Morocco Bans the Sale of Burqas

According to the news site lesiteinfo.com burqa producers and retailers have been issued written warnings to cease making and/or selling the garment. They have been further instructed to get rid of their burqa stock or convert it within 48 hours. If they fail to comply manufactures will risk confiscation of all their goods

Representatives of the Interior Ministry have visited markets and hand-delivered notices to inform both sellers and tailors to stop the production and sale of the burqa. In Morocco the term "burqa" is also used to describe the niqab

A photograph of the notice is also circulating on social media. It is said to have been sent by "El Basha", a representative of the Interior Ministry,

The note informs the tailor or merchant that... “following the observations of the authorities, we notice that you sell burqas – so, we are calling on you to get rid of the products of this outfit within 48 hours and to refrain from selling it in the future.”

A senior official at the Ministry of Interior was quoted by Moroccan news outlet Le360 as saying “We have taken measures to completely ban the import, manufacture and marketing of this garment in all cities and towns in the kingdom,”

Morocco is not alone in bringing in a burqa ban. A draft law has been written in Egypt, while Chad banned women from wearing the full-face veil following two suicide bomb attacks in June 2015. There are similar bans in parts of Cameroon and Niger as well as Congo-Brazzaville and the Gabon.

In Fez women told The View From Fez that they supported the ban. "I don't feel safe when I see someone wearing a burqa," said thirty-two year old Fatima Zahra, "You don't know if they are a salafist and that causes problems for me."

If the ban is implemented there will certainly be a negative reaction from fundamentalists. However, Morocco's police and security officers will be see it as a way of improving public security. Authorities have not formally explained this measure and have not said if the wearing of the burqa would be prohibited.

Another news site suggested that the restrictions might only apply to Casablanca, but security sources responded that it applied to the whole country

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Morocco's Legislative Election Results

Two major parties emerged far ahead of the rest of the field - the Justice and Development Party (PJD) topped the elections with 125 seats in the House of Representatives. The Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM) followed with the most spectacular advance of any party, rising from 42 seats in 2011 to 102 this year

Abdelilah Benkirane - PJD leader

Far back they were followed by the Istiqlal Party (46 seats), the National Rally of Independents (37 seats), the Popular Movement (27 seats) and the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (20 seats). The Constitutional Union managed to win 19 seats in the lower house. The Party of Progress and Socialism won 12 seats while the Social Democratic Movement captured 3 seats. Democratic Left Federation had only 2 seats despite the mobilisation of social networks during the election campaign. The two vacant seats on the 395 parliamentary seats will be occupied by the Green Left Party and the Party of Uniqueness and Democracy.

 Hisham Aidi, a Harlem-based writer, writing for Aljazeera English says that in the run-up to election day, the war of words between the main rival parties - the incumbent PJD and the Party for Authenticity and Modernity (PAM) - escalated, with the Islamist PJD claiming that their main rival, the PAM, is favoured by the state, and the latter stating that the PJD has been spreading extremist ideology throughout the kingdom.

Thirty parties have fielded candidates yet only four or five parties have a strong electoral base and won a sizeable number of seats - namely, the incumbent PJD, the rising PAM, the Istiqlal Party (founded in 1944), the Popular Movement, and the Party of Progress and Socialism.

The greatest improvement in the election belongs to  PAM, a  party was founded in 2008 by Fouad El Himma, a close adviser to King Mohammed VI. PAM does not have a clear ideological stance - it claims to be "democratic and modern" - and is supported by prominent business leaders.

By most accounts, the PAM was established to counter the growing influence of the Islamist PJD, which has been making electoral gains since it won eight seats in the parliamentary elections of 1997.

The Islamist party went on to win 42 seats in September 2002, and 107 seats in November 2011, after which Abdelilah Benkirane, the party leader, was named prime minister of Morocco.

PAM supporters at a rally in Kenitra

Since its founding, the PAM has also been building support, particularly among liberals and economic elites, winning roughly the same amount of votes as the PJD in the municipal elections of 2015.

Morocco's new constitution, passed by referendum in 2011, whittled down some of the king's powers - granting the prime minister the right to appoint new officials and to dissolve parliament, powers previously held by the palace.

A constitutional amendment also states that the king must choose a prime minister from the party that receives the most votes.

Yet the monarch still enjoys vast power, chairing the Council of Ministers, the Supreme Security Council, and the Council of Ministers (excluding the Minister of Justice), which must approve all legislation.

The king also reserves the right to play the role of a powerbroker in party politics. The PJD is seen as challenging the political and religious authority of the palace. For months Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane has denounced the palace's attempts to steer the PJD through "remote-control politics" ("attahakum").

Long-standing tensions between the PJD and the palace have now erupted into full view.

PJD supporters accuse the ministry of interior of organising a protest in Casablanca on September 25, where protesters denounced the PJD's "Islamisation of Moroccan society".

And then an Islamist candidate allied to the PJD was barred from running for office in Marrakesh because of his alleged hate speech (while a dozen or so Salafi candidates who had been banned from political office also because of hate speeches are now permitted by the ministry of interior to stand for office.)

PAM's Ilyas Ell Omari

In recent weeks, several PJD members have also been caught in highly publicised scandals involving drugs and land-grabbing. The ministry of interior disavows any ties to the anti-PJD gathering in Casablanca, and to exposing recent scandals.

The PAM's candidate and secretary general Ilyas El Omari has likewise denied any unsavoury links between the palace and his party, claiming that the king's advisers are associated with various parties and not just the PAM.

He has also accused the PJD-led government of allowing for the radicalisation of youth, particularly in northern Morocco, and called for an investigation of the "state-accredited associations" that spread such ideology.

Benkirane, in turn, rebuffed Omari's accusation ("Can he name any of these associations?"), adding that he does not consider the PAM a political party because it is "manipulated".

Public opinion polls before elections are banned in Morocco for fear of swaying voters towards one party or another, yet the PJD was favoured to win, largely because of its support base in urban centres and in lower-income areas.

This is ironic given that the PJD's policies of subsidy cuts and pension system reform, and its freeze on government jobs, has disproportionately affected the urban poor.

Across the country, unemployment remains high (20 percent for youths between 15-24), and corruption is still rampant (Morocco fell from 80th to 88th place in Transparency International's index of 175 countries).

PAM leaders are also quick to point that the PJD promised 7 percent growth and delivered a growth rate of 1.5 percent - claiming that, if elected, the PAM will create 150,000 jobs per year. However, unless they are invited into coalition they have no chance to deliver on this promise.

In an interview with Aljazeera Benkirane said that no alliance is envisaged with PAM, the second strongest political force in Morocco.

Benkirane said it was out of the question to form a coalition government with PAM, given that his party does not favour such an arrangement. He said that he would "reach out to all the parties, with the exception of PAM".

Without an absolute majority the PJD Abdelilah Benkirane's team to form a government, but the arithmetic of alliances remains complicated. However, Benkirane remains optimistic. "Nothing is ruled in politics, but all the conditions are met to form a new government," he promises. He added the same source: "in all likelihood, the situation will be less difficult than last time." The negotiations are open.

Regarding the participation rate of 43%, Benkirane said that this rate is "acceptable", pointing out that the comparison of this ratio with that of the 2011 elections did not hold, because the voters that day n ' were only 12 million registered on the electoral lists, while this number increased with the elections for nearly 16 million voters.

However, Benkirane said that "it would have been better if the turnout exceeded 50%," mentioning the need to begin mobilizing to encourage citizens to vote massively in the future.

Benkirane also stressed that the electoral process in Morocco ahead "irreversibly" and that the democratic process "can not be broken" . In power since 2011, Islamists won 125 seats out of 395 in Parliament. What he didn't say was how concerned he was by the huge rise in popularity of the more secular PAM. If their growth continues they will be a major challenge to the PJD.

The Interior Department said that these results remain provisional pending validation by the State Statistics Committee, in accordance with legal provisions.

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Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Release Provocative Video

The Spanish government recently announced that their police had arrested two men for their alleged membership in the terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). One of the two suspects was Moroccan arrested in Murcia in the southeast of the country. He had contacts with leaders of AQIM in Mali and was responsible for recruiting militants in Spain. The second, an Algerian, was arrested in the region of Zaragoza. Their arrests came as the result of a collaboration between the Spanish police, Moroccan and French. Now AQIM have retaliated with the release of a video

According to reports in the local press and on the Magharebia website, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) launched a 41-minute provocative video about Morocco. Styled as a "documentary", the internet video mocks the domestic and foreign policy of the country and its efforts to fight terrorism. It also shows an image of the Moroccan monarch engulfed in flames.

AQIM emir Abdelmalek Droukdel launched a tirade against Morocco

The video includes footage of al-Qaeda militants training in the forests and mountains of Algeria under the personal supervision of Abdelmalek Droukdel (aka Abou Moussaab Abdelouadoud).

The tape ends with a call by Droukdel for young people to join the ranks of jihadists.

According to Mohamed Darif, a Moroccan researcher specialising in Islamic groups, the new video reveals the real "dilemma faced by the organisation when targeting Morocco". "AQIM has achieved some success in attracting Moroccans and sending them to hotbeds of tension and battlefronts, particularly Syria and Iraq, but they did not succeed in general at targeting Morocco and compromising its institutions," he told Magharebia.

"This failure has exacerbated the group's anger and rage," he added.

What provokes al-Qaeda is the exception posed by Morocco, Darif explained.

The world has seen al-Qaeda operations "expand into Libya and along the Algerian-Tunisian borders, as well as in Sinai, Egypt", he said. "Morocco is today the only country that still eludes al-Qaeda and this provokes its anger."

"Consequently, issuing this tape is an expression of frustration in the face of the successes achieved by Moroccan security authorities in dismantling terrorist cells and preventing them from carrying out sabotage operations," he said.

Indeed, the new tape comes not long after yet another Morocco AQIM cell was dismantled.

"There is a strong desire in AQIM to carry out a quality operation in Morocco, in order to shake its self-confidence and steadfastness, and put an end to its exclusive condition in the region", political analyst Driss Kassouri confirmed.

Ksouri noted that the leader of the dismantled cell was in direct contact with the senior leadership of the organisation in Tizi Ouzou, Algeria, and was planning a retaliatory strike at Guelmim airport, among other targets.

Mohamed Benhammou, president of the African Federation of Strategic Studies, shared that view.

"Al-Qaeda seeks an operation in Morocco because of its symbolism and the fact that such an operation, if completed, would be considered a resounding victory, especially in the current period," Benhammou said.

This is a crucial time in terms of restructuring these groups, he said, after the blows they received during the military intervention in Mali. "They witnessed disintegration and dispersion, as well as a flight of fighters," he added.

The airing of the tape coincided with the publication by al-Qaeda central of an audio recording by Ayman al-Zawahiri, which also included incitement against Morocco.

Amazigh human rights activist Boubaker Ounghir downplayed the impact of these threats but said they required due diligence and caution, "especially since al-Qaeda in the region is now in possession of a variety of weapons after the collapse of the Kadhafi regime in Libya and the chaos that followed".

"In addition, there is also a factor of competition and a race between the various terrorist groups, especially AQIM and Mokhtar Belmokhtar new group, Mourabitounes in order to destabilise Morocco and end its exclusive condition," Ounghir said.

Cherkaoui Roudani, a member of parliament and an expert on strategic issues said, "Al-Qaeda seeks to transform the North African region into a new Afghanistan, the so-called green fascist state which is totally incompatible with what Morocco represents in terms of its successful building of democracy. This model has become an obstacle to the ambitions of al-Qaeda."

He added, "They will make every effort to wage war on the borders with Morocco, as they did with Tunisia in Jebel Chaambi."

"They will do their utmost to conduct terrorist operations inside Morocco," he warned. "We have to be vigilant and to be on the lookout in order to thwart all their attempts and protect our societal democratic project."

The Origins of AQIM

The Washington based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) traces the origins of AQIM back to the Soviet-Afghan war:

Most of AQIM’s major leaders are believed to have trained in Afghanistan during the 1979-1989 war against the Soviets as part of a group of North African volunteers known as “Afghan Arabs” that returned to the region and radicalized Islamist movements in the years that followed. The group is divided into “katibas” or brigades, which are clustered into different and often independent cells.

The group’s top leader, or emir, since 2004 has been  Abdelmalek Droukdel, also known as Abou Mossab Abdelwadoud, a trained engineer and explosives expert who has fought in Afghanistan and has roots with the GIA in Algeria. It is under Droukdel’s leadership that AQIM declared France as its main target. One of the “most violent and radical” AQIM leaders is Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, according to counterterrorism experts. 

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Comment ~ Why Did the Muslim Brotherhood Fail in Egypt?

Moha Ennaji is Professor of Cultural and Gender Studies and President of the International Institute for Languages and Cultures in Fez. In this interesting article (first published in Morocco World News) he reflects on why the Muslim Brotherhood failed in Egypt

Moha Ennaji - (photo Sandy McCutcheon)

Many liberal democrats in the region argue that Morsi has been in power for only one year, and did not have time to make reforms or rebuild the economy. He should have been given a chance to finish his term, and then it is up to the Egyptian people to vote him out of power, as it is usually done in Western democracies. The army has no right to remove him, and people should not have gone to the streets with the aim of toppling him down. Government or regime change should result from the ballot drop boxes.

Morsi was democratically elected; however, he needed to prioritize the welfare of all the Egyptian people. Instead, he made numerous mistakes, essentially acting like a democratically elected dictator and rammed through a constitution based on Shari’a (Islamic) law, which did not explicitly respect women’s rights, pluralism, nor protect minorities.

Christians, who make up 8 million of Egypt’s population of 90 million, were worried when Islamists took over Egypt’s government in 2012 and relieved when the military ousted them from power last month. But the ancient Coptic communities that predate Islam by centuries say they now see a new wave of violence against them since the ouster. Human rights groups accused Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists of inciting violence.

Egypt is home to wider sectarian violence that authorities don’t control. Ishaq Ibrahim of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said his group had documented at least 39 cases of violence against churches, monasteries, Coptic schools and shops in different parts of the country on Wednesday. In June 2013, four Shiite Muslims were beaten to death by a mob of Sunni Muslims, apparently for their beliefs, in a village near the capital, in Giza.

During the elected government’s year-long term some liberal groups mentioned that the ballot box was insufficient, and that Morsi was not inclusive. He started by appointing people from the Muslim Brotherhood in key positions. The economy continued to collapse, and communication with the rest of the Arab countries and the West suffered a deadlock. As a result, the opposition that united under the umbrella of the National Salvation Front organized sit-ins on 30 June, and later on backed the military coup.

The most prominent flaw of the Brotherhood in Egypt is that it is not interested in building a modern state because of the belief that religion is in danger and that “Islam is the solution”. Its main objective is to revive the Islamic Caliphate anywhere in the world.

The Muslim Brothers in Egypt failed because they were unable to trust non-Islamists, nor communicate with the youth, resulting in more social and economic exclusion. Their lack of experience in managing public affairs also played against them. As a result, the Al-Azhar University and the Coptic leaders, as well as the army, the judiciary system, trade unions, student unions, women’s organizations all voiced their opposition to the Morsi administration.

What is happening in Egypt is very dangerous and can become a serious security threat to the whole region, which is already under heavy turmoil following the Arab revolutions. This situation can lead to the isolation of Egypt regionally and even internationally, with evidence from the European Union and the US, that have already decided to review their assistance to Egypt, which will not foster political stability, in light of the global economic and financial crisis

The new Egyptian government should end sectarian violence as a priority, or risk letting this fatal issue degenerate out of control. It must try to reach out and compromise with the moderate members of the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters. It should renounce violence, respect freedom of expression, and move toward an inclusive political transition.

The main responsibility of the government is to restore stability to Egypt and foster economic growth and job creation. The revolution devastated the economy, especially tourism, which is the country’s major source of employment and income.

The West progressed by defeating tyranny and preserving freedoms; this is the secret of the Western world’s remarkable advancement. The Middle East and North Africa should follow suit.


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Concerns Over Situation in Mali ~ Morocco Increases Security

The deteriorating situation in Mali and the latest incursion into Algeria has caused an increase in security in Morocco and in France. In Paris 700 troops have been deployed around sensitive areas. In Morocco a noticeable increase in security has also taken place with a visible presence of security forces on the streets. This follows an extended telephone discussion on January 14 between King Mohammed VI and the French President, Francois Hollande. According to a statement from the Royal Cabinet the two leaders assessed and exchanged views on the situation in Mali

French troops arrive in Bamako

Alarm bells began ringing in Morocco over a year ago when the Malian Islamist rebels began to destroy shrines of Muslim saints in the Northern Malian city of Timbuktu. At the time Morocco called on the international community to intervene to save Mali's rich cultural heritage, describing the destruction as “a breach of cultural and civilizational heritage of the Malian people and sites listed since 1988 on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.” Since then the situation has deteriorated.

When the Malian President, Dioncounda Traoré, called on France for military aid in the fight against "terrorist elements", François Hollande was quick to react, announcing on Friday a commitment of troops to assist the Malian army. Since then other strategic towns such as Konna have fallen to the Islamists.

In an opionion piece in the Eurasia Review, Said Temsamani, a Moroccan political commentator, observes that Morocco has never ceased calling for a “decisive action and serious cooperation on regional and international levels ... the international community have for some time ignored Morocco’s persistent warning that sub Saharan Africa is starting to transform into a safe haven for terrorist groups. Plagued by systematic state failure, sub-Saharan Africa’s failed states have helped facilitate internationally sponsored terrorist networks and operations. Huge quantities of arms, money were smuggled into radical extremist jihadist camps. Radical movements of internationally sponsored terrorist such as al Qaeda. With the continuous abduction of European humanitarian workers in the region, it is becoming increasingly obvious that internationally sponsored terrorist networks have found a permanent home in sub-Saharan Africa and even within the hearts and minds of its people."

Police patrol the Gare du Nord station in Paris because of security concerns

The situation escalates

According to the latest reports, French special forces were reported to be fighting house-to-house in the small town of Diabaly, north of the capital Bamako, which was captured on Monday.

The French Defence Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said the town was held by 1,300 fighters from the multinational Al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) faction. He said they were “the toughest, the most fanatical, the best organised, the most determined and best armed” of the three, loosely allied Islamist groups which overran Mali’s vast, northern desert region last year.

For a sixth day, French warplanes and helicopters pounded the rebels, who attempted last week to break through the relatively narrow “waist” of Mali into the fertile and populous south, where 90 per cent of the population of 14.5 million lives.

Today, a column of 30 French armoured trucks and light tanks moved into holding positions protecting Niger river crossings south of Diabaly. This freed special forces units to move forward to test Islamist resistance in the town itself.


The conflict spreads to Algeria

The French military assault on Islamist extremists in Mali escalated into a potentially much broader North African conflict yesterday when armed attackers in unmarked trucks seized an internationally managed natural gas field in neighboring Algeria and took possibly as many as 41 hostages, including 13 Norwegians, seven Americans, several Japanese and British nationals. Other reports suggest that the number of hostages may only be 20. More than 300 Algerian workers were also captured but later released unharmed.

The attackers are demanding a halt of French attacks in northern Mali and the release of 100 militants being held in Algeria in exchange for the safety of kidnapped hostages. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has long been active in Algeria, though it has never attacked the country's oil and gas facilities.

The Amenas natural gas field in Algeria, where Islamist militants took hostages

Algerian officials said at least two people, including a Briton, were killed in the assault, which began with a predawn ambush on a bus trying to ferry gas-field workers to an airport. Hundreds of Algerian security forces were sent to surround the gas-field compound, creating a tense standoff, and the country’s interior minister said there would be no negotiations.

Algeria’s official news agency said at least 20 fighters had carried out the attack and mass abduction. There were unconfirmed reports late yesterday that the security forces had tried to storm the compound and had retreated under gunfire from the hostage takers. Other reports say that the hostages have been forced to wear bomb belts.

According to Reuters, Algeria’s interior minister, Daho Ould Kablia, said that the raid was led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s and recently set up his own group in the Sahara after falling out with other local Qaeda leaders.

Mr. Belmokhtar is known to French intelligence officials as “the Uncatchable” and to some locals as “Mister Marlboro” for his illicit cigarette-running business, the news agency said. His ties to Islamist extremists who seized towns across northern Mali last year are unclear.

The gas-field attack coincided with an escalation of the fight inside Mali, according to Western and Malian officials, as French ground troops, joined by soldiers of the Malian Army, engaged in combat with Islamist fighters. The officials said the French-Malian units had begun to beat back the Islamist militant advance southward from northern Mali.

Eurasia Review's Said Temsamani says "...his new reality poses significant challenge for the international community, given the region’s patchwork of failed states, where terrorists can easily hide and strive. Moroccan authorities have given threat alarm for many years and have even urged strongly neighboring countries to coordinate their efforts to fight terrorism in the region. Now France has taken the leading role to fight extremism and terrorism in that region. The international community should follow France’s suit and act quickly to put once and for all an end to the prevailing terrorist danger in Sub-Saharan Africa".

UPDATE:

At least 34 hostages and 14 Qaeda-linked Islamist kidnapers were killed on Thursday in an air strike by the Algerian armed forces, Mauritania's ANI news agency reported, citing one of the kidnappers holding captives at a desert gas field. It is not immediately possible to independently verify the information. The agency does have close contact with the group which claimed responsibility for the mass kidnapping.

ANI news has also reported seven foreign hostages are still alive, citing one of the al Qaeda-linked abductors. The agency claims a spokesman for the kidnappers said those hostages were three Belgians, two Americans, a Japanese and a Briton. No details were given for the Algerians who were also captured.

A local source has told reporters that six hostages were killed when a vehicle was fired upon by the military.


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