Morocco
Moroccans demand more from mosques
Moroccans demand more from mosques
Morocco’s king names new ministers, Islamists lose ground
Longtime Moroccan jihadist Brahim Benchekroune, who is now in Syria, has launched Sham al-Islam, an al Qaeda-inspired group that recruits Moroccans to fight in Syria, with the ultimate goal of sending them back to Morocco to establish a jihadist organization there. Over 30 percent of the terrorists released from Moroccan prisons have joined al Qaeda-affiliated […]
Authorities announced the breakup of a terrorist cell with ties to leaders in al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Four suspects, who were active in Fes, Meknes, Taounate, and Tiznit, were arrested. The cell’s leader was accused of planning a terrorist attack and inciting sabotage. A crowd of 10,000 Islamists marched in Rabat in support […]
The Salafist tide: is Morocco next?
The battle for Morocco’s Koran
Members of two terror cells arrested on May 9 said they tried to set up a jihadist camp near Nador for launching attacks on Morocco. The “Attawhid” and “al-Mouahidoun” cells had ties to other extremist groups in Mali, Belgium, and Spain, including the coastal enclave of Melilla. The cells also planned schools, and recruited fighters […]
A prominent Salafist preacher issued a takfir fatwa against Moroccan human rights activist Ahmed Assid for suggesting that religious school textbooks could lead youth to violence, and called for Assid to be ‘silenced.’ Morocco’s Research and Jurisprudence Studies Society also criticized Assid for the ‘provocation.’ The Moroccan Coalition of Human Rights Groups urged the government […]
Prime Minister Benkirane, an Islamist, said criticism of the Prophet Mohammed is unacceptable. The UN’s envoy to the Sahara said that Morocco and the Polisario Front are deadlocked, and that the terrorist threat in the region had not moved the parties to reach a solution.
Morocco canceled its annual military exercises with the US that were scheduled to start today. The government is upset with the US for supporting a UN initiative to begin human rights monitoring in the disputed Western Sahara territory.
Morocco at a crossroad
Some 30,000 protesters in Rabat on yesterday called for the downfall of the government of Islamist prime minister Abdel Ilah bin Kiran. The protest was organized by two of the largest labor unions and focused on unemployment, the economy, and human rights.
Local sources said Ansar Dine leader Iyad Ag Ghaly, along with the group’s spokesman and four senior operatives, has taken refuge in Morocco until the Malian military intervention is over. Ghaly reportedly sought asylum in Mauritania in late January.
The Justice Committee in the Chamber of Representatives adopted a draft law that makes financing of terrorism a criminal offense. The law will apply to acts of terrorism outside as well as within Morocco and to plans that are not executed as well as those that are.
Youth apathy fuels Morocco extremism
Morocco’s ruling Islamists target risky reforms
Authorities broke up an al Qaeda recruitment cell with members in Fnideq, Tangier, Al Hoceima, and Meknes. The cell had recruited over 40 Moroccans for jihad with al Qaeda-linked groups; recruits were given military and suicide bomber training. It is the fifth jihadist group dismantled in Morocco over the past several months.
A court in Rabat arraigned 12 members of a cell dismantled in December that recruited Moroccans for al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The cell, based in Fez, included a man who had been extradited from Algeria in 2005 for trying to join the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.
Morocco’s interior minister said that an Ansar al Sharia cell in Morocco “was seeking to obtain financial and military support” from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
According to a Moroccan press report, Ansar al Sharia Morocco does not hide its sympathy for AQIM, uses the same flag as other Ansar al Sharia chapters, and is suspected of recruiting jihadists to fight in Syria.
Moroccans Fear That Flickers of Democracy Are Fading
A terrorist cell dismantled on Nov. 24 was found to have recruited fighters for Libya as well as for Mali; al Qaeda facilitated the fighters’ travel through the Algerian-Moroccan border to the Sahel region. The influx of Islamist fighters in the Sahel includes Tunisians, Libyans, Europeans, Sudanese, Pakistanis, and a number of Mauritanians, among others.
Police broke up an al Qaeda cell that was recruiting fighters and smuggling them across the Algerian border into Mali, where they would join either Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb or the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). One of the arrested men was a Moroccan sent back from Mali to […]
Morocco gives boot to four Swedish ‘reporters’
Security forces arrested nine “terrorists” in the Rif mountains who were establishing a training camp and explosives factory. Al Qaeda’s black banner was seized during the raid.
Thami Najim, a citizen of Denmark and Morocco, was sentenced to only 10 months in prison on terrorism charges. He and two other suspects were arrested in February for planning terror attacks against the Moroccan state. He is said to be a webmaster and IT provider for the Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir. Morocco refused to […]
Sahel security threats worry Moroccans
Morocco: Country eyes first Islamic bank
Salafi clerics back death threat against Moroccan calling for legalizing sex outside marriage
Salafi clerics back death threat against Moroccan calling for legalizing sex outside marriage