"On May 1, thousands of people, including trade union members, marched in Morocco’s cities demanding a faster transition toward democracy and decrying terrorism. Heavy rain kept the number of protesters down, as did the sense that the terrorist attack, believed by Moroccan authorities to be the work of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, had already created a sense of both vulnerability and national cohesion." (NYtimes.com)
Once again, the Moroccan people have risen up in protest for the Moroccan government to transition to a more democratic nation but this time it is also for the safety of the nation against Al-Qaeda. On April 28th, there was a bomb set off in the city of Marrakesh killing 16 people- noting that nearly all of the departed were foreigners and wounded almost two dozen more people. There is now a concern of "terrorism and the growing influence of radical Islam and Al Qaeda". Even with this concern comes criticism from the people about the issue hindering the progress of the reforms which were declared on March 9th on the constitution. King Mohammed VI gave a speech in which he promised that "in the future the Parliament, not the king, would chose the prime minister and that the courts would become more independent."
The issue with terrorism in Morocco has risen though and "a European security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggested a relatively new cooperation had emerged between members of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the older Moroccan Islamic Combatants Group, which was hatched in Afghanistan, wants a fundamentalist Islamic Morocco and was hit hard by arrests after [the bombing in Casablanca by several suicide bombers in] 2003".
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/africa/02morocco.html?_r=1&ref=morocco
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/morocco/index.html
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