WAM
Published: March 01, 2008, 21:23
Abu Dhabi: Former Moroccan foreign minister Mohammad Bin Eisa has won the Shaikh Zayed Book Award for 2008 in the category of the Cultural Personality of the Year.
In a press release, Secretary-General of the Shaikh Zayed Book Award Rashid Al Uraimi said Bin Eisa has been awarded in recognition of his contributions to the cultural movement as well as for his role as a co-founder of Morocco's Aseelah Culture Season which was launched in 1978 as a forum for Arab, African and western cultural achievers and creative individuals and thinkers.
Bin Eisa will be presented a cash award of Dh1 million along with a certificate of appreciation.
Bin Eisa was born in Aseelah city, Morocco in 1937. He was Morocco's minister of culture between 1985-1992. He then became Morocco's minister of state for foreign affairs and culture between 1999-2007.
A prestigious ceremony will be held at the iconic Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi to honour winners of the second edition of the Shaikh Zayed Book Award (2007-8). The ceremony will be held on the sidelines of the upcoming Abu Dhabi International Book Fair from March 11 to 16.
Another Moroccan researcher and PhD holder won the Shaikh Zayed Book Award in the category of Young Authors for his book Future of international relations in the light of civilizations clash, which was described by the secretary-general as a remarkable contribution to Arab politics and philosophy.
The translation award went to Jordanian Fayez Al Sayagh, while the Arts Award went to Iraqi architect, Rafa Al Jaderji, and Publication and Distribution Award went to the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research.
The Libyan novelist Ebrahim Al Kowni won the Literature Award, while Huda Al Shawwa, a Kuwaiti, won the Child Literature Award.
In all, 512 candidates from 30 Arab countries contended for the second edition of the Shaikh Zayed Book Awards.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/nation/Heritage_and_Culture/10194100.html
A Moroccan tale of immigration
Anna Reguero
Staff writer
(February 25, 2008) — Only about 9 miles separate Morocco from Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar. Laila Lalami's book Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits opens with Murad, a tourist guide in Morocco, looking longingly across the distance, wondering how there could be such a divide in worlds over such a short distance. His plight is charted along with three other characters' as they take an inflatable motor boat illegally to Spain, in pursuit of a better life.
With illegal immigration a hot political issue as the presidential election approaches, Lalami's book is a topical selection for this year's Writers & Books event "If All of Rochester Read the Same Book ..." The program hosts book discussions all around Rochester starting today and ending in May, along with a series of movies made in or about Morocco. Lalami will visit in person at book readings, question-and-answer sessions and book signings at the end of March.
While the United States is the largest recipient of immigrants in the world, Spain is second. People travel across Africa to Morocco for the chance to cross over.
"It's really kind of sobering. You realize how the discourse on immigrants is strikingly similar even across these vast distances and different countries," says Lalami. But this wasn't an influence on her story.
"I wasn't writing of it at all thinking of the story in political terms," she says. "I was rather stunned after I finished the book and gave it to a friend to read and she said, 'This is a political book.'"
Her novel tells the personal lives of her characters and the emotions around their decision to immigrate. The boat trip to Spain is successful for some but not for others, who are deported to Morocco. Before telling us of their fate, Lalami backtracks to tell the story of what forced each to risk their lives, from economic strains to social and educational mishaps.
Lalami makes no decided stand on immigration but manages to humanize the issue, spotlighting the advantages as much as the disadvantages. She touches on the trend of Muslim youths turning toward conservative religion and doesn't shy away from how living in a different culture changes an individual.
"It speaks to my own ambivalence as to whether people who immigrate in that way are better off," she says. Lalami recalls she was inspired by reading stories about people taking boats to Spain and became enthralled at this because of the huge risks involved. "It's the highest risk you can take," she says.
Lalami is a native of Morocco, leaving only to pursue a master's degree in London, and finally came to the United States for her doctorate at the University of Southern California.
"I know if you had asked me 20 years ago if I'd be where I am today, I never thought I would be an immigrant," she says. "I was a student and the plan was, I was going to go to graduate school and I would come back and be a professor. ... Things don't turn out the way you expect. That's something that definitely resonates with me."
Lalami is now, in addition to being a novelist, a professor at the University of California-Riverside. Her latest book, to be published next year, The Outsider, is also set in Morocco, but this time it aims to tackle the political issue of liberalism and fake liberalism she feels is at the heart of politics in Morocco.
"I believe in fiction that doesn't shy away from the issues of the day," she says.
For a full schedule of "If All of Rochester Read the Same Book ..." events, go to www.wab.org.
AREGUERO@DemocratandChronicle.com
Amnesty "shocked" at jail for Moroccan royal Facebook 'joke'
0 comments Posted by Knightkrm at 5:00 AM
RABAT (AFP) — Amnesty International said Saturday it was "shocked" by a three-year jail term handed down by a Moroccan court to a man who registered a false Internet Facebook profile as King Mohammed VI's brother.
The court in Casablanca sentenced 27-year-old computer engineer Fouad Mourtada on Friday and fined him 10,000 dinar (900 euros, 1,300 dollars) for "the use of false information and usurping the identity of the prince."
"We are shocked by such a heavy verdict," said Benedicte Goderiaux, a member of an Amnesty group examining human rights issues in Morocco and Western Sahara who attended the trial.
"The sentence is disproportionate to the offence," she told AFP.
Goderiaux also expressed "concern over the trial's fairness," saying that the prosecutor and the judge each reproached Mourtada repeatedly for having "undermined the sacred integrity of the realm as represented by the prince."
If that was the basis of the verdict, Amnesty would consider him "a prisoner of opinion," she added.
According to Goderiaux, the accused and his lawyers said Mourtada had signed his statement under duress during interrogation.
"In these circumstances, this document cannot be entered into a fair trial," she stated.
The prosecutor had demanded Mourtada's punishment serve as an "example," while the defence argued its client was just having fun and that similar cases in the United States, Canada, and Europe never went to trial.
"On Facebook, you find sites (for) Sarkozy, Bush and Blair as well as sports stars and film stars without certifying that they are real," his lawyer Ali Ammar said.
Asked why he had set up a Facebook profile under the name of Prince Moulay Rachid, the king's younger brother, Mourtada had replied: "I admire him, I like him a lot and I have never caused him any wrong, it was just a joke. I am innocent."
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http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/02/24/10192316.html
02/24/2008 01:13 AM | WAM
Abu Dhabi: Moroccan Dr Mohammad Sa'adi won the Shaikh Zayed Book Award (young authors) in its second edition.
Rashid Saleh Al Oraimi, Secretary-General of the award, announced the wining of Dr Sa'adi for his book Future of International Relations in the light of Civilsations' Clash.
Al Oraimi also announced that the Shaikh Zayed Development and Nation Building Award would not be issued in this second edition.
The award recently announced that the translation award went to Dr Faiz Al Sayagh, a Jordanian, while the arts award went to Iraqi architect, Rafa Al Jaderji. Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research won publication and distribution award.
The Libyan novelist Ebrahim Al Kowni, won the literature award, while Huda Al Shawa, a Kuwaiti, won the child literature award.
The international and Arab cultural circles are awaiting the announcement of the Shaikh Zayed Award for general cultural personality for year 2007-8.
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/PrintArticle.aspx?e=909520
Moroccan cuisine is one of the world's most diversified
When you get right down to it, having a day off in February, … la Family Day, is a really good excuse to stage a Sunday Family Day Eve dinner, particularly if your many year wedding anniversary coincides with Family Day. Or something like that.
Dinner menus are always a discussion. What to serve. What did we serve when they were over last? Who can't eat what? What do we not do much of? How about Moroccan? How about multi-course from all over the place? We like theme menus but we also like the shotgun approach. We settle on some Asian, Moroccan, French and American. Done deal.
Fusion menus are particularly good if you are not shackled by dictates of culinary purity. The idea of throwing something a little off the tried and true beaten track is also an attraction - ergo the Moroccan dish.
A little on Morocco. On Nov. 18, 2006, Morocco celebrated the 50th anniversary of its independence. Morocco recovered its political independence from France on March 2, 1956, and on April 7, France officially relinquished its protectorate. So ended centuries of rule by invasion and occupation by Arabs, Europeans and other busybodies. As a result of the centuries of rule and intervention, Moroccan cuisine became one of the most diversified cuisines in the world. The cuisine of Morocco is a mix of Arab, Berber, Moorish, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean African, Iberian and Jewish influences. The cooks in the royal kitchens of Fez, Marrakech and Rabat refined Moroccan cuisine over the centuries and created the basis for what is known as Moroccan cuisine today.
Paula Wolfert, a renowned authority on Moroccan cuisine and author of Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, made an interesting observation: "To my mind four things are necessary before a nation can develop a great cuisine. The first is an abundance of fine ingredients, a rich land. The second is a variety of cultural influences: the history of the nation, including its domination by foreign powers, and the culinary secrets it has brought back from its own imperialist adventures. Third, a great civilization; if a country has not had its day in the sun, its cuisine will probably not be great; great food and a great civilization go together. Last, the existence of a refined palace life; without royal kitchens, without a Versailles or a Forbidden City in Peking, without, in short, the demands of a cultivated court, the imaginations of a nation's cooks will not be challenged. Morocco, fortunately, is blessed with all four."
Morocco produces a large range of Mediterranean fruits and vegetables and even some tropical ones. The country produces large quantities of sheep, cattle, poultry and seafood, which serve as a base for the cuisine.
Spices are used extensively in Moroccan food. While spices have been imported to Morocco for thousands of years, many ingredients, like saffron, mint, olives, oranges and lemons are homegrown. Common spices include cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, paprika, anis seed, sesame seed, coriander, saffron and mint.
The Moroccan midday meal is the main meal, with the exception of the holy month of Ramadan. The typical formal meal begins with a series of hot and cold salads, followed by a tagine (a stew of meat or poultry with vegetables). The tagine will more than likely be served over couscous. A cup of sweet mint tea is commonly used to end the meal. It is common for Moroccans to eat using their fingers, and use bread as a "utensil."
Sweets are not usually served at the end of a Moroccan meal, although desserts such as kaab el ghzal (gazelle's horns), which is a pastry stuffed with almond paste and topped with sugar, do exist. The most popular drink is green tea with mint. Traditionally, making good mint tea in Morocco is considered an art form and the drinking of it with friends and family members is one of the important rituals of the day.
Now, in case you missed your tagine on the weekend, try this one.
Lamb Tagine
Should serve six
2 tablespoons (30 mL) olive oil
2 large onions, peeled and sliced
2 pounds (1 kg) lamb meat, cut into bite-size cubes
1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground cumin
1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground coriander seed
1 teaspoon (5mL) ground ginger
1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground cinnamon
salt to taste
1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground black pepper
Juice of one half to 1 lemon, more or less, to taste
1 tablespoon (15 mL) minced ginger
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tomatoes seeded and diced
1 cup (250 mL) eggplant, large dice
1 cup (250 mL) carrots, large dice
1 cup (250 mL) zuchinni, large dice
1. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottom pot over medium heat. Brown the meat, reserve. Fry the onion, garlic and ginger in the same pan until soft. Add the lamb meat back to the pan. Season with cumin, coriander, ginger, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Pour enough water or stock into the pot to cover the meat. Simmer over low heat for 1 1/2 to two hours, until meat is tender and the mixture is stew-like.
2. Add the carrots and simmer until cooked but still a little firm. Add eggplant and simmer five minutes. Add zucchini and simmer five more minutes.
Serve with couscous, which has an addition of golden raisins, saffron and topped with chopped cashews. Yum.
If you have a question for Albert Cipryk, teacher/chef at Niagara College, he can be reached via Niagara Culinary Institute, 135 Taylor Road, RR4, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., L0S 1J0, or e-mail acipryk@niagarac.on.ca
Copyright © 2008 St. Catharines Standard
Magharebia
Published on Magharebia (http://www.magharebia.com)
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2008/02/21/feature-01
Morocco dismantles widespread domestic terrorist network
21/02/2008
Investigations into a suspected terrorist network in Morocco led to the arrests of three senior political party officials, Morocco's interior ministry announced on Wednesday. The group, trained in part by Hezbollah, is believed to have links to al-Qaeda.
By Sarah Touahri and Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat – 21/02/08
[Sarah Touahri] Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday (February 20th) Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said Moroccan investigators have dismantled a "major Jihadist terror network" established in Tangier in 1992.
Moroccan authorities announced Monday (February 18th) that security services had dismantled a "major Jihadist terrorist network, which was preparing to perpetrate acts of violence in the country." Painstaking intelligence work led to the identification and subsequent arrest of the group's main active members.
Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa told the press on Wednesday that the investigations had uncovered a number of branches of the network, originally established in 1992 in Tangier. The group had connections to terrorist organisations active in Morocco and abroad, including al-Qaeda. Benmoussa said the network was preparing to assassinate top-level civilian and military officials and Moroccan Jewish citizens.
In all, 32 people representing a broad cross-section of society have been detained. Many are educated professionals, one is a police superintendent and three more are senior political party leaders. The network is reportedly led by Moroccan Abdelkader Belliraj, a resident of Belgium.
The interior ministry said searches of the residences and workplaces of members of the "Belliraj Cell" in Casablanca and Nador led to the seizure of large quantities of weapons, ammunitions and explosives, as well as supplies intended to conceal the terrorists' identities.
The ministry added that police helped to identify the sources of financing for the Belliraj cell, including armed robbery, sale of stolen goods, and direct contributions by members. The terrorist organisation also reportedly smuggled some 30 million dirhams into the country in 2001 that were invested in money-laundering endeavours in tourist, real estate and commercial projects in several Moroccan cities. Real estate purchased by the group was also used to house some of the terrorists.
The interior minister also revealed that the group received explosives and arms training from Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2002.
The Moroccan public was perhaps most shocked by the arrests of Secretary-General Mustapha Lmouaatassim and El Amine Regala of the Al-Badil Al-Hadari (Civilised Alternative) party, as well as Mohamed El Merouani, leader of the unrecognised Al Oumma (The Nation) party.
According to the interior minister, the terrorist network was found to be instrumental in the creation of the Al-Badil Al-Hadari party. As a result, Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi decreed the dissolution of the party, under Article 57 of the law governing political parties.
Al-Badil Al-Hadari contributed to the creation of an Islamist association in 1995 before becoming a full-fledged party in 2005. The party fielded candidates in the September 2007 legislative elections but failed to win any seats.
Al Oumma began as a partisan offshoot of Al Haraka Min Ajli Oumma (Movement for the Nation). Founded in 1998, the party applied for government recognition in 2007 but has yet to be approved.
"The creation of the Al-Badil Al-Hadari association in 1995 and Al Haraka Min Ajli Al Oumma in 1998," Chakib Benmoussa explained, "was just a front for the members of the [terrorist] network."
Saad Al Othmani, Secretary-General of the Justice and Development Party expressed his surprise at the arrests, saying the political leaders were "all known for moderation, rejection of violence and extremism, and for working within the framework of institutions and established national principles."
"We are sure that there is some sort of an error," he said, "and we hope it will be corrected."
Meanwhile, Mohamed Moujahid, leader of Morocco's Unified Socialist Party, said the charges are "in contradiction with their stances that call for modernity, democracy and human rights".
Mohamed Ziane, leader of the Moroccan Liberal Party, commented on the case, saying, "Political struggle has nothing to do with violence. The proponents of a culture of violence have no place in politics. This rule applies to both leftist and rightist ideologies."
In a statement issued Tuesday, Ibrahim Borja, Vice-Secretary-General of Al-Badil Al-Hadari condemned Mustapha Lmouaatassim's arrest, describing him and El Amine Regala as proponents of democracy and rejecters of all forms of extremism and terrorism, and called for their immediate release.
He said the arrests were a crackdown on people trying to effect a real democratic transition in Morocco. Mohamed Ben Hammou, leader of the Citizenship and Development Initiative party, said if the allegations prove true, then it is both shocking and frustrating. "Morocco is our country. We should defend it, particularly when we accept a position of political responsibility. We have to be vigilant when it comes to extremism. No one has the right to go down any route other than the democratic one," he declared.
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — A pro-Moroccan Sahrawi group blasted a top UN official Thursday, as vandalism of prehistoric art by UN peacekeepers in the disputed territory of Western Sahara blossomed into a diplomatic incident.
In a statement sent to AFP here, the Casablanca-based Moroccan Sahara Association (ASM), described as a "serious diplomatic faux pas" the apology offered to the Polisario independence movement by the head of the UN mission in Western Sahara (Minurso).
Minurso said that the official, Briton Julian Harston, discussed the affair with Polisario representatives during UN-sponsored talks on the territory's future in the New York suburb of Manhasset earlier this month.
Harston "apologized for the unthinking actions of some Minurso members in the past and undertook to investigate the matter further and explore the possibility of remedial action," a Minurso statement said.
This gesture to the Polisario, which wants a referendum with the option of full independence from the Rabat government, sparked anger from the ASM. That group is loyal to Morocco, which has offered broad autonomy to the Sahrawis in the territory.
ASM chief Reda Daoujni warned that if an apology was not offered to his group, it would call for a rally outside the Minurso offices in Western Sahara and in Rabat to protest Harston's "blatant pro-separatist stance."
A UN spokesman here said Harston "apologized to the Polisario representatives because they were the ones who brought up the issue with him at Manhasset."
But Ahmed Bujari, the Polisario representative to the UN, dismissed the ASM protest and told AFP: "Morocco has no legal basis to complain since no one in the world recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara."
"What is important is that Minurso agreed to investigate the affair and to take steps to have those responsible prosecuted in their own countries."
Bujari said the vandalism of prehistoric art carved onto rocks depicting human and animal figures occurred at Lajuad in the "liberated territory under Polisario control in the central south of Western Sahara."
"This is a cultural legacy going back 6,000 years," he said.
UN peacekeepers monitor a truce along a defense wall in the Sahara constructed by Morocco following a UN-brokered peace deal in 1991 between Morocco and the Polisario.
Morocco's director of national heritage Abdallah Salih spoke out against the vandalism. "We condemn these acts committed in the demilitarized zone," he told AFP on Thursday.
Minurso said that since the Polisario drew attention to the vandalism in the middle of 2007, "action has been taken to stop any further vandalism, and a formal enquiry is being undertaken."
The Times of London Thursday quoted Harston as saying Minurso personnel had sprayed graffiti onto rock art at an isolated site known as Devil Mountain, which the local population regards as of great cultural significance.
One Croatian peacekeeper reportedly sprayed "Petar CroArmy" across a rock face, while "Ibrahim" sprayed his name and number over a painting depicting a giraffe.
Morocco, which annexed the phosphate-rich, mainly desert Western Sahara in the 1970s following the withdrawal of colonial power Spain, and the Polisario failed to make any headway in their third round of direct talks this month.
But they agreed to hold a fourth round from March 11-13 to try to reconcile Morocco's offer of broad autonomy to the Sahrawis and the Polisario's demand for a referendum with the option of full independence.
Despite the 1991 ceasefire after years of fighting, a promised self-determination referendum never materialized and since 2002 Rabat has insisted that holding such a plebiscite is no longer realistic.
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