Isla
mic militancy, a phenomenon considered marginal in Morocco, was
thrust into the spotlight by the brutal attacks carried out last
Friday by young men from an impoverished neighborhood of
Casablanca.
The probe into the carnage that claimed 41 lives including those of
13 suicide bombers homed in quickly on the banned fundamentalist
Assirat al Moustaqim (The Straight Path), now feared linked to
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
When Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa revealed that some of the
bombers had recently returned home from abroad and were linked to
Assirat al Moustaqim, it was the first official allusion to a
Moroccan link to international militancy.
Since Friday, police have made dozens of arrests in Casablanca's
Islamist milieux, complementing an investigation that has been
under way for several months.
About 40 people accused of belonging to Assirat al Moustaqim and
another banned organization, the Salafia Jihadia, had already been
arrested.
In December, the Moroccan public first heard of Assirat al
Moustaqim when 14 of its members were tried for the death by
stoning of a man accused of debauchery.
The killing took place in Sidi Moumen in response to a fatwa, or
religious edict, issued by the group's leader Miloudi
Zakaria.
Zakaria, tried earlier in the affair, was released in April after
serving a one-year prison term, only to be incarcerated again in an
investigation into the activities of Salafia Jihadia, to which he
is also linked, judicial sources said.
Moderate Islamic organizations, recognized and tolerated in
Morocco, have hastily sought to disassociate themselves from the
Casablanca attacks, including the Justice and Development Party
(PJD), which last year became the main opposition force in
parliament.
The rise of the PJD has been seen as a popular protest at the
failure of mainstream parties to address some of the kingdom's
deep-rooted problems, which include high unemployment and great
disparities in wealth underscored by a proliferation of urban
slums.
Nadia Yassine, the semi-official spokesperson of Morocco's largest
Islamist organization, Al adl Wal Ihssane, told AFP that the
attitude of some "groups of young people" who advocate violence is
explained by "anger, political naivety and even illiteracy".
The organization, while not recognized, is tolerated, and condemned
the attacks along with the PJD.
A first serious alarm over the presence of Islamic militant groups
in Morocco arose in May last year, when police arrested three Saudi
nationals accompanied by seven Moroccans suspected of belonging to
an al-Qaeda "sleeper cell".
The group, suspected of planning attacks on tourist targets in
Marrakesh and on NATO vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar, were
sentenced in February, with the three Saudis jailed for 10
years.
Moroccan fundamentalists have up to now been implicated in
incidents of aggression against people whose behavior they have
deemed contrary to the tenets of Islam.
Youssef Fikri, a suspected Salafia Jihadia member jailed in
Casablanca, publicly confessed in April to having killed a man for
being homosexual, another for making provocative and sarcastic
remarks about Islam, and a third whom he branded a "henchman" of
the city government. – Sapa.
Edited by: laurian clemence
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