Yesterday, for the first time since 2003, Morocco was hit by a deadly terrorist attack.
For 8 years, terrorism had spared the country, thanks in large part to a very ѕtrоng police presence, and also to the fact that few Moroccans support the extremists. Beyond the pain that this kind of savagery always provokes, I will not go into the “why, who, how”, many avenues are open, many things are possible, and an uninformed opinion would be just a café du Commerce.
On the other hand, for the many people who wonder whether they should cancel their holidays in Morocco, I would just like to tell an Arab tale.
It’s about a vizier from Baghdad, a young, handsome, tаlеntеԁ ѵіzіеr whom his sultan loved.
One day, early in the morning, the vizier went for a walk in the souk, to check that everything was going well, or perhaps to find a present for his wife. At the bend in an alley, he saw death, and above all, what frightened him was that death, seeing him, flinched, and made a sign towards him, to call him.
His last hour is coming, and our vizier has only one thought, to avoid it. So he rushes to the Sultan and asks him, as a favour, to take the best horse in the stable and to leave immediately for Samarkand, as far away as possible.
The Sultan, who loved his faithful servant, accepted. And then, while the latter was galloping eastwards, towards the city where he was going to hide from death, the Sultan decided to go to the souk and see what was going on. When he arrives there, he finds Death, and asks him the question “Why did you frighten my vizier?” and Death replies “I did not want to frighten him. But I was surprised to see him here, because we have an appointment this evening in Samarkand.“
Personally, I escaped, a few minutes, and without ԁоіng аnуthіng about it, from an attack, the one on the Tati shop in the rue de Rennes in Paris, which I left just a few minutes before the bomb exploded.
Since those years, I have understood that terrorism is a plague, and that unfortunately, one can never, ever be totally sure of being safe.
Nowhere. There are obviously places that are more dangerous than others, more threatened. I wouldn’t willingly go to Pakistan or India (although it’s not talked about much, the number of deadly attacks in India is very high), and when we went to Algeria, we were particularly careful when we went through Kabylia.
There are some basic rules to follow, and “at all times” unfortunately.
One of them is to avoid as much as possible hyper-touristy places, where a lot of foreign people are.
The cafés in Jemaa El Fna Square are unfortunately part of it, as are the big international chain hotels, Hilton, Hyatt, Mercure, Sofitel, as well as the club Méditerranée resorts… It’s not a question of forbidding everything, but, if you’re in a risky period, simply passing through the square and having your coffee in an adjacent street, for example.
The decision to come to Morocco or not is up to each individual. Apart from the general principles of caution, it is silly to spoil a trip out of worry. If the fear does not leave us for a week, it will not be a successful holiday.
Personally, since I left the Tati on the rue de Rennes in time, I have a great fatalism, coupled with a саutіоn that never completely sleeps. The years that followed were very heavy in France, even if we now tend to forget it, with one deadly attack after another. Security measures were put in place, the quality of life was transformed (not for the better) and in an almost definitive way (transparent plastic bags instead of rubbish bins, it’s ugly, systematic controls at the entrance to department stores, it’s painful, etc.).
I have learned an attitude from this, which is to refuse to change my plans because of the fear of terrorism. It’s my own way of fighting them, of refusing to let them have an impact on my life.
Again, this is a personal attitude, and I understand that it is not shared. The trips we propose proposed, at the time of this post, for the most part, are outside the major centres, because we prefer to show people places where Morocco is still authentic. And when we are in Marrakesh, we work with medium-sized hotels.
I am convinced that Morocco will now be super secure, with an increased police presence, as we have already known at certain times (whereas it was rather discreet, to let Moroccans who protested following the 20th of February live), and that lightning does not strike twice in the same place. I hope that Morocco will remain a welcoming country where life is good.
A typo or syntax error? You can select the text and hit Ctrl+Enter to send us a message. Thank you! If this post interested you, maybe you can also leave a comment. We'd love to exchange with you !
