Tunisia Terrorism Attacks Affects Moroccan Tourism Sector: Minister (1 Viewer)

Bailey58

LIFE MEMBER
Jun 23, 2010
8,782
29,109
Norfolk and Toftir.
Funster No
12,267
MH
Sold
Exp
July 2010 (ex tugger)
We nearly got kidnapped by a cab driver in Casablanca who changed the agreed price after we'd got in last year. It was only because there were four of us we managed to get out with him chasing us down the street. :eek:
 

sdc77

Free Member
Jan 28, 2013
3,244
4,550
Weardale, Co Durham
Funster No
24,456
MH
Coachbuilt
Exp
since 2011
From a pint and packet of crisps point of view..
I think that until islamic countries and Muslims in general deal with islamic radicalism Muslims are going to continue to die in huge numbers...
History is irrelevant when dealing with an organisation that has no moral base and places little value on life.
The west is not to blame for isis. Isis natural enemy is of course Shia Muslims followed by other religions.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

Tootles

Funster
Deceased RIP
Sep 14, 2013
9,511
34,799
Lancaster
Funster No
28,093
MH
Coachbuilt
Exp
Was a newbie, now a Middie.
We nearly got kidnapped by a cab driver in Casablanca
You should have finished your trip with him. Doubtless he was taking you to that cafe where there's a tab smoking piano player, and a tall bird with a funny hat. The owner would have addressed you as you entered with
"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, you walk into mine". Then he would have said :
What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?

You: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.

Owner: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.

You: I was misinformed. :) Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By.":cry::cry:
 

Bailey58

LIFE MEMBER
Jun 23, 2010
8,782
29,109
Norfolk and Toftir.
Funster No
12,267
MH
Sold
Exp
July 2010 (ex tugger)
You've been watching too many old movies Toots, anyway we found it quicker to walk to Rick's bar, not that they would let us in as it's moved upmarket since Bogie's day.

That reminds me, I'll post a joke later when I've finished me lunch.
 
OP
OP
scotjimland

scotjimland

LIFE MEMBER
Jul 25, 2007
2,076
8,980
Suffolk Coastal District, UK
Funster No
15
MH
Timberland
I for one would rather take my chances in Tunisia than London...

What are we all going to do ? Stay in doors and let the bastards win....!

it's not black and white.. there are degrees of risk..

The risk in Tunisia is higher than say Suffolk... and no, I won't be staying indoors.. but as far as I'm concerned Muslim countries are now off my destination list ..

Heeding FCO advice is not letting the bastards win... it's reducing the risk of being shot or bombed by some Muslim fanatic..

yes, there is a high risk in London.. but it has never been on my list of places to visit.. Worked there for 10 years.. and heard the bombs going of in 2005 .. that was quite plenty.. thank you very much..
 

GJH

LIFE MEMBER
Aug 20, 2007
29,450
38,828
Acklam, Teesside, originally Glossop
Funster No
127
MH
None, now sold
Exp
2006 to 2022
I for one would rather take my chances in Tunisia than London...

What are we all going to do ? Stay in doors and let the bastards win....!
it's not black and white.. there are degrees of risk..

The risk in Tunisia is higher than say Suffolk... and no, I won't be staying indoors.. but as far as I'm concerned Muslim countries are now off my destination list ..

Heeding FCO advice is not letting the bastards win... it's reducing the risk of being shot or bombed by some Muslim fanatic..

yes, there is a high risk in London.. but it has never been on my list of places to visit.. Worked there for 10 years.. and heard the bombs going of in 2005 .. that was quite plenty.. thank you very much..
It struck me earlier that heeding FCO advice in such a situation is much like heeding that of the fire service to "Get out, stay out and call us out" - i.e. move away from the danger until it has been dealt with and made safe with those whose job it is to do so.
 

vwalan

Funster
Sep 23, 2008
8,835
5,798
roche cornwall
Funster No
4,148
MH
lynton5th wheel
Exp
since a child
i think or so i,m told by my islamic friends that really just about all the islamic regions would support isis in getting rid of the shia .
the problem is usa and the west like to keep in with the shia as we buy their oil.
most of the islamic people arent shia and hate then more than us .
its just that the ones shouting seem ott.
every time uk bomb the middle east it endangers us here and where we go on holiday.
 

Jim

Ringleader
Jul 19, 2007
36,191
128,620
Sutton on Sea, UK
Funster No
1
MH
Adria Panel Van.
Exp
Since 1988
This article is worth reading, from today's Times. Its behind a paywall, so I've copied some of it here. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/africa/article4499184.ece

Jihadists take aim at last safe haven in North Africa

Jihadist recruiters are sending several hundred impoverished Moroccans to camps in Syria to train them for war against their nation’s pro-western government.

As many as 1,600 Moroccans, many of them based in Europe, have made the journey, signing up to fight with Isis, al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front or Harakat Sham al-Islam, an extremist group founded by a Moroccan who spent time in detention at Guantanamo Bay.

Morocco, a popular destination for European holidaymakers, has largely escaped the convulsions of other Muslim countries in the region such as Tunisia and Libya.

isis_training_942116c.jpg


However, jihadist recruiters have found rich pickings in underdeveloped northern areas such as Tangier, Tetouan, Meknes and Nador, towns where youth unemployment rates reach 20 per cent and 67 per cent of the population is illiterate.

They work within a sophisticated network and are believed to earn as much as €5,000 per recruit.

They seek out both men and women, seducing them with promises of a better life, money and glory.

“Every day, for three months, this old man, who spoke very kindly, would come and sit with me by my perfume stall in front of our local mosque,” said Rachid, 47, a former Isis fighter now held in a Moroccan jail. An illiterate street vendor, he was recruited from a village south of Khouribaga last summer. “At first the man gave me 500 dirhams [£33], which doubled my perfume stock. He treated me like a prince.”

The “kind old man” was in fact part of a group of five recruiters who were approaching street vendors who appeared to be struggling to make ends meet. “After three months of talking about Syria, he gave me 7,500 dirhams and together we booked my flights and my journey to Isis. I had never left my village, let alone the county, but he promised me paradise,” Rachid said.

On a Friday during Ramadan last year, Rachid took a flight to Istanbul with a vendor from a nearby village and a Moroccan woman and her daughter who were travelling to join her husband, an Isis fighter, in Syria. They were met by an intermediary at the airport.

Three days later, he said, he found himself in a queue of 50 Moroccans, more than half of them women, trying to cross at Gaziantep, Turkey, into Syria. “No water, no food — the traffickers treated us so badly. The scenes there were hell,” he said. He fled home, even though he knew he faced imprisonment.

At least 35 Moroccans have travelled from Tangier and surrounding towns to fight in Syria in the past month alone — not always for the money. Abdelaziz, 49, who sells home-made crisps for a living, said that his wife, Layla, a Koran teacher, had been persuaded to join Isis by women at her mosque who showed her footage of President Assad’s army barrel-bombing Syrian children.

“One day she never came back from work. She called me a few days later to demand I join her in Syria. When I refused, she divorced me over the phone and married a fighter,” he said.

Hicham, 21, from Fnideq, near the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, was shot in the back by Isis commanders when he tried to escape from a Syrian training camp. He had been told he would be a hero, his uncle, a taxi driver who gave his name only as Abdelkader, told The Times.

“He explained from jail after he returned that there had been a secret group of around six people, who have all now been arrested. They first approached him when he went to the dawn prayer, in informal gatherings after the prayer session,” he said. “They told him he would save Syria, that they were building an Islamic state to make the world a better place, that he would have a good life, a good job. He found the total opposite.”

Abdelkader said that the jihadist recruiters operating in the area had been caught by security forces but that a new group was forming. “They have begun recruiting again,” he said. “The last two young men left just a week ago. One of them we heard has already died.”

Some 25 miles south, in Tetouan, Hamid, 26, told how one of his cousins had been recruited six months earlier at a popular café in the town by a group of about five people. He said that they were paid €5,000 for every person they were able to convince to sign up.

There are fears that the hundreds of fighters receiving training in Syria will return and build sleeper cells to stage attacks in their home country. The Maghreb region is on high alert after Broken Link Removed last month in which 38 tourists, most of them British, were killed.

A jihadist jailed in Morocco alongside Rachid said that it was well known that Isis was encouraging its fighters to “act at home too”. Full Article on the Times
 
Last edited:
Feb 9, 2008
8,924
18,663
Corby, Northants
Funster No
1,455
MH
Coach Built
Exp
Since 2007
We intend to return to Morocco in 2016 unless there is a significant change in the risk to our safety.
Since the attack in Tunisia our wonderful foreign office have took the simple approach of raising the terror threat to high in just about all countries where UK citizens take holidays. France, Spain and Morocco all have the same threat level.
The F.O. goes on to state 'There is considered to be a heightened threat of terrorist attack globally against UK interests and British nationals, from groups or individuals motivated by the conflict in Iraq and Syria. You should be vigilant at this time'
So this could be loosely interpreted as don't leave your home !
 

TerryL

LIFE MEMBER
Mar 5, 2010
6,152
8,138
North East
Funster No
10,511
MH
Low Profile
Exp
2009
I try to read all and any information I can about the situation in Morocco but all I see are "opinions" and articles from the press who, lets face it, are after stories to sell newspapers. I've never trusted journalists since one nearly put me out of business a good few years ago by being very one-sided.
Our visits over the last two years never showed up anything like dissent and we were made welcome everywhere, although I would perhaps now steer clear of the larger cities where dissent is more likely. You just have to take note of everything and try to end up with a balanced view.
I know there's lots of you out there who think we're nuts but I'm throwing my hat into the ring and stating that we're still going.
 

hilldweller

LIFE MEMBER
Dec 5, 2008
605
36,108
Macclesfield
Funster No
5,089
MH
Zilch Mk1
Exp
From Aug 2007
I know there's lots of you out there who think we're nuts but I'm throwing my hat into the ring and stating that we're still going.

Good for you and all the other FUNsters. It's a big country, there will be thousands of tourists, even more police and military so surely you stand a better chance of dying driving down there or on their roads than being blown up.
 
OP
OP
scotjimland

scotjimland

LIFE MEMBER
Jul 25, 2007
2,076
8,980
Suffolk Coastal District, UK
Funster No
15
MH
Timberland
Since this thread was started, there have been several other incidents reported.

Moroccan authorities said on Monday they had dismantled a militant cell planning to create an Islamic State affiliate, seizing weapons and bomb-making materials in raids on their hideouts.

The cell is the latest in a series of radical groups Morocco says it has uncovered. The group was operating in the southern city of Essaouira and the central town of Sidi Allal Al-Bahraoui.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/09/14/uk-morocco-security-idUKKCN0RE1SN20150914

I don't want to be labelled as an alarmist and just trying to spoil travel plans.

As pointed out, the terrorism threat alert in Spain, France and the UK has also been set to High .. but when we travel in the UK or Europe. we blend in.. we are not an obvious outsider.. or infidel.. a motorhome raises no eyebrows and doesn't draw attention.. quite the opposite in Morocco.. where we are obviously 'westerners' and rich one's to boot..

No one is suggesting that we don't leave home Quote" So this could be loosely interpreted as don't leave your home !" ..Unquote.

If I had an old inconspicuous overland vehicle and no family to consider.. then I would have no qualms about travelling in N Africa.. that not being the case.. I won't be going.

I wish all those who are travelling in 2016 a safe journey.. Morocco truly is a great place to travel.. and I am envious, but wouldn't risk it.

We all have to judge and make our own decision. .. no preaching.. just my view.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Feb 9, 2008
8,924
18,663
Corby, Northants
Funster No
1,455
MH
Coach Built
Exp
Since 2007
As pointed out, the terrorism threat alert in Spain, France and the UK has also been set to High .. but when we travel in the UK or Europe. we blend in.. we are not an obvious outsider..

LOL ! Funsters blending in ! Love it!
Unless there is a dramatic change in circumstances we too shall be joining the other Funsters.
I remember when the French advised there citizens not to go earlier this year because of the terrorist incident in Paris and their numbers were down by about 60% which was great for those of us who went and we certainly did not feel at risk. (By the way the missing 60% went to Portugal and Spain).
I do believe the Foreign Office could do a much better risk assessment but suspect they find them selves in a position of being dammed if they do and dammed if they dont. So, they are over cautious just to be on the safe side and it's simpler and cheaper for them just to raise the risk on any country that UK citizens visit. (Easy peasy, Job done!)
I suspect that once again many French, and perhaps Dutch, Germans, and Brits will head into Portugal this winter which will create more space for us few others going to Moroc.
 

DBK

LIFE MEMBER
Jan 9, 2013
17,968
47,804
Plympton, Devon
Funster No
24,219
MH
PVC, Murvi Morocco
Exp
2013
Old thread?????
It is, but what's going on in Iraq and Syria at the moment may well mean displaced IS fighters return home - be that the UK or say, Morocco.
There doesn't seem to be any specific new reason not to go to Morocco at the moment but current events are something to keep in mind. :)

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

vwalan

Funster
Sep 23, 2008
8,835
5,798
roche cornwall
Funster No
4,148
MH
lynton5th wheel
Exp
since a child
it might be that maroc will be the place to go . as uk leave the eu. if we only get the 90 days in 6 months entry visa for eu.
there is a rumour that falmouth is going to start a connecting ferry come container port to agadir. or a maroc port .
already about 7 years ago spain put tarrifs on fruit ,veg, fish products passing through spain to northern europe.
so maybe our connections will cut the eu right out of our winter travels . get 6 months entry visa to maroc.
after all not many years ago the most dangerous place for risk of murder in uk was bodmin in cornwall.
it had one murder a year.
that was murders to number of folk living there.
maroc really is quite safe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DBK

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Funsters who are viewing this thread

Back
Top