Under liberal dogma, the world is divided between the evil European colonialist exploiters of doom and the Oppressed masses of the Third World. In the real world, things are very different.
This is Morocco, one of the few moderate Arab countries, though not for long with the victory of an Islamist party. It’s fairly tolerant by Muslim standards, which is still wildly intolerant by European standards.American liberals like to compare the plight of Muslims to the segregation of black people in the United States, in fact it’s Muslims who practice segregation of Africans.
“Be careful, those blacks might eat you,” a Moroccan juice seller in the little border town of Fnideq warned us. They might what? “Yes, really,” he replies. “They can do anything.”
“Arabs hate black people. And that is not from today, it is in their blood,” says Aboubakr, a young man from Senegal who is hoping eventually to cross over into Europe. He spent almost a year in Morocco’s capital Rabat before coming to this forest camp near the Spanish border and his experiences there left him feeling bitter.
“Friends of mine were attacked with a knife. Bandits target us because they know we cannot go to the police, even if we are robbed and hurt. Having no papers, we will be caught instead. Blacks have no rights here.”
Aboubakr is also insulted that Moroccans “cannot believe many of us are Muslims too”. According to him, people are surprised when they see him kneeling for prayer. “They don’t think a black can be Muslim.”
The migrants are reluctant to believe that they might meet more racism in Europe than in Morocco. If they finally manage to cross the border “Black and white people are good together,” claims Aboubakr. “In Holland, there are many blacks on the national soccer team. Moroccans are just jealous.”
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