Real Morocco

[_thetruth]

Morocco has always prided itself on being the liberal face of Islam, but that was before the men in beards took control of the big city slums. And before the suicide bombing in Madrid. Andrew Hussey reports from Casablanca on the country's slide towards fundamentalism
The early evening drinkers in the Don Quichotte bar, a lowlife den near the docks of Casablanca, are a fairly relaxed bunch. Even the prostitutes are friendly and unhurried, settling in a group at the end of the bar where they smoke and chat among themselves. Although Morocco, a democracy, is officially an Islamic country, Casablanca, its largest port, also has a worldwide reputation as a hard-drinking city and, at least down here by the docks, it can occasionally feel more like Glasgow than Islamabad. After midnight, when the booze kicks in and the locally grown dope - kif - takes hold, there will be as many local drunks here as foreigners, all of them stumbling in the dark, spoiling for a fight or groping *****s.
These Hogarthian scenes are replicated every night across Casablanca in several dozen semi-legal bars, most barely visible from the street and sometimes ludicrously disguised as 'pharmacies'. But for the time being, as dusk falls and the call to prayer echoes just across the street in the Old Town - a place where alcohol is forbidden and life is structured according to the certainties of the Islamic faith - the talk at the bar of the Don Quichotte is of sex and football.

It is only when the conversation turns to politics that the mood becomes tense. 'Moroccans are not terrorists,' says Hamid, an office clerk. 'We are not violent people. Morocco has always been a tolerant country. We do not kill for religion. Those who do so have no nationality. They have only a kind of madness.' He returns grimly to his glass.

Morocco has always presented itself to the world as the liberal and non-confrontational face of Islam. From Sixties Tangier, the gay playground of the Mediterranean, to blissed-out Marrakech in the Nineties, the country has become a safe haven for Westerners seeking exotic thrills only a few hours from London or Paris. But this view of Morocco was altered forever by the suicide bombing attacks in Casablanca on 16 May 2003 which killed 45 people.

[jamal03]

Thank you "theTruth". I am an American brother who is married to a Moroccan woman. I have yet to experience the Moroccan scene. The climate has also changed in America since 911 and we are feeling very uneasy about this situation. I've always sort the other side of the tracks because if you want to experience the real people of a country, you'll find them on the other side of the tracks.

Jamal

[_thetruth]

Salam Brov

Take it from A Moroccan born I can only speak from experience yes it is true that if you want to find out the truth you need to see the other dark side of the city however Morocco is the safest country in the world saying that you will not be free from harassement etc.. but all hamless except from the thieves which are everywhere. I lost my Nephew 2 years ago in the beach and panicked and everyone was telling me to keep clam and even told that I would find him safe probably drinking Orange Juice in the lost office and I did if that happened in the UK he would have been killed.