"Moroccans in the News"

As of late, usually when you hear about Moroccans in the news, it's never good. Tingis, a Moroccan magazine and wafin.com recetly did a story about this topic. And how true it is.

from CNN: Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in the terrorism conspiracy behind the September 11, 2001, attacks, has pleaded guilty to all six counts against him.

If a Moroccan is mentioned in a news headline, it usually has something to do with terrorism, explosions, stowing away on a boat to Spain, dying in a cargo box or washing ashore on the Algerian coast, being turned away for residence on the Canary Islands, being held for suspicion on Guatanamo Bay or maybe in your local jail cell, being in the US or any other country illegally, killing a popular person in Northern Europe, or scribbling on a synogogue or church or winning the marathon....

You rarely hear about the Moroccan who solely supports his family, who won a greencard in the lottery, who got a promotion at work, or who heads a successful international company (Lancome), the one who just got his medical degree or was forced out of his aprtment cause his landlord has tunnel vision; what about the Moroccan woman who works 7-days a week so she can decorate her apartment in an American style....

I know Moroccans are not the only ones that this happens to and that I'm not the first nor the last to notice and comment on this. But it just gets me going because people will ask me what my husband thinks about this latest verdict and we'll have to respond..." hold on please, while I diall directly into the stupid-bad ass Moroccan hotline to get an official comment for you." That's the phone line I have right next to the one for Bin Laden and Saddam I used after 9/11 to ask them if they were planning anything else. IDIOTS!

What I know about Moroccans is personal. What I know is that after soccer, their next favorite pasttime is hospitality. That they are just as scared and angry about what is going on as we are, maybe more so because of the fear and anticipation that the suspected culprits could be one of their own. They understand tolerance and respect better than anyone because of their religion and way life. I've seen a Moroccan literally take his shirt off to aid a man he didn't know, a family with no money feed a feast to a stranger, I've felt the warmth, sincerity and kindness all the way from Casablanca to New York, from the man in the marketplace to the man who sleeps in my bed.

What I know about humankind is that we f*ck up and do evil, destructive, vile things to people without caring about who they are, and how it will affect the people they know. "Every action has a reaction," eh? Challenge your reaction the next time you get an e-mail update with some breaking news.