This should be printed all over the MSM, but as you can guess, it won’t be: (h/t Gateway Pundit)
Thousands marched through Morocco’s biggest city on Sunday to protest Al-Qaeda’s decision to kill two Moroccan hostages in Iraq. Holding banners and chanting “Muslims are brothers. A Muslim does not kill his brother” and “‘Yes’ to freedom, ‘No’ to terrorism and barbarity,” the protesters marched through Casablanca, a city of six million and Morocco’s financial capital.
Al-Qaeda has said it decided to kill the Moroccan Embassy employees, Abdel-Rahim Boualem and Abdel-Karim al-Mouhafidi because of Morocco’s support for the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.
Top Moroccan officials, ministers, pro-government and opposition party leaders and trade unions and rights groups, led the protest to put pressures on Al-Qaeda to free the two men.
Some members of Islamist parties which back Iraqi insurgents fighting U.S.-led forces in Iraq also joined the march.
“All Moroccans are with Iraq, all Moroccans are innocent,” the marchers chanted.
Morocco’s influential organization of Islamic scholars, known as the High Council of the Ulema and the Councils of Ulema in the Moroccan Kingdom, said Al-Qaeda members in Iraq will suffer the “horrors of hell” if they kill the Moroccan hostages and the victims will die as martyrs. It dismissed Al-Qaeda’s argument that its verdict to kill the two embassy employees was “God’s judgment.”
[…]The terror group said last week it had decided to kill the two hostages after it sentenced them to death over Morocco’s support for the U.S.-backed Baghdad government. It also called on diplomats in Baghdad to “pack their bags and leave” or face certain death.
But the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said its embassy would not succumb to “blackmail,” particularly “coming from a terrorist group which cannot claim to represent Iraq.”
It said Al-Qaeda “is attempting shamefully to justify (the killings) with so-called religious references and false political considerations.”
They are not backing down in Iraq either:
RABAT – Al-Qaeda in Iraq “has nothing to teach Morocco”, the foreign ministry said Saturday, standing by its decision to keep diplomats in the restive country despite the insurgent group’s threats to kill them and two Moroccan hostages.
The Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and considered the bloodiest of the insurgent groups, said in a statement on Thursday it had decided to kill the two embassy employees, Abderrahim Boualem and Abdelkrim Mouhafidi, kidnapped on October 20.
[…]On Friday, the Al-Qaeda group called on diplomats in Baghdad to “pack their bags and leave” or face certain death.
But the Moroccan foreign ministry said its embassy would not succumb to “blackmail”, particularly “coming from a terrorist group which cannot claim to represent Iraq”.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq “has nothing to teach Morocco, which is sovereign in its political opinions and overseas decisions,” the ministry said in a statement.
Morocco also demands “the immediate and unconditional release” of the hostages, the ministry added, accusing Al-Qaeda of using “so-called religious references and fallacious political ideas” to justify notice of the “cowardly execution” of the pair.
Boualem, 55, a driver and father of three, and Mouhafidi, an agent aged 49, are married to Iraqis and have lived in the country for around 20 years. Boualem’s wife is blind.
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for their kidnapping on October 26 and Zarqawi has said his group was also behind the capture and murder in July of two Algerian diplomats and the Egyptian head of mission in Baghdad, Ihab al-Sherif.
The Iraqi government has said the abduction and killing of foreign envoys was aimed at undermining its legitimacy and has urged world governments to remain resolute in the face of the dangers of being posted in Baghdad.
A protest in a Muslim country against Al-Qaeda! This is big news but nothing about it on the MSM. Sigh.
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Hi,
Even I as moroccan didnt know of this protests, because i live in Europe. MSM are more reporting about Paris Riots or Bird Flu than Iraq. i hope they will release the 2 mens.
Thanks for your Blog.
Moroccan.