Virtually Islamic Blog

Gary R. Bunt

Morocco's Jewish heritage

This is an interesting article/opinion piece about Jewish history and heritage in Morocco, which highlights some online elements as well. Yaëlle Azagury and Anouar Majid, New York Times, The Moroccan Exception in the Arab World, 9 April 2019

"Nowadays, the global media — which tends to dwell on what separates, rather than unites, Jews and Muslims — and the spread of Islamic fundamentalism on the internet has left Morocco’s youth largely unaware that a sizable Jewish community lived among them only 60 or 70 years ago. As the Moroccan anthropologist Aomar Boum has argued, Muslims have only “memories of absence” of their Jewish neighbors. Morocco’s gestures of openness help remind its citizens, and the world, that the country’s Jewish history matters and is worth honoring. "

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