Morocco, you might know it from it's extraordinary journey to the World Cup's quarter-finals or from it's very beautiful cities : Marrakesh,Casablanca,Rabat,Tangier..... . But what most people don't know is that Morocco's kingdom is even older then the United Kingdom itself, how we got here? where are we heading? welcome to today's article to find out.
I haven't written anything in a while now . I moved to France to continue my studies after finishing two years studying Economics in Encg Settat. Moving to a new country and the paperwork took a lot of time . Here I am again .
Kings Amidst Chaos
This picture shows the late King Hassan 2 in his 60's birthday with his son at the time Prince Mohammed 6, it shows how Hassan 2 is thinking, always. While the prince's face is bright like a fresh breath for the country. His father had survived more assassinations than he can remember, which have made his personality hard, very hard actually that he inherited a country with many internal threats from Islamist organizations to the very tough military generals like Oufkir and Dlimi, and outside threats with Spain taking the Sahara and Algeria threatening the country with an invasion. very far allies in the Middle East and upper Europe, the throne had to be preserved. In an interview with one of the most prominent figures in Hassan 2's regime: Driss Basri, after he was relieved from his missions he said: "Yes, we did it the hard way, but we made a country. It had to be done with a sword".
The rise of a new King
Mohammed the 6, didn't just inherit a normal country, he inherited the 4th oldest kingdom in the planet, thousands of years of history and many more to come. Now that the French occupation has left the country, the new king has one mission : to build a country from ash. Hassan 2 had many enemies that left their followers wanting to take revenge, Benbarka and his left buddies were one, Abdesalam Yassine and his group were second, 3rd were the people, after what they saw at Tazmamart and what Driss Basri did to them, they were afraid. For external conflicts, the neighbor Algeria was watching closely as Abdelaziz Bouteflika was supporting the Polisario Front with military equipment, Spain, France and the Arab world were all watching.
16 may 2003
3 years after becoming King, on a cold night in Casablanca, 5 bombs will be heard throughout the city. It shook the whole country, 14 kamikazes from the Mouvement Salafia Jihadia blew themselves in these places :
- The Casa de España restaurant-club
- The Farah Hotel
- The Jewish cemetery and the social center of the Alliance Israélite Universelle
- A restaurant-pizzeria
- The Belgian consulate
Does the mind accept that blowing yourself up will send you to heaven? I honestly don't know how these people think, 45 deaths that night and a clear message to the kingdom : "wake up we have a security problem" From that day Morocco became the safest country in the world in terms of terrorist attacks, the Moroccan police even gives information to the FBI about whereabouts of terrorist groups and helps capture them. All with the leadership of a smart king working in the shadows.
The Arab Spring - 20 Febraury
In the 2010's the Arab world knew the biggest outrage it has ever seen, from Syria to Morocco, the people went to the streets to remove their leaders, President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt went down, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi was killed, even a civil was in Syria erupted.
20 February 2011, it was Morocco's turn, everyone went out, it was chaos. Here, a decision was taken that I deem one of the smartest moves I have ever seen. November 2011, Abdelilah Benkirane was appointed prime minister of Morocco. Why is this a smart move? Benkirane was the closest political personality to the people, when you hear him speaking, he is simple and straightforward, doesn't speak a lot of classic Arabic and French, direct Darija. Plus Benkirane was from the party that was known to be inspired from Islamic instructions. And here was the checkmate, everything went down. And that year has seen 2011 Constitution that we still use to this day.
Morocco Today
Now that I have told you about the modern history of our country, let me tell you what happened today and why I am writing this article in the first place : Morocco's New government. I am not going to speak about the political parties fight for ministries. I am speaking of the whole country entering a new era, we have the World Cup 2030 coming which we have to build the country for, from laws that have to be adjusted to roads that have to be built. These are the people responsible for this now :
We should celebrate our country's first ever female prime minister, Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, which shows that Morocco really does care about gender equality, and our involvement in international organizations isn't just paperwork but real work on the ground. We should also celebrate that our country is from the few in the world that has now an AI minister, Ahmed Rahhou, which showcases that we really care about the future and we know that the future is with AI, why not research it more and be one of the leading nations in it.
Lastly, may our country keep going forward, I hope we have one of the best editions the World Cup has seen. God bless Morocco.