If we read the statement made by the secretary general of the Moroccan Community Abroad Council (a consultive bureau created by Moroccan King Mohammed VIth), Abdellah Boussouff, we can really consider that as a reality. He  nearly goes as far as considering Moroccan as equal as Spanish Muslim.

(He) stated to the Spanish news agency Europa Press during a meeting about Islam in Europe which took place in Fez, that Moroccan nationals living in Spain “need a strong organization that defends the fulfillment of the religious freedom” in the country and for the “full practice of their rights”.

(…) (He also) added that some of the points that were included in the cooperation aggreement between Spain and the Islamic Commission in 1992 “are not fully applied”, pointing to the need of a “really representative and democratic organism because a lot of Muslims do not feel represented by the Islamic Commission” (name which are not fully applied and why a lot of Muslims do not feel represented by the Islamic Commission. I am not saying the latter is “moderate”, I’m saying that it would be interesting to know what is the future Morocco wants for Spanish Muslims, as pointing out what Spain lacks of in this respect would underline what they like Spanish Islam to be).

He maintains that they are “optimistic with Moroccan community’s progress in Spain”, because “all processes need time” and “both Spain and Morocco have a lot  of things in common” (name a few… because except the Spanish-Moroccan war of late XIXth century and early XXth century and the Strait of Gibraltar, I just can’t really see what more).

As a special measure, Boussouff considers that the Islamic Council must create a census of Muslims in Spain that could chose their representatives directly, as it’s already done in France and Belgium (countries where there is NO radicalization of Muslims, is there? Ironically speaking, that is...).

But it’s not me the only one who thinks this is meddling in other State’s affairs:

These statements have been regarded by the Spanish Islamic Communities’ Union as a Moroccan meddling in Islam’s management inside Spanish territory.

The president of this Union, Riay Tatary, stated that the “Moroccan Government is not the indicated entity to speak about the management of the Muslim community inside Spain and how their leaders should be elected” (so, Tatary, are you feeling your chair moving under you?).

Anyway, this must be the first time I agree with Tatary in something, although of course, not for the same reasons: I am not the president of any Muslim organization There is something to consider,though: the growing number of Moroccan nationals in Spain (after Hispanic-American, they are the main immigrant group in Spain) makes this reaaaaaaaaally interesting for Morocco, who already wants Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands in a expansionist policy, seen always not very disgustedly by France, a traditional Moroccan ally, and by UK, because of Gibraltar (of course, Spain does not have one thousand million Chinese menacing Hong Kong, does it? In that case, the results would have been truly different ).

Meddling in other State’s affairs does not make a country trustworthy. Trying to meddle over an entire community to use it as an assault weapon to break into the fortress is even more untrustworthy. But considering the degree of Zapatero’s alliance with Morocco, this meddling is not completelly unexpected.

(I’m sorry for not posting, but the spring, the flowers and me are not the best of friends ).

Morocco has cut diplomatic links with Iran, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in the wake of an outcry in the Sunni Muslim world over a statement by an Iranian official questioning Sunni Bahrain’s sovereignty.

Rabat also criticised Iran for its efforts to spread its Shi’ite brand of Islam in Morocco, a move the ministry said it saw as threat to the North African country’s moderate Sunni religious identity.

“The Kingdom of Morocco has decided to break its diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran beginning this Friday,” the ministry said.

Sunni scholars in Morocco and elsewhere have denounced what they see as Iran’s efforts to convert Sunni Muslims to Shi’ism, arguing the drive would create strife similar to the often bloody Shi’ite-Sunni divides in Iraq and Pakistan.

According to media reports, Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last month Shi’ite-ruled Iran had sovereignty over Bahrain.

In response Morocco’s King Mohammed sent the Bahraini monarch, King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa, a message of support, calling the Iranian remarks “absurd” and a contradiction of international law.

via Morocco cuts diplomatic ties with Iran.

The reason for this is that inside Morocco, there are shia muslims (most of them living in the North and East parts of the country) who, in an important part, had studied in Lebanon, are supporters of Hizbullah and “don’t act secretly as before” says Ahmed Abadi, an Islam’s teacher. “They even publish magazines where they say that Morocco is a country with a Shia past and it has to go bacj to its origins”.

So Shiites are trying to end Mohammed’s regime, eh?

Why not claiming too that Morocco’s own remarks about Ceuta and Melilla are too “absurd” and a contradiction  of international law?

The polemic has been caused by two images of Mohammed, Islam’s prophet, which appear in a History’s text book of the first year of pre-Universitary phase, used in the Spanish institute in Tetouan, Moroccan north.

According to Moroccan newspaper ‘Al Masae’, parents of the alumni of the Secondary Education Institute Juan de la Cierva from Tetouan, have complained to the authorities about the Mohammed’s images. The mayority of Moroccans are Sunni, whose tradition forbids graphic representations of the Prophet.

A high official from the Moroccan Eduaction’s Ministery assured the newspaper they are investigating this to take the necessary measures.

The images contained in “Mohammed, Islam and the Arab World”, published by Spanish firm Anaya, come from the Arab world and are similar to the medieval codes or Bibles’ images which can be found in Europe.

One of the images shows Mohammed teaching his disciples, while in the other the prophet is shown by the Kaaba, the main Islamic sacred place and of pilgrimage.

via Polémica por unas imágenes de Mahoma en un libro de texto español.

Well, we continue with the supposedly forbidden images of the Prophet, images which were drawn in the Middle Ages, when they supposedly weren’t forbidden. So what does this lead us? Are we before the Midlle Ages?

In Haarlem a man has been arrested on suspicion of having genitally mutilated his five-year-old daughter. The man of Moroccan origin was taken into custody at the end of October after the girl’s foster parents had made a report to the police (and we know about it now…). The case has only now been made public. Doctors have confirmed that the girl’s genitals have been mutilated, but the father denies responsibility. He has been charged with grievous bodily harm. The case is expected to come to trial in May.

via Dutch News: Moroccan Man Arrested For Sexually Mutilating His Daughter » Winds Of Jihad.

I would like to know why she is taken care by foster parents, instead of being with her father… It was his daughter, for God’s sake!!

Related: Female genital mutilation: “Required by Islam and our elders”, Egypt: 97% of married woman undergo genital mutilation, Clitoral Relativism Female Genital Mutilation in “Tolerant” Islamic Indonesia por Andrew Boston, Bedouin Girl suffers Life Threatening Haemorrhaging, Gambian Muslim Leader: FGM, an honor, Yemen: FGM and Underage Marriage Continues, States do Little to Prevent FGM, FGM in Italy (back in 2004), American feminists finally take a position on the Plight of Islamic Women (Feminists are THE VICTIMS, of course), Islam and FGM.