site maghrawi.net calling for the marriage of 9 year old girls. “We have been told and we have seen that 9 year old girls are capable of wifely duties just like 20 year old women”, Cheikh Mohamed ben Abderrahmane Al-Maghraoui told maghrawi.net. And to give more strength to his comments he implicated the Prophet as having married a 9 year old child.

Risk of a boom in under-age marriages

If a scandal is what he is has been aiming at, he has undoubtedly achieved his goal. Human rights activists are venting their spleen. They reject a backward religious act that soils the international convention for the rights of children which was ratified by Morocco, as well as the new family code which puts the minimum marriageable age at 18 years, whatever the sex. The Code is, however, wrought with inconsistencies on the question of premature marriage. “The legislator has authorised premature marriage under exceptional conditions and submitted it for authorisation from the judge without being precise about the minimum age nor contractual conditions. The result of this is the ongoing practice of premature marriage”. Said Fatiha Mesbahi a member of the Moroccan human rights association (AMDH)

There is a widespread fear that this fatwa is designed to encourage premature marriage. In his comments, Mourad Bekkouri, a lawyer from rabat, says that due to “Morocco’s high number of illiterates, the effect of this action among the rural population remains unknown. Parents could marry off their small children should they think that the fatwa is officially binding, although it has not been approved by the Superior Council of ulemas”. Faced with such uncertainties, Mourad Bekkouri filed a law suit against this fatwa in Rabat on September 4. She is still waiting for the court’s decision.

Atlas Blue flights Gatwick to Fez

One of our readers has emailed with the following [piece of positive news:

Just been playing around on the Atlas Blue (www.atlas-blue.com) website and discovered direct London Gatwick (LGW) direct flights to Fez seem to start again on 19th December, in time for Christmas so book now !

We hope it's true.


Five young girls drowned in mud

Five young girls were killed on Sunday morning after they drowned in unstable mud near the Aoulouz dam, in the vicinity of Taroudant ( in the south of the country).

According to locals, the young girls were collecting grass for livestock and entered an unauthorized area local authorities said.

The bodies of the girls, aged between 15 and 16, were pulled out by local inhabitants and handed to their families for burial.

Moroccan movie to compete at Vancouver International Film Festival

The Moroccan feature film "Les Coeurs brûlés" (Burnt Hearts)by Ahmed Al-Maanouni will participate in the official competition of the 27th Vancouver International Film Festival which runs from September 25 to October 10.

The 84-minute film recounts the story of Amin, a young Moroccan architect living in Paris, who returns to Fez faced with the imminent death of his uncle, the man who raised him. Returning to his city of birth forces him to confront the pain of a past which has lain forgotten, but which now returns in all its harshness.

The Vancouver International Film Festival will show 332 films from 60 countries at 575 screenings over 16 days. With nearly 150,000 admissions, VIFF is among the biggest film festivals in North America.

Morocco to search for gold in Sudan

A Moroccan mining company has won contracts to search for gold in two mineral-rich areas of Sudan, state media reported on Monday.

Morocco's Managem MNG.CS signed exploration agreements covering territory in Wadi-Gigiya in Sudan's Red Sea State and Al-Sharif in River Nile State, said the state Suna news agency.

Gold has been mined in Sudan for thousands of years, since the days of its ancient Nubian civilisation.

But the government says it still has large untapped reserves, left untouched thanks to under development and years of conflict.

Managem's chairman Abdul-Aziz Abaru told Suna the company would spend $3 million setting up the mining operation.

Suna said the agreement with Sudan's Ministry of Energy and Mining covered one area in River Nile state and one in Red Sea State, home of much of Sudan's existing gold mining activity.

Managem is a subsidiary of Moroccan conglomerate ONA ONA.CS.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Morocco wins 3rd gold medal in Beijing

Moroccan athlete Abdelilah Mame on Monday won the gold medal in the 800m event (T13 category), the third for Morocco at the Paralympic Games

Mame, 33, ran the 800 meters in 1 min 54.78, ahead of American Gottwald Jr Peter (1 min 55.49) and Algerian Sekhri Zine Eddine (1:55.90).

For her part, Laila El Garaa won the bronze medal at the shot put (T40 category), with 8.44 meters, behind Tunisian Raoua Tlili (8,95 m, a new paralympic record) and Chinese Menggen Jimisu (8,48 m).

Following these results, Morocco ranks 33rd in the provisional general ranking, with six medals, three gold, one silver and two bronze.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Gnawa music revival in Morocco

The ABC in Australia are running an interesting story about the Gnawa music Festival in Essaouira.

Photo credit : AFP: Abdelhak Senna

Morocco's Gnawa, heirs to a musical and spiritual tradition brought north across the Sahara centuries ago by black slaves, are enjoying new fame as their hypnotic rhythms hook listeners across the world.

The Gnawa brotherhoods have long scraped a living on the margins of Moroccan society by offering to restore health or good fortune through seances featuring trances and incantation.

They symbolise the rich cultural mix of a country at the crossroads of Africa, Europe and the Arab world and many Moroccans say they are part of their national identity.

But Islamists, whose influence has grown among working-class Moroccans, have undermined their status by condemning their hedonistic lifestyle and belief in supernatural beings of African origin.

Now, the Gnawi have found an inadvertent champion in the north African kingdom's Government as it seeks to bolster Morocco's moderate Maliki strain of Islam - with its Sufi mysticism and cult of saints - to counter Islamic extremists.

The Government's aim is to entrench Maliki Islam to help discredit the more hard-line Salafist and Wahhabi doctrines that originated in the Middle East.

Read the full story here: Gnawa Music Festival

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news