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By Amal El Attaq
Rabat – At the initiative of the Moroccan Pluralist Association (AMP), Moroccan Jews and Muslims met on Monday, February 25, to celebrate Jewish-Muslim friendship.
The meeting in Casablanca brought together many intellectuals, Moroccan associations, Muslim and Jewish artists around “Friendship Tea,” which according to them, is a sign of “unity and communion.”
During the meeting, the participants wrote a letter titled “Tea of Friendship: Brotherhood Sounds,” in which they expressed a desire “to hear other voices, show other images, to spread friendship vibes and tolerance across different religions.”
The letter pointed out several ideas to promote religious acceptance and tolerance. “The tea and mint flavors we share, our voices mingle today, radiate from our beloved country, to tell no matter how many people we are, twenty, a thousand or a million, we will make friendship and fraternity win,” the letter poetically stated.
“As activists, young artists and cultural actors, we thought a lot about what could mark the symbiosis existing between Moroccans of both religions; Muslims and Jews, and decided to organize this meeting,” Ahmed Ghayet, the AMP president told Maghreb Arab Press (MAP).
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Ghayet said (that it is painful for him to see how people reject each other and do not seek to co-exist with representatives of other religions.
“The international religious acceptance situation is bad; men and women are being persecuted just because they are Jews, Muslims, or Christians.” (translation here is bad).
Ghayet added that the situation in Morocco is different. “Co-existence in Morocco exits, and we should strive to preserve this tradition, and even make it more fruitful for future generations.”
Jewish Moroccan artist Maxime Karoutchi also participated in the meeting. He told MAP that his presence “was so natural” since “co-existence has existed for 2000 years in Morocco, and will always remain there.”
At the end of the tea meeting, young Moroccan Muslim artists offered their Jewish counterparts a canvas as a sign of unity and tolerance.
