** Good News from Morocco **
* 150,000 Demonstrate Against Al Qaida in Morocco
* Protesters Pledge Unity with Iraq!
* “All Moroccans are with Iraq, all Moroccans are innocent,” the marchers chanted.
* Rally draws people cutting across political lines
* Officials say they will not succumb to Al Qaida blackmail
* Clerics say Al Qaida members will “burn in hell” if they kill embassy workers
150,000 MOROCCANS TOOK TO THE STREETS OF CASABLANCA TO DEMONSTRATE AGAINST AL QAIDA!
PROTESTERS PLEDGED UNITY WITH IRAQ AND PLEADED WITH AL QAIDA TO RELEASE 2 MOROCCAN HOSTAGES,
VIDEO HERE
Thousands hold banners in Casablanca, southern Morocco, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2005, as they marched through the city on Sunday to protest al Qaida’s decision to kill two Moroccan hostages in Iraq. Al Qaida has said it decided to kill the Moroccan embassy employees, Abderrahim Boualem and Abdelkrim al Mouhafidi because of Morocco’s support for the US-backed Iraqi government. (AP)
The Lebanon Daily Star is reporting on a massive Moroccan protest against Al Qaeda:
Thousands marched through Morocco’s biggest city on Sunday to protest Al-Qaeda’s decision to kill two Moroccan hostages in Iraq. Holding banners and chanting “Muslims are brothers. A Muslim does not kill his brother” and “Yes to freedom, No to terrorism and barbarity,” the protesters marched through Casablanca, a city of six million and Morocco’s financial capital.
People hold a banner, Moroccan flags and portraits of Moroccan King Mohammed VI in Casablanca, southern Morocco, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2005, as thousands marched through the city on Sunday to protest al Qaida’s decision to kill two Moroccan hostages in Iraq. Al Qaida has said it decided to kill the Moroccan embassy employees, Abderrahim Boualem and Abdelkrim al Mouhafidi because of Morocco’s support for the US-backed Iraqi government. (AP)
Morocco says it will not be blackmailed by Al Qaida!
But the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said its embassy would not succumb to “blackmail,” particularly “coming from a terrorist group which cannot claim to represent Iraq.”
It said Al-Qaeda “is attempting shamefully to justify (the killings) with so-called religious references and false political considerations.”
Morocco also demands “the immediate and unconditional release” of the hostages, the ministry added.
Moroccan women participate in a demonstration in Casablanca, southern Morocco, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2005, as thousands marched through the city on Sunday to protest al Qaida’s decision to kill two Moroccan hostages in Iraq. Al Qaida has said it decided to kill the Moroccan embassy employees, Abderrahim Boualem and Abdelkrim al Mouhafidi because of Morocco’s support for the US-backed Iraqi government. (AP)
The High Council of Islamic Scholars said that “Al Qaeda will suffer the horrors of hell if they kill the hostages!
Al-Qaeda has said it decided to kill the Moroccan Embassy employees, Abdel-Rahim Boualem and Abdel-Karim al-Mouhafidi because of Morocco’s support for the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.
Top Moroccan officials, ministers, pro-government and opposition party leaders and trade unions and rights groups, led the protest to put pressures on Al-Qaeda to free the two men.
Some members of Islamist parties which back Iraqi insurgents fighting U.S.-led forces in Iraq also joined the march.
“All Moroccans are with Iraq, all Moroccans are innocent,” the marchers chanted.
Morocco’s influential organization of Islamic scholars, known as the High Council of the Ulema and the Councils of Ulema in the Moroccan Kingdom, said Al-Qaeda members in Iraq will suffer the “horrors of hell” if they kill the Moroccan hostages and the victims will die as martyrs. It dismissed Al-Qaeda’s argument that its verdict to kill the two embassy employees was “God’s judgment.”
Morocco is also one of the first Arab countries to attempt to atone for past transgressions against its citizens:
Morocco’s Justice and Reconciliation Commission, which for two years has been chronicling the bloody suppression of political dissent under past kings. It’s the Arab world’s first attempt to acknowledge and atone for large-scale human rights violations, a rare moment in a region where catharsis is usually eclipsed by the need to keep quiet and stay out of trouble.
Aljazeera and Iraqi Newspaper Al Mendhar also ran news of the massive protest. But, I have not seen the story run in Western News circles at this time on Monday morning. The latest reports are this, that Al Qaida is threatening the workers.
Israel has invited the Moroccan King to visit.
Moroccan Embassy employees will stay in Iraq despite the threats from Al Qaida.
Egyptian Sand Monkey says the tide may finally be changing.
All Things Conservative says, “It appears that Zarqawi’s brutal tactics are squandering the goodwill that bin Laden and Zawahiri worked so hard to get.”
The Officer’s Club has a terrific analysis of the situation in Morocco today.
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