TASEK PAUH blogspot

Moroccan security forces have dismantled a radical Islamist cell, specialised in recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq, and arrested 26 people, the government says.

"The security services dismantled a terrorist structure specialised in the recruitment for Iraq and operating in certain Moroccan towns," a government statement said on Thursday.

It said the group had "ideological and financial links" with al-Qaeda and other international terrorist groups.

Moroccan security officials say police have broken up more than 50 Islamist cells, and arrested more than 3,000 people since suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003.

Last August the government said it had broken up a cell that was planning to declare a holy war in the northeast of the North African country, attack tourist sites and kill people who symbolise the state.

Rights groups say hundreds of the people arrested since 2003 have faced ill-treatment or unfair trials, something the government denies.

Its statement said those arrested in the latest round-up will be brought before judicial authorities, in line with Morocco's anti-terrorist laws.

The arrests were "transparent and in respect of the law", Nabil Benabdallah, a government spokesman, said. Published by Kavkaz on 5 Jan.

Labels: Berita, Luar Negeri, Morocco, Ummah

Morocco denies religious rights abuse

A senior government official has denied Islamist charges that Morocco's flagship airline had trampled on employees' rights by banning them from praying at work and forcing pilots to eat during Ramadan.

Bourara Khadija, top adviser to the transport minister, said on Thursday: "Since July, Air Maroc has banned its workers from praying in their offices to enforce work discipline, but the airline workers are allowed to pray at two mosques nearby.

"It is a shame that the decision was branded as a crackdown on religious freedom," she told Reuters. "It is wrong to claim that RAM [Royal Air Maroc] abuses the religious rights of its workers."

The main legal opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) this week stepped up its criticism of the moves by state-owned Royal Air Maroc (RAM), calling them an abuse of religious freedom.

Government officials accused PJD of stirring up the four-month-old issue to try to influence parliamentary polls next year.

'Enforcing discipline'

Khadija said RAM had to enforce discipline at work as it faced stiff competition from foreign airlines after Morocco signed an open sky agreement with the European Union.

She added that RAM had banned its pilots from fasting while flying during the holy month of Ramadan because plane simulation tests showed possible security risks.

"Aviation authorities proved that a fasting pilot can not fully control a plane's gears and equipment after spending some hours flying," she said.

Noureddine Gherbal, PJD deputy, told reporters some female RAM employees had also complained to him in writing about being barred from wearing Islamic headscarves.

But Khadija, insisting that RAM had acted fairly, said: "There is no veil issue here at all. Only two female workers were asked to move from a front desk to a RAM call centre if they wanted to wear veils and they obeyed the order."

Labels: Berita, Luar Negeri, Morocco, Ummah