LCI TV: International network behind Casablanca attacks, minister
Morocco, Politics, 6/18/2003

Moroccan communication minister and spokesman for the government, Nabil Benabdallah, told Monday French TV channel LCI an international terrorist network is behind the May 16 blasts that actually targeted the modern and democratic society project Morocco is building.

During recent years, Morocco has developed a project for a modern, democratic society. It is such a project that was targeted by the criminal attacks, he said.

The attacks' international connections are getting clear. We are convinced there is a foreign hand in the matter, not that of a country, but rather of an international terrorist network. The probe will end up proving it more precisely, he added.

Answering a question on charges facing Moroccan Islamist movements that they have been practicing "intellectual terrorism," and paved the way for the attacks, Benabdallah said "through their ideas and a somewhat moralizing attitude, they have contributed in spreading extremist ideas."

For the minister, "They (the Islamists) must take a clear stand in the Moroccan democratic landscape and reject any confusion between religion, shared by all Moroccans, and the political, which is open to everyone."

On the status of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) on the Moroccan political map, Benabdallah deems that "the PJD can become a party like any other if it decides to play the national democratic game. It is not the case to day," he insisted.

"The party has extremely unclear and equivocal attitudes on a number of issues. Personally, I don't think they adhere in the country's democratic map."

For the communication minister, there is a majority that was somehow awaken by the attacks. "The Moroccan society should not be misjudged. It is deeply yearning for modernity and democratization."

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