In Algeria and Morocco, pundits sought the reasons for the revival of terrorism. Rasha Saad sees what was found In the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat, under "The extremism of Moroccans", Abdel-Rahman Al-Rashed said Morocco had always been known as the most tolerant of Arab countries. "Moroccan tolerance is real and the clear evidence of this is the co-existence of Muslims and Jews which has always existed in Morocco despite the unrest that ravaged the region," Al-Rashed wrote. He said that though the headline of his article might be provocative for some, it was a title that expresses concern and does not aim to pass judgment. Al-Rashed pointed out that after a number of successive explosions, carried out by 13 terrorists, and which rocked Casablanca in 2003 killing 23 people, it was said that the attacks were an exception and that a hasty judgment on Morocco should not be passed as a result. Last month, he continued, a relatively minor attack was executed in an Internet café. And this week, Moroccan police pre-empted terrorist operations by raiding a terrorist cell of four people, three members of which blew themselves up. Al-Rashed said it was now clear that terrorist ideologies as well as terrorists have infiltrated Morocco. However, we cannot claim that extremism has engulfed the Moroccans. "Morocco has become a victim of the terrorism epidemic but we still do not know the extent of its injury," Al-Rashed declared. He wrote that among the arguments he read that tackled the Moroccan phenomenon in terms of the origin and reasons behind the fact that such a tolerant society would be inflicted with such wide-scale sabotage was one presented by a writer who said Morocco is witnessing a reverse crisis. Many Moroccan extremists are European Moroccans, not residents of Morocco. The writer claims that many of these terrorists come from France, Britain and The Netherlands, already plagued by the disease in their countries. He also says they call for denouncing the public as non-believers and bringing about change as well as challenging the entire community. "If this is the case, then it refers to a crisis of migrants abroad who suffer from being targeted by extremists," Al-Rashed wrote, concluding that "the continuous emergence of cells and armament despite prosecution and prevention means that Morocco must fear the worst." Also in Asharq Al-Awsat, media expert Diana Mukkaled pointed out the exploitation of the Al-Qaeda information superhighway in promoting terrorism and violence. Describing the bloody scenes in Algeria and Morocco, Mukkaled wrote, "In the manner of all previous battles waged by Al-Qaeda, the scene in the aftermath was chilling: scattered dead bodies and charred remains after the blasts in Casablanca followed by the more ferocious bombing in Algeria executed via suicide operations that bore the seal of the Al-Qaeda network in the Islamic Maghreb." And to complete the scene, Mukkaled wrote, Al-Qaeda downloaded video footage online of the alleged attackers in Algeria as they issued threats against the customary background, the Kalashnikov and the Qur'an, "in the same abhorrent way that reproduced the format invented by Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and his first deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri." After declaring its union with the network, a move that was blessed by Bin Laden, Algeria's Salafist Group for Da'wa and Jihad (Preaching and Combat) has become the acting nucleus of the Al-Qaeda network in North Africa. The videos that showed the culprits prove the aforementioned union. However, Mukkaled points out, the Salafist group is not a newcomer on the scene or a product of last week's events. In fact, the group has gained extensive guerrilla warfare experience and played a terrible role during the violence of the civil war years in Algeria back in the nineties. "However, the novelty lies in the group's determination to employ state- of-the-art technology, especially the Internet and the media -- means that were not readily available in the nineties." Prior to last week's bombings, the Salafist Group had carried out various operations through which it bolstered its media presence by taping the operations and posting the videos online, particularly the attacks that targeted Westerners and personnel who worked in the oil and gas industry in the desert. Later it posted the scenes of the clashes with security forces in Bijaya, which erupted last month, making it clear that it intends to reinforce its combat and media presence through videos and online Islamic publicity. Mukkaled quoted French thinker Gilles Kepel who holds that the Internet is the primary and underlying reason for Al-Qaeda's success in the 11 September attacks. It is his view that had it not been for the Internet, Al-Qaeda would not have existed, and is moreover of the opinion that the New York and Washington attacks are by-products of the Internet, which in turn has imposed a new form of mobilisation. Undoubtedly, concludes Mukkaled, the information boom has become a crucial weapon that allows radical Islamists to make their voices heard to attract as many as possible. "It is frightening that Al-Qaeda may once again, through its exploitation of the information superhighway, succeed in mobilising and persuading many that violence and terrorism are noble political and religious actions. By doing so, it strips the killing and death component which results from these bombings and what remains is violence that is built on mobilisation and myths." Also in Asharq Al-Awsat Mshari Al-Zaydi asked if the battle with terrorism could end in victory. He wondered if the Arabs can effectively fight terrorists "when we (Arabs) are incapable of fighting the culture of fanaticism." Al-Zaydi declared, "A junior terrorist is a descendant of a senior fanatic. The relation between both is the same as between the hand that carries a gun and the tongue that praises the hand." What is certain about all this, Al-Zaydi concludes, is that "we have failed in the war against terror. We have failed to accomplish a rational Arab model."
