Fascination with terror endures
Morocco has been successful so far in preventing terrorist attacks in the kingdom since May 2011.
Whenever terrorists strike and kill innocent people, my first instinct is to feel deeply sorry for the victims. My second, as a Muslim, is to hope the attack won’t spike hate against the billion people who practice Islam.
But when the terrorists are Moroccan — like those who staged last week’s attacks in Brussels — my third is to wonder why someone from my country is again terrorizing people on foreign soil.
Morocco has been successful so far in preventing terrorist attacks in the kingdom since May 2011, when explosions killed 17 people in a café in Marrakesh, an ancient city of awe-inspiring historic sites that’s popular with tourists.
Yet Moroccans are the thirdlargest cohort of jihadists fighting in Syria — Moroccan warlords are leading Islamic State fighters and other groups in Syria and Iraq, too. Also, this statistic doesn’t include those in Europe of Moroccan origins, like the men who set off bombs at the Brussels Airport and metro system and who killed 130 people in Paris in November.
I keep wondering: How come these men capable of so many atrocities choose to commit their violence abroad and spare us Moroccans at home?
The answer might lie with the May 2003 attacks in Casablanca, when al- Qaeda-affiliated suicide bombers killed 45 people in bars and restaurants. The perpetrators were young men who grew up in a slum on the outskirts of the city. The incident shocked the Moroccan public and marked a stark turn in how the authorities dealt with terrorism.
Very much like the United States after the 9/11 attacks, politicians enacted a raft of security measures. Among them was a law that allowed the police to pre-emptively arrest anyone who could potentially become a terrorist. Moroccan authorities have also been controlling activities in mosques, making sure imams espouse moderate views of Islam and don’t incite violence.
The law helped stop attacks, but it won’t end some Moroccans’ fascination with terrorism, according to Abdelwahab el Rafiki — also known as Abu Hafs — a Salafi (Islamic fundamentalist) preacher arrested in 2003 for promoting extremism.
Released along with other prominent Salafi figures after a royal pardon, he is now preaching peace as part of a movement of religious leaders trying to dissuade people from engaging in violence.
“There are different reasons that push people to become terrorists,” he recently told me. “One of them is socioeconomic. But there is also this dream of creating an Islamic Caliphate, which is why so many are going to Syria and Iraq.”
There are other reasons, too, that Morocco is spared. Morocco is also blessed by geography, says Romain Caillet, a Parisbased researcher in Jihadi movements. It’s far from the Middle East, so it hasn’t been swept up in the same ideological currents of terrorism.
In Europe, these future jihadists are exposed to other influences. Many former petty criminals of Moroccan origin in Europe have turned into violent terrorists mostly because they learn how to obtain weapons and hide from the authorities, Caillet says. That makes them an ideal pool of recruits for jihadists.
Morocco, meanwhile, should start investing more in education — about half of the population remains illiterate.
Youth unemployment is leaving many believing they have no other choice than taking a chance on becoming a “war hero,” even if it involves joining the ranks of the Islamic State, giving them stature and a purpose.
I have interviewed many former Islamist prisoners in Morocco who left jail with few choices for a better life. These people become easy prey for terrorists. Many, after months of trying, gave up.
They left Morocco for Syria or Iraq.