King Mohammed VI, on horse, held a ceremony of mutual allegiance in July in Tetouan in the north, a hotbed of extremism.
CASABLANCA, Morocco — Morocco has long been viewed as a rare liberalizing, modernizing Islamic state, open to the West and a potential bridge to a calmer Middle East that can live in peace with Israel.
Ahmed Gueddou, a laborer, at his hovel in Sidi Moumen. About 700 families there have been shipped to Casablanca’s outskirts.
But under pressure from Islamic radicalism, King Mohammed VI has slowed the pace of change. Power remains concentrated in the monarchy; democracy seems more demonstrative than real. While insisting that the king is committed to deeper reforms, senior officials speak instead of keeping a proper balance between freedom and social cohesion. Many discuss the threat of extremism in neighboring Algeria.
Since a major bombing of downtown hotels and shopping areas by Islamic radicals in 2003, and a thwarted attempt at another bombing campaign in 2007, there has been a major and continuing crackdown on those suspected of being extremists here.
In 2003, anyone with a long beard was likely to be arrested. Even now, nearly 1,000 prisoners considered to be Islamic radicals remain in Moroccan jails. Six Islamist politicians (and a reporter from the Hezbollah television station, Al Manar) were jailed recently, accused of complicity in a major terrorist plot. The case was full of irregularities and based mainly on circumstantial evidence, according to a defense lawyer, Abelaziz Nouaydi, and Human Rights Watch.
In a rare interview, Yassine Mansouri, Morocco’s chief of intelligence, said that the arrested politicians “used their political activities as a cover for terrorist activities.”
“It was not our aim to stop a political party,” he said. “There is a law to be followed.”
Morocco is threatened, Mr. Mansouri said, by two extremes — the conservative Wahhabism spread by Saudi Arabia and the Shiism spread by Iran. “We consider them both aggressive,” Mr. Mansouri said. “Radical Islam has the wind in its sail, and it remains a threat.”
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, especially active in Algeria, remains a major problem for Morocco, Mr. Mansouri said. Officials say it is appealing to the young and has recreated a training route to Afghanistan through Pakistan, and it just sponsored a suicide bombing in Mauritania.
Foreign Minister Taïeb Fassi Fihri said: “We know where the risks to our stability are. We know kids are listening to this Islamic song, so we have to act quickly.”
King Mohammed, who celebrated his 10th year on the throne this year, has vowed to help the poor and wipe out the slums, called “bidonvilles,” where radicalism is bred. One such slum, Sidi Moumen, where the bombers lived, is being redeveloped. Half of it has already been ripped down, and some 700 families shipped to the outskirts of the city, where they are provided a small plot of land at a cheap price to build new housing.
Hamid al-Gout, 34, was born in Sidi Moumen and built his own hovel here. Nearly everyone has been to prison, he said, and Islamist political groups quietly hold meetings. “Sometimes we talk, 12 or 14 people, about our lives,” he said, then added carefully, “But there is no radical thinking here now.”
Abdelkhabir Hamma, 36, said that he had been told that if he and his family did not leave by the end of the year, they would be thrown out. He said that while many respect the king, few trust other authorities.
The king sees himself as a modernizer and reformer, having invested heavily in economic development, loosened restraints on the news media, given more rights to women and shed light on some of the worst human-rights abuses of the past. These are remarkable steps in a region dominated by uncompromising examples of state control, like Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
Because the king, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, is also revered as the “Commander of the Faithful,” challenges to Moroccan Islam are taken very seriously.
In March, the king cut diplomatic ties to Iran, accusing Tehran of “intolerable interference in internal affairs” by trying to spread Shiism in Morocco and recruiting Moroccans in Europe, especially in Belgium, to participate in acts of terrorism, Mr. Mansouri said.
The king has tried to be more inclusive, traveling for instance to the north of Morocco, where his father had refused to go. The north is also a hotbed of extremism and home for many of the Qaeda bombers of Madrid. The king held a traditional ceremony of mutual allegiance, or baiaa, this year in Tetouan and highlighted significant development funds there.
But Morocco’s response has also been to slam the brakes on reform, even of the corrupt judiciary and of laws governing women’s rights, in order not to inflame conservative and traditional views of Islam, especially in the countryside and among the poor, where extremists fish. For that reason, too, the king has not put Morocco forward as an interlocutor between Israel and the Palestinians, as his father did. The view here is simply that Israel — and other, harder-line Arab states — must move first, before Morocco exposes itself.
The crackdown has also damaged Morocco’s human rights record. Muslim prisoners are treated roughly in jail, sometimes sodomized with bottles, said Abdel-Rahim Moutard, a former prisoner himself, his hands broken during interrogations. He runs Ennasir, a rights organization for prisoners. But when they emerge from prison, they get little help, even from the mosques or Ennasir.
“A lot of them are shocked that their country would treat them this way,” Mr. Moutard said. “After the bottle treatment, every time he goes to the toilet he’ll remember, and he will think of vengeance.”
The main Islamist party, the Party for Justice and Development, is effectively neutered, but officials want to ensure that it does not combine with the Socialists. So for recent elections for local authorities, the palace created the Authenticity and Modernity Party, run by Fouad Ali El Himma, 46, who as a youth had been chosen, like Mr. Mansouri and other boys from varied backgrounds, to study with the young king. Mr. Himma is also a former deputy interior minister.
The effort is to provide an alternative — sanctioned informally by the palace — but also to try to mobilize Moroccans, who do not see their participation as having much effect on weak governments, to vote. The new party won, with 22 percent of the vote on a turnout of 52 percent; Mr. Himma is seen as a future prime minister.
In an interview, Mr. Himma spoke passionately about the commitment of the king to aid the poor and reform the country. Morocco “has always been a country of transit, and we have found the cement for all this — our multifaceted monarchy,” he said.
Critics, however, see the king and his friends as a closed, anti-democratic “monarchy of pals.” The king has concentrated much economic power in the palace, argues Aboubakr Jamai, former editor of Le Journal Hebdomadaire — becoming Morocco’s chief banker, insurer and industrialist. Moves toward a more democratic system, with more power to the Parliament, or even a constitutional monarchy, are off the table, certainly for now.
The officials readily concede that poverty, illiteracy and corruption remain serious challenges. The king, they say, has made judicial reform a key goal.
Yet in a nationally televised address on his 10th anniversary as king, Mohammed VI spoke of poverty and development. But he did not use the word “corruption,” and he spoke only once of “social justice,” making no mention of judicial reform.
Many tourists to Egypt wonder whether 
It was a different day in Heliopolis. Friday the 29 of October was one of the sweet 
This was the second street festival in Heliopolis. The last time was the 100 year birthday celebration for Heliopolis, but the Ramadan Korba night was different.
The festival started with a group of five men who performed the oriental Tanoora dance. They are usually referred to as the 
or any of the shows. It was a surprise for us to suddenly see Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, the First Lady of Egypt, and Gamal Mubarak her son, the leader of the Watany political party, walking in the street and going to a table set for them. It made us feel like we all belong to the same family of Egyptians. Of course, everyone had to have pictures of the First Family. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak noted after the festival that it was a great night to see the people of Heliopolis enjoying themselves and she hoped that similar events would take place in other 
The second part of the festival was began on the other stage. It was a musical with Selim Sahab and the coral of the Egyptian opera house. They sang around six famous 
never thought of seeing as there were so many people all around the street.
atmosphere. However, he was very successful in choosing his songs and he added a lot to the festival and many people danced to his music. 
The festival ended at two in the morning and I believe more than thirty-thousand people attended. When a thousand people left the festival, another thousand came in. All the people I met felt the 
One of the busiest places in 
Khedive Ismail in the beginning of the 20th century and the remains of the cemetery were discovered while some work was being done near the mosque foundation. The mosque is a unique piece of art and so many people visit Al Hussein mosque in Ramadan and in the holidays afterwards.
I decided to visit Hussein an hour after Iftar (the meal that breaks the daily fast during 
sell souvenirs such as little statues of the sphinx and Ramesses. Many of these statues seem to look exactly as if they were made by the ancients. This is because they were created accurately with great talent. Many tourists from different parts of the world were anxious to buy these gifts.
because they adds a lot to the Ramadan mood, like Christmas trees in the west during Christmas.
The shops that attracted me, and Eman even more than me, were the costumes and cloth shops. Some of these shops specialize in selling cloth of special kinds like kettan, that the pharaohs used to wear. Many shops were selling the Galabeya, the traditional female robe in Egypt. These outfits had attractive colors and like everything there one can buy a robe that has modern ornaments or one with pharaonic designs and they all are sold at very good prices. Of course, one must bargain a little. Some shops even sell hats and other headdresses that were worn in Egypt during various periods of time. The red Tarboosh is the main item in this collection. These are no longer really popular among Egyptians, but they were once very popular. You can also find the Arabian cloth (turbans) Egyptians put on to protect their heads in the desert regions. Some shops even sell old 
Other shops sell oriental musical instruments like the Oud and Tabla. These are oriental instruments similar to the guitar and drums in Europe. The Tabla comes in many different shapes and sizes. One can buy one and start performing immediately, though it takes an Egyptian artist years to become a professional on the Tabla. The Oud is even harder to learn. This is because it doesn’t have frets like the guitar. They say that the heart moves the fingers to play the Oud.
sweet and heavenly, and Homos El Sham which makes the body warm on cold winter nights. Qasab, molasses juice, is also available in many cafes and shops. Another café with the same mood is the Khan el-Khalili restaurant, that was full of tourists. The place offers all kinds of Oriental food and drinks with very good prices.
of an Oriental sausage ( Fateera) pastry, a drink of Qasab, and a sugar covered pastry as a dessert. This meal costs about 20 to 25 pounds. This is one of my favorite meals when I visit this shop. They also offer pastries with cheese, vegetables, eggs, beef, or seafood. Dessert pastries can have nuts, cream, honey, or a mix of everything. 
