Morocco and Spain

     WAIS is concerned with the vision different countries have of world events. Americans tend to think of Muslims in terms of terrorism, but that is not the whole story. Muslims have their own viewpoint, varied but with a general dislike of Israel and the United States. What do they really think about Spain?
     One problem is the language barrier, but for Morocco we have a solution. It was the home of the Moors, the hereditary enemy of Catholic Spain. In the nineteenth century France, also no friend of Catholic Spain, became the dominant influence in Morocco. As a result there is a class of educated French-speaking people, with its own press.
     For WAIS purposes especially important is the independent weekly Maroc Hebdo International. For the Moroccan attitude toward Spain, there is a significant article (11-17/00) translated in the May 00 edition of World Press Review. The Spanish media play up Spain's attempt to befriend Morocco and publicize any sign of reciprocity. However, the violence against agricultural workers in Almerķa unleashed a torrent of Moroccan resentment. Spain is depicted in the blackest terms, with frustration expressed at the inability to seize the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
     At the same time, Spain remains the promised land for desperate Moroccans, many of whom drown while crossing the sea to enter it illegally. Presumably in the Moroccan press, the old nationalist claim that Andalusia, like Ceuta and Melilla, really belongs to Morocco has not disappeared. While the claim to Ceuta and Melillia has legitimacy, events in Almerķa prove that Andalusia is Spanish, sometimes too much so.

Ronald Hilton - 5/4/00