Casablanca residents stand up against terrorism, call for change

22/03/2007

One week after the failed terrorist attack in a Casablanca neighbourhood, a number of citizens and local businesses are examining the problems which caused such an attack and are identifying solutions.

By Hassan Benmehdi for Magharebia in Casablanca – 22/03/07

[Hassan Benmehdi] Sidi Moumen residents gather near the site of the March 11th suicide attack to protest against linking their neighbourhood to terrorism.

Hay Sidi Moumen, a working-class shanty-town district of Casablanca, was both the hometown of most of the perpetrators of the May 16th 2004 terrorist blasts in Casablanca, and the location of a failed suicide bombing attempt on March 11th of this year. The area now has a reputation as a terrorist stronghold. Many individuals and local businesses, however, are speaking out against blanket definitions and guilt by association. They are demanding that government and non-government organizations co-operate to undercut the causes of terrorism and to protect citizens against threats.

According to Driss Essetri, President of the Al Walaa Sidi Moumen Association, it is irrational and unfair to link Sidi Moumen with terrorism on the sole pretext that the suicide bombers of the 2003 and 2007 attacks were living there at the time. "Our neighbourhood and its residents are innocent. Hay Sidi Moumen is not a terrorist stronghold. The proof of this is Ahmed Faïz, the young internet café owner who was brave enough to stop the terrorists on March 11th," he said, adding that the young people of Hay Sidi Moumen play a key role in the development and prosperity of their neighbourhood.

Of the more than 50 local NGOs working to promote tolerance, human rights, democracy, modernity and progress in Sidi Moumen, 21 of them work with the neighbourhood's young people. According to Mohamed Mahfoudi, secretary of the Sidi Moumen NGO Network, 30m dirhams are currently being channelled into ongoing projects in the fields of sport, culture and social activity. However, in his estimation that is still not enough, considering the vast deficiencies evident in education and infrastructure.

Young people in Sidi Moumen echo Mahfoudi's sentiments. "We are suffering from a lack of engagement and support from NGOs as well as political parties," said a 20 year-old who explained that the provision of political, cultural and sporting activities is insufficient. Yahia, another young man who was very keen to share his views, thinks that exclusion and discrimination lie at the heart of society’s ills: "What we need in our shantytown, as in others beyond Casablanca, is first and foremost for leaders to take an interest in us."

Ahmed Ghayet, President of the Réseau Maillage, a networking organisation supporting youth projects in Morocco’s inner cities, asserted that the problem NGOs often face is that "the authorities do not understand that NGOs vitally need their support. With that public support, they can commit themselves fully to working in shanty-towns and remote neighbourhoods and to doing their advocacy work."

Ultimately, jobs and basic infrastructure matter most to the young people in Hay Sidi Moumen. Many young people are fed up with poverty, unemployment and a general lack of security. For a young man named Abdelhak, the real problem is purely socio-economic: "If certain extremist ideas have taken root easily in our neighbourhood, it is because disillusioned, very poor and pessimistic young people are to be found here."