Casablanca breeds new wave of bombers
Casablanca breeds new wave of bombers
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: May 4 2007 19:43 | Last updated: May 4 2007 19:43
From the moment he and a friend walked into a Casablanca cybercafé shortly after 9pm, Abdelfattah Raydi’s behaviour raised suspicion.
It was a warm evening yet both men wore jackets. Raydi complained about the computer he was allocated, then switched to another and entered a website related to the Iraq war. When the café owner blocked the site, he lost his temper and bashed the keyboard.
He then tried to log into MSN Messenger, but failed, angering him further. After the owner threatened to call the police, Raydi uttered a chilling threat: “If you do not let me go out, you will see something you have never seen in your life.” He then blew himself up as the owner telephoned the authorities.
The March 11 explosion triggered a chain of events that culminated in police raids and five other men blowing themselves up in Casablanca, rekindling memories of May 2003 suicide attacks that killed dozens.
Those bombers had originated from Sidi Moumen, a neighbourhood of slums in Morocco’s commercial capital where the tin-roofed houses are packed so tightly they create a warren of alleys barely wide enough for a wheelbarrow to pass. Raydi, who was in his 20s, and three other men who blew themselves up on April 10 also grew up in this impoverished setting.
Poverty and high unemployment are often viewed as fertile ground for radical cells seeking new recruits, and Raydi’s background provides a glimpse into the lives of the men who fastened suicide belts around themselves.
He was born into a poor family with six brothers, according to two friends. His father used to drink, sometimes beat his sons and divorced their mother several years ago. The friends say Raydi was “normal” – an unemployed youth who did not finish school; a young man who used to drink and occasionally smoke hashish.
His thirst for those vices grew after his parents’ divorce, but he changed his ways after warnings from neighbours to avoid the path taken by his father. He turned to religion, as had his mother after her divorce.
The 2003 bombings then rocked Morocco. In response, police rounded up hundreds – some say thousands – of men, including Raydi, who was jailed for five years for his association with the attackers. He had prayed at a mosque used by some of those connected to the 2003 attacks, his friends say.
“The first time he was arrested, he was innocent,” one friend says. He was released early and was a good prisoner, an interior ministry official says. When he returned to Sidi Moumen, he had grown a beard and wore a jalabiya, his friends say. He married and never spoke about his experiences in prison.
About a year ago he disappeared, surfacing with the March 11 explosion that shocked friends and neighbours.
Few speak openly about the events. But some young men are happy to describe the frustrations of slum life. “They blow themselves up and die quickly. We are dying slowly,” says Mourad, one of a group of jobless men smoking hashish.
Some of those arrested in connection with the explosions used to tell them to pray and change their ways, they say, but they decided to stick to their hashish. The stigma of living in the neighbourhood following the 2003 attacks has made it even harder to find jobs, they add.
But officials and analysts say poverty alone does not account for the men’s transformation into suicide bombers. Mohammed Darif, an expert in Islamist groups, says their radical ideology is spread by regional groups, aided by international factors such as the war in Iraq.
Poor areas such as Sidi Moumen tend to be more devout, and security there has been less tight, allowing people to do what they like while attracting less attention, he adds. “What happens is you have a kind of surveillance cell. They are in the neighbourhood and see who could be a candidate,” Mr Darif says. “When they find someone, the surveillance cell’s work ends and another cell . . . starts to influence his ideology.”
As if to prove the point that slums are not the only recruiting grounds, two brothers from a central Casablanca neighbourhood blew themselves up outside the US consulate there on April 14.
Both men, Mohammed and Omar Maha, had jobs and lived with their father, stepmother and sister in an apartment above a ladies’ hairdressing saloon. The elder son, Mohammed, was described by a neighbour as a private, devout person. Omar was a friendly young man who enjoyed football, a fan of Juventus and Rajaa, a Moroccan team.
Abid Maha, their father, puffs on a cigarette while trying to fathom what happened. When he heard two men had blown themselves up he says he turned to a café waiter and said: “God have no mercy on those who did that.”
Later he realised it was his sons. Neither had many friends or stayed out late, he says. “Anyone can be a victim of what happened, even you. It’s a kind of trap that can catch you.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: May 4 2007 19:43 | Last updated: May 4 2007 19:43
From the moment he and a friend walked into a Casablanca cybercafé shortly after 9pm, Abdelfattah Raydi’s behaviour raised suspicion.
It was a warm evening yet both men wore jackets. Raydi complained about the computer he was allocated, then switched to another and entered a website related to the Iraq war. When the café owner blocked the site, he lost his temper and bashed the keyboard.
He then tried to log into MSN Messenger, but failed, angering him further. After the owner threatened to call the police, Raydi uttered a chilling threat: “If you do not let me go out, you will see something you have never seen in your life.” He then blew himself up as the owner telephoned the authorities.
The March 11 explosion triggered a chain of events that culminated in police raids and five other men blowing themselves up in Casablanca, rekindling memories of May 2003 suicide attacks that killed dozens.
Those bombers had originated from Sidi Moumen, a neighbourhood of slums in Morocco’s commercial capital where the tin-roofed houses are packed so tightly they create a warren of alleys barely wide enough for a wheelbarrow to pass. Raydi, who was in his 20s, and three other men who blew themselves up on April 10 also grew up in this impoverished setting.
Poverty and high unemployment are often viewed as fertile ground for radical cells seeking new recruits, and Raydi’s background provides a glimpse into the lives of the men who fastened suicide belts around themselves.
He was born into a poor family with six brothers, according to two friends. His father used to drink, sometimes beat his sons and divorced their mother several years ago. The friends say Raydi was “normal” – an unemployed youth who did not finish school; a young man who used to drink and occasionally smoke hashish.
His thirst for those vices grew after his parents’ divorce, but he changed his ways after warnings from neighbours to avoid the path taken by his father. He turned to religion, as had his mother after her divorce.
The 2003 bombings then rocked Morocco. In response, police rounded up hundreds – some say thousands – of men, including Raydi, who was jailed for five years for his association with the attackers. He had prayed at a mosque used by some of those connected to the 2003 attacks, his friends say.
“The first time he was arrested, he was innocent,” one friend says. He was released early and was a good prisoner, an interior ministry official says. When he returned to Sidi Moumen, he had grown a beard and wore a jalabiya, his friends say. He married and never spoke about his experiences in prison.
About a year ago he disappeared, surfacing with the March 11 explosion that shocked friends and neighbours.
Few speak openly about the events. But some young men are happy to describe the frustrations of slum life. “They blow themselves up and die quickly. We are dying slowly,” says Mourad, one of a group of jobless men smoking hashish.
Some of those arrested in connection with the explosions used to tell them to pray and change their ways, they say, but they decided to stick to their hashish. The stigma of living in the neighbourhood following the 2003 attacks has made it even harder to find jobs, they add.
But officials and analysts say poverty alone does not account for the men’s transformation into suicide bombers. Mohammed Darif, an expert in Islamist groups, says their radical ideology is spread by regional groups, aided by international factors such as the war in Iraq.
Poor areas such as Sidi Moumen tend to be more devout, and security there has been less tight, allowing people to do what they like while attracting less attention, he adds. “What happens is you have a kind of surveillance cell. They are in the neighbourhood and see who could be a candidate,” Mr Darif says. “When they find someone, the surveillance cell’s work ends and another cell . . . starts to influence his ideology.”
As if to prove the point that slums are not the only recruiting grounds, two brothers from a central Casablanca neighbourhood blew themselves up outside the US consulate there on April 14.
Both men, Mohammed and Omar Maha, had jobs and lived with their father, stepmother and sister in an apartment above a ladies’ hairdressing saloon. The elder son, Mohammed, was described by a neighbour as a private, devout person. Omar was a friendly young man who enjoyed football, a fan of Juventus and Rajaa, a Moroccan team.
Abid Maha, their father, puffs on a cigarette while trying to fathom what happened. When he heard two men had blown themselves up he says he turned to a café waiter and said: “God have no mercy on those who did that.”
Later he realised it was his sons. Neither had many friends or stayed out late, he says. “Anyone can be a victim of what happened, even you. It’s a kind of trap that can catch you.”
posted by Carlos T Mock at 8:53 AM
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