Rabat - Two policemen are reported to have been suspended and stripped from their weapons after they were caught on camera allegedly taking a bribe from a Spanish tourist in the southern city of Tantan.

The Spanish tourist identified as Gustavo posted a video on YouTube, showing the two police officers asking him for money.

In the video, the police officers were seen being handed MAD 50 by the Spanish tourist who was on his way to the city of El Ayoun.

Rabat - Charlie Hebdo's Wednesday edition will reportedly feature cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Richard Malka, the magazine's lawyer, said that Charlie Hebdo's next edition will "naturally" contain drawings of the Prophet Mohammed.

"We will not give up, otherwise all of this will not have any sense," Malka said in an interview with France Info radio on Monday.

"The spirit of Charlie is the right to blasphemy," he added.

The special issue will also be offered in "16 languages" for readers around the world, one of Charlie Hebdo's columnists, Patrick Pelloux, was quoted by Agence France Press (AFP) as saying.

The Wednesday edition will print a million copies, instead of the usual 60,000.

Referring to the "Je Suis Charlie" slogans, Malka said "A Je Suis Charlie banner means you have the right to criticize religion, because it’s not serious."

"No one has the right to criticize a Jew because he is a Jew, a Muslim because he is a Muslim, a Christian because he is a Christian. But you can say anything you want, including the worst things, and we do say them about Christianity, Judaism and Islam, because beyond all of the beautiful slogans, that's the reality of Charlie Hebdo," he added.

According to Le Figaro, a million Euros has been donated by the French government in order keep the magazine going.

The three days of mayhem in France resulted in the deaths of 17 people in addition to the three attackers, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly.

Rabat - Ahmed Aboutaleb, the Moroccan-born mayor of Rotterdam is reported to have said that Muslim immigrants who do not appreciate the way of life in Western civilizations can "f***off".

According to the Daily Mail, Aboutaleb appeared on a live television in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris last week, saying that Muslims who 'do not like freedom can pack your bags and leave.'

"It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom, 53-year-old Rotterdam Mayor Aboutaleb told Dutch current affairs program Nieuuwsur (Newshour).

"But if you don't like freedom, for heaven's sake pack your bags and leave," he added.

Aboutaleb, who is the son of an imam in northern Morocco, arrived in the Netherlands at the age of 15. He was appointed mayor of Rotterdam in 2008.

"If you do not like it here because some humorists you don't like are making a newspaper, may then I say you can f***off," he said.

"Vanish from the Netherlands if you cannot find your place here. All those well-meaning Muslims here will now be stared at," he added.

The Moroccan-born Mayor of the Netherlands' second largest city is known for his straight forward views on Immigrants and integration.

Aboutaleb's views were hailed by London Mayor Boris Johnson. He described him as his 'hero' and 'straight to the point'.

"If we are going to win the struggle for the minds of these young people, then that is the kind of voice we need to hear, and it needs above all to be a Muslim voice," Boris Johnson wrote in the Daily Telegraph.

Photo Credit: Telegraph.nl

Agadir - Following the recent snowfall in the north of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Mohammad Saleh Al Munajid formally prohibits building snowman, describing it as idols worship.

#????_??????_?????_????? ???? ?? ?? ???? pic.twitter.com/LtQOahb8F2 — Jory.Al.Assad (@jory8080) January 13, 2015

This Is No Joke: New Fatwa Prohibits Building Snowmen in Saudi Arabia. #????_??????_?????_????? via @JustAmira http://t.co/yM5hu7ZVY4 — Fadi Ata (@AtaFadi) January 13, 2015

Rabat - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to join a Muslim community rally on Tuesday to condemn the Paris attacks and send a rebuke to the country's growing anti-Islamic movement.

The rally, which is scheduled at 5 pm GMT, will also be joined by Germany's President Joachim Gauck, who will address the event at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

"Hatred, racism and extremism have no place in this country," Merkel said in a speech. "We are a country based on democracy, tolerance and openness to the world."

The rally is organized by the Central Council of Muslims in Germany under the banner "Let's be there for each other. Terror: not in our name!"

Merkel has condemned the rising right wing populist "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (PEGIDA), saying that "Islam is part of Germany."

PEGIDA's yesterday march in the city of Dresden drew around 25,000 marchers.

100,000 people across Germany took to the streets Monday night in counter-demonstrations, voicing support for a multicultural German society.

"Germany wants peaceful coexistence of Muslims and members of other religions," Merkel said at a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

The Muslim Council and the Turkish Community of Berlin said: We Muslims in Germany condemn the despicable terror attacks in France in the strongest terms. We want to express our solidarity with the French victims."

With their rally, they said, they "want to send a message for peace and tolerance, against hatred and violence and for a cosmopolitan Germany which respects and protects the freedom expression and religion," the statement added.

Moscow - In the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks against Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, Head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, posed several questions over what he believes are the double standards by which the notion of terrorism is being grasped by the West.

In his Instagram profile, the Chechen leader first condemned the killing of unarmed people by terrorists and welcomed the "single-hearted" denouncing of terrorism by world leaders as well as the millions of people who took to the street across the country. Yet, he wondered why global leaders gathered in Paris in solidarity with France against the massacre of Charlie Hebdo, yet no such a march has ever been held against the death of "hundreds of thousands people in other parts of the world."

Kadyrov said, "Why the presidents, kings and prime ministers have never led marches of protest against the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Afghans, Syrians, Egyptians, Libyans, Yemenis, and Iraqis? Why did they remain silent when terrorists exploded a bomb in the Chechen government HQ or when they blew up the Grozny stadium killing Chechen President Ahmad-Haji Kadyrov [Ramzan Kadyrov’s father] and his aides? Why did they not react to the raid on the school in Beslan and the hostage taking at Moscow’s Dubrovka Theater? Why keep silent when in December last year terrorists captured the House of Press and a school in Grozny, killing and injuring over 50 people?"

"It is impossible to secure Paris, London, Madrid and other European capitals if the whole society fails to condemn those who raise and sponsor terrorists all over the world masking it as support for opposition movements," he added.

Kadyrov has enthusiastically warned against any disrespect towards Islam, with particular reference to the Prophet Mohamed (PBUH). In this regard, he addressed the Western political leaders by saying: "If we are still silent this does not mean that we cannot get millions of people onto the streets all over the world protesting against those who connive at the insults to Muslims’ religious feelings. Is this what you want?"

In the same Instagram post, Kadyrov points out that mass media have contributed significantly to Islamophobia in non-Muslim societies saying, "Peace and stability are more important for all peoples than the right of a handful of journalists to disrespect the Prophet."

Photo credit: RIA Novosti/Said Tsarnaev

Marrakech - The Moroccan Association of Social, Cultural and Artistic Activities (AMASCA), affiliated with Mundiapolis University in Casablanca, conducted a free medical campaign in Ait Lakik village in the Oukaïmeden- Marrakech region on January 10 -11 in order to give direct aid to people in need.

After a successful similar campaign in the same region in 2013, and thanks to 17 medical interns, AMASCA organized this medical and humanitarian campaign, which, according to a press release obtained by MWN, targeted about 250 people, including 60 children.

The campaign was aimed at conducting medical consultations, providing medical care, ensuring access to necessary medication, and distributing blankets collected from various donors for the benefit of the inhabitants of the targeted town.

Founded by the graduates of the Mundiapolis University in December 2012, AMASCA aims at spreading a message of goodwill, optimism and positive change through volunteerism. "AMASCA seeks to carry out sociocultural activities, carrying a message of hope and living up to a better future,” reads the statement.

Besides humanitarian activities, AMASCA supports all other activities that have the potential to promote the cultural, artistic, sporting, and social aspects of local communities in Morocco.

Rabat - During his speech at a rally organized on Tuesday to promote tolerance and religious freedom in the wake of last week's attacks in Paris, German President Joachim Gauck reassured his country's four million Muslim community that "we are all Germany".

The president delivered his speech after an imam inaugurated the event by reciting verses from the Quran condemning killing.

"We, democrats with our different political, cultural and religious backgrounds; we, who respect and need each other; we, who want to live life... in unity, justice and freedom," Gauck said.

"Our answer to the fundamentalism of the Islamist perpetrators of violence is democracy, respect for the law, respect for each other, respect for human dignity. This is our way of life," he added.

The audience applauded Gauck’s message of interfaith unity and tolerance.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also attended the event and applauded the president’s speech.

Rabat - Seven Moroccan women were selected among Jeune Afrique's 50 most powerful women in the African continent.

The first Moroccan woman on the list is Minister Delegate to the Minister of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation, Mbarka Bouaida, who ranked 7^th, followed by Fatiha Mejatti, the "black widow of Jihad" and a member of the Islamic State's (IS) media committee, who ranked 13^th.

Saida Karim Lamrani, vice president of Safari Group (food, industry, finance) and daughter of Karim Lamrani, Prime Minister under the late King Hassan II, ranked 23^rd.

The list also included Nawal El Moutawakel, the former Moroccan hurdler and Vice President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who ranked 32^nd.

The French-speaking magazine's list of 50 powerful women also included Miriem Bensaleh Chaqroun, President of La Confédération Générale des Entreprises du Maroc (CGEM), who ranked 34^th, Ghislane Guedira, Executive Director in charge of finance and controlling at Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), who ranked 39^th and Touria El Glaoui, founder of 1:54, the only contemporary art fair in Europe dedicated to Africa. She was ranked 47^th.

The list was topped by Joséphine Ouédraogo, Burkina Faso's Justice Minister, followed by Mozambique's former first lady Garça Machel and Egyptian journalist Lamees al-Hadidi.

Rabat - French comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala has been arrested on grounds he condoned terrorism.

The comedian, known by his stage name Dieudonne, posted on Facebook saying that he sympathized with one of the Paris gunmen, a judicial source has said.

He wrote on Facebook: "I feel like Charlie Coulibaly", putting together the slogan "Je Suis Charlie" and the gunman, Amédy Coulibaly, who is accused of killing four people at a Jewish supermarket in Paris and a police officer the day before.

Dieudonne was arrested on Wednesday. He posted his controversial Facebook post after attending Sunday's unity march against hatred that brought together more than 1.5 million people in Paris in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

"Racism, anti-Semitism, historical revisionism, and condoning terrorism are not opinions, they are crimes," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said.

Valls condemned Dieudonné's remark and vowed a crackdown on "speech that kills."

54 people have been convicted so far in France for hate speech and inciting terror, including four minors.

Dieudonne, who has already faced a number of charges of racism and anti-Semitism, is set to face trial in February. An online campaign in his support has been launched.

By Franck  Kuwonu and Lisa White*

At the entrances to private and public buildings in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, a new custom has emerged since the outbreak of the Ebola virus: visitors wash their hands upon entering and exiting. Tap buckets conveniently placed in hallways dispense a mixture of water and chlorine or bleach from which people wash their hands.

Gone are some of Liberians’ endearing social rituals such as a kiss on the cheek, friendly hugs or handshakes, or warm embraces between parents and children. Since the Ebola outbreak, authorities have been advising the public to be more hygienic, including frequent washing of hands and avoiding physical contact with bodily fluids from the sick or dead bodies. Traditional family care practices and burial rituals that involve close contact with an infected body have contributed to the rapid spread of the disease. Customarily, Liberians wash, clean and dress the remains of their loved ones before interment.

People have also been warned against eating game meat, what Liberians call bush meat. In rural areas, bush meat is an important source of protein and income for hunters. Communities are being compelled to change their diets. Experts believe fruit bats are the carriers of the virus. Ebola has changed the way people relate to each other at home and at work. *Lisa White works for the UN Mission in Liberia.

Various strains of  Ebola virus

By Yemisi Akin bobola

The first case of Ebola was reported inAugust 1976 in the Yambuku District of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), by Dr. Peter Piot, a Belgian microbiologist, who currently heads the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a team of infectious disease experts. The outbreak occurred near the Ebola River, earning the virus its name.

A second outbreak, called Sudan ebolavirus occurred in Sudan between June and November 1976. While the spread of the earlier virus was contained within a 70km radius of Yambuku, the Sudan ebolavirus spread acrossfour towns – Nzara and Maridi, which saw the most cases, and Tembura and Juba.

A 1978 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that the 1976 Zaire ebola virus, in which 318 people were infected and 280 died, began at the Yakubu Mission Hospital after a patient was treated for what was then thought to be malaria. Elevenout of the 17 hospital staff died in that outbreak.

Though the Ebola virus strains in the DRC and Sudan are the most common, the reare three others: Reston virus (which is notinfectious to humans), Taï Forest virus and Bundibugyo virus. The Zaire strain, which hasup to 90% fatality rate, is the one currently ravaging Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where more than 6,000 people have died, as of  December 2014.

In November, there was another unrelated Ebola outbreak in the DRC, where a pregnant woman was infected after eating bush meat.

About 67 cases and 49 deaths were reported in the DRC as of November 2014. The deathtoll in the DRC from all prior outbreaks combined stands at more than 1,590

SARS: Lessons from anotherdeadly virus

By Bo Li

The first case of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was reported inmid-December 2002 in Foshan, Guangdong Province. At the time, the World Health Organization described it as the first severe transmissible disease of the 21st centuryand its origin, symptoms, effects and treatment were hardly understood. Withina short period, SARS spread rapidly todensely populated areas in mainland China,Hong Kong, Hanoi in Vietnam, Singapore and Toronto, Canada.

Initially, there was a perception that China was unprepared to cope with aserious public health threat such as SARS.The virus was being spread from person toperson, primarily from respiratory dropletsproduced when an infected person coughsor sneezes. As a result, schools, shops,restaurants and other public places were closed.

China’s handling of the SARS outbreakholds lessons for the Ebola epidemicin Africa. After some initial problemsin handling the disease, China’s healthministry later made fighting  SARS apriority.

The government instituted acentralized emergency response systemled by the Beijing municipal government. The unified system significantly improvedefficiency of data collection and communicationamong hospitals.

Provincial governmentswere requested to ensure accuracyof information reported and timely implementationof detection, isolation, contacttracing and surveillance measures.

Some hospitals were designate dexclusive centres for treating SARS patients. Other hospitals had isolatedareas for suspected patients. Once a casewas detected, quarantine and contacttracing were immediately instituted. Hospitals were directed not to turn awayany SARS patients. Top Chinese scientists,epidemiologists and clinicians were recruited to study and treat the diseaseand to design educational materials forthe general public.

The public had unrestricted access to SARS-related information, which helped reduce panic. SARS was categorized as areportable disease, meaning that all provinces were obligated to report new infections and deaths with “no delay, cover-upor missing cases.” Health officials released timely and accurate information during televised press conferences. The government, medical experts and the media joined forces to educate the public on the symptoms of SARS, its preventive method sand reporting channels. Eventually, the battle against SARS was won.

From Africa renewal

By Franck Kuwonu

As Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone battle the deadly Ebola virus outbreak and the world mobilizes to contain it, high food prices have been reported as farmers abandon their fields in the affected countries.

The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), a UN body that finances agriculture in poor countries, has warned that this could lead to a food crisis if adequate measures are not taken quickly to safeguard agricultural production.

As early as September 2014, the Liberian government reported that large parts of the rice crop could not be harvested in the central, northern and western parts of the country because of shortages of labour. Yet, local communities were not allowing farm workers to be hired from outside the country for fear they would bring the Ebola virus.

“In Sierra Leone, we have information that up to 40% of farms in the hardest-hit

areas have been abandoned,” IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze told Africa Renewal. In Guinea, similar disruptions in population movements have had “devastating effects on food production and exports”. In the Fouta Jalon region of Guinea, for example, Mr. Nwanze pointed out that potato exports to Senegal dropped to 22 tonnes from 250 tonnes the previous year.

As a result of these disruptions, including restrictions of movements in food production areas, wholesale prices on distribution markets have plummeted while retail prices have skyrocketed on local markets. “In August, the wholesale price of a kilogramme of potatoes fell from 3,500 to 200 Guinean francs,” Mr. Nwanze said.

In Liberia, wholesale food prices started falling in mid-September in major markets in the capital Monrovia, according to the agriculture ministry, because farmers were concerned about produce spoilages from produce delays at checkpoints along the road to the city.

At the same time, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reported that initial results from quick assessments showed prices of commodities, including food, increased on average from 30% to 75% just over one month in Lofa County, the most affected rural county in Liberia.

Empirical observation at the Red Light Market, one of the biggest market places in Monrovia, also revealed huge increases in the price of staple food and commodities such as cassava by (150%); palm oil (53%), gari (obtained from grated cassava) (100%), fresh pepper (133%) and plantains (66%) over a period of two weeks in August 2014.

Agriculture, including small-scale farming, contributes to between 20% and 40% of the gross domestic product of the affected countries, according to Mr. Nwanze. The IFAD head is calling for contingency measures such as building food stockpiles in the affected countries or at the regional level “to be able to provide massive food assistance where and when needed.” If possible, he said, countries should intensify food production in non-affected areas.

About $30 million would be needed to respond to those in need, including food relief for about 90,000 households in the three countries, says the FAO. A Regional Response Programme for West Africa, to be implemented by the FAO in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, will aim to boost income and agricultural production.

From Africa Renewal

Cairo - Egyptian diplomats should take further political resolutions, expert says.

Only 9% of Egyptian youth believe what they see on television channels, according to a survey issued last December by Baseera, an independent poll center in Cairo.

The number should not be surprising. Ever since the first uprisings in Egypt in 2011, the Egyptian television channels have shown a strong record of unprofessional and inciting coverage for several political issues.

On the regional level, the language of media discourse between Egypt and Morocco has turned into a gossip. Last month, Morocco’s state-owned channels 2M and Alaoula broadcasted a report that harshly criticized Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, describing what happened in egypt as “coup.”

The statements were not the first of its kind between Egypt and Morocco. During the same month, Egyptian TV presenter Wafaa ElKilany said in her show on the MBC network that Morocco and Africa are the “land of sorcery.”

A couple of months prior to this statement, and during Eid al-Adha Youssef Eid, Secretary General of the Fatwa at Al-Azhar Mosque, said that Morocco’s celebration “is religiously not permissible because it violates Muslim customs and break the consensus.”

Many Egyptians however were not aware of the latest statements by the Moroccan state television, while experts believe this was triggered by changes in the political relations between both countries.

Yasser Abdul-Aziz, Egyptian media expert said, “this is a strategy Arab governments use when they need to bring certain topics into discussion,” referring to the recent statements by the Moroccan media. “Egypt’s rapprochement to Algeria raised concerns from the Moroccan side,” he added.

In July 2014, one month after Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah Al Sisi’s inauguration, a delegation of Egyptian journalists visited the Tindouf camps Algeria. The group included a wide range of journalists who work for both state-run and private news organizations.

During their four-days visit, they managed to speak to many of the people living in the Sahara camps of Tindouf, describing their daily lives as “refugees” seeking the basic standard of living, and also reviewing their customs and traditions.

Journalists who went on that reporting trip claim they did not intend to provoke negative responses from any side over the other.

“I went to this trip in my capacity as a journalist, only trying to bring all voices on an existing issue,” Egyptian journalist Ismail Al-Ashwal. who covered the story for the private Shorouk newspaper. said about the reasons for his visit. “I was very glad to speak to the Moroccan ambassador in Cairo as well and to the United Nations for further comments,” he added.

With a tinge of pride, Al-Ashwal said his visit outcome was very fruitful and his report was accurate and impartial. He also said he has not been following any of the comments made recently about such a visit.

Abdul-Aziz argues the media should stay away from this issue, and that Egyptian diplomats should instead take further political resolutions and not leave it for an open media battle.

Meanwhile, other citizens believe it’s only about the media and it has nothing to with politics.

Born to Moroccan parents, currently working in Egypt, Sharif Paget says, “I believe the media does so they can get more people to watch it and then cause controversy and gossip.” He added if people stopped watching it, then they’ll change it to something else.

In Morocco, there is a sentiment that people do feel as though what happened in Egypt was a “coup,” according to Paget, despite the Moroccan government’s positive stance towards Sisi.

“Such stereotypical statements can absolutely impact the relations between citizens of both countries,” Paget said, referring to the Egyptian statements on Morocco. “It would be best if people stopped tuning into such “gossip,” he added.

Rabat - French journalist Philippe Tesson made very Islamophobic comments.

Invited to Europe 1 radio's "Le Grand Direct de L'Actu" to discuss the theme of secularism and religious schools, Le Figaro magazine columnist said that Muslims are responsible for harming secularism in France.

"Where does the problem of harming secularism come from if not from Muslims? Tesson asked, addressing the journalist Jean-Marc-Morandini, the host of the show, who wondered whether Tesson's words were slightly too violent.

"It is fanaticism the problem, not Muslims," Morandini responded, trying to bring Tesson to reason.

"But where are the fanatics today? The 87-year-old replied. "The fanatics claim Islam today, thus they are Muslims," he said.

"It's the Muslims who question secularism!" Aren't the Muslims who bring s**t to France today?" He reiterated.

Miami Beach - Police have arrested on Friday in Miami the alleged assaulter of a Moroccan student on Jan. 1 as the latter was leaving a night club south of the city, local media outlets said on Saturday.

Younes Adlan, aged 22, is at the intensive care unit in Jackson Memorial Hospital. He suffered a head injury after he was hit in the face and fell on the pavement.

 Witnesses saw security agent Cody Quaife, 34, hit the victim and walk away leaving the young student on the ground in a coma, said local TV channel "Local10.com" quoting the police. The alleged assailant will be handed to the city's authorities.

Marrakech- A professor of law reportedly disrobed in front of students at the School of Barreaux (Bars) in Paris Friday, and refused to give his lecture in protest against one of the students, who was veiled. The professor allegedly claimed that “naturism” is his religion.

Gregory Lafarge, lawyer and professor at the professional school of the Barreaux of the Appeal Court of Paris (EFB), refused to teach his courses and left the amphitheater, in protest of a student wearing a headscarf, according to Le Figaro.

“The professor approached the veiled student probably to ask her to remove her veil, but her classmates prevented him from doing so," said Paul, one of the students in the class, to Le Figaro.

Henri Leclerc, another student who witnessed the incident, reportedly explained, “the professor reacted very badly and immediately left the amphitheater, before returning, apparently furious, and taking off his clothes, yelling 'my religion to me is naturism.'"

After the incident, the majority of students reportedly applauded and defended their classmate. They were astonished by the behavior of their professor.

Sebastian, a student, told Le Figaro that “There have always been veiled students, but we have never seen such incidents."

The veiled student expressed herself later on Facebook, saying that “I respect those who find my outfit offensive, but I think I have a right to be here."

The professor kept arguing and accused the school of violating the law of the country, which is based on secular principles, but “The manager then intervened to get him out and apologized to the veiled girl," said Charles, a witness, to Le Figaro.

The director of the EFB, Jean-Louis Scaringella, said that “Gregory Lafarge will no longer provide courses in this institution“

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Washington, D.C. - President Barak Obama delivered a powerful hour-long State of the Union speech to the American people Tuesday night.

Addressing topics such as the need for adequate paying jobs, affordable child care, and gender and wage equality in the U.S., the President also highlighted the commitment of the majority of Muslims to peace. Here is what he said:

"As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we're threatened, which is why I've prohibited torture, and worked to make sure our use of new technology like drones is properly constrained. It's why we speak out against the deplorable anti-Semitism that has resurfaced in certain parts of the world. It's why we continue to reject offensive stereotypes of Muslims -- the vast majority of whom share our commitment to peace. That's why we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. We do these things not only because they're right, but because they make us safer."

Islam enjoys an important position in the United States. Muslim communities all over the U.S. are among the most respected and successful citizens.

There are currently two Muslim congressional representatives in the American congress. The first is Keith Ellison, who was elected in 2006 to be the first Muslim American to join the congress. The second one is André Carson, who was elected in 2008 as a representative of Ohio State. Both Muslim congressmen, Allison and Carson, are affiliated with the democratic part

Rabat - Lamia Bazir from Morocco was among the honorees of the "Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future" project to receive the United Nations Volunteering Award.

The Award was an acknowledgment "for her role in supporting projects that deal with women’s empowerment and the development of their role in society."

Lamia Bazir received her award from Mr. Ahmad Alhendawi, the United Nations Secretary- General’s Special Envoy on Youth, at the MBC Hope award ceremony hosted by United Nations Volunteer Program (UNV) and MBC Group in Dubai, UAE on 18 January 2015.

The second annual MBC Hope Awards Ceremony honored the “Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future” project and MBC Hope’s “Doing Good” competition winners.

The event celebrated the positive energy, creativity and community spirit of young volunteers honored for acting as the catalysts in fostering “Hope” in the Middle East North Africa Region.

The winners also included Zina El Nahel (Egypt), for her role in the activation of the education process by informal institutions and non-governmental organizations; Hadeel AbuSoufeh (Jordan), for her role in supporting social projects related to facilitate the lives of people with special needs.

Amal Al Saqal (Yemen), for her role in stimulating the role of students in volunteer work renaissance and community building and Saifeddin Jlassi (Tunisia), for his role in the rehabilitation of young people in areas of arts and drama.

"Despite the progress in education, the question remains about the quality of education in the region, especially in the presence of a youthful community that is capable of being leaders and entrepreneurs,” said the UN Youth Envoy, Ahmad Alhendawi during his remarks.

“All challenges are opportunities if they are treated as potential to create solutions; the real wealth lies in the existing knowledge of the youth, especially now that we are in dire need of talented youth in this day and age,” he added.

Lamia holds two Masters Degrees from Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris, and was a student valedictorian at Al Akhwayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. She was also a fellow of the American Association of University Women in Washington D.C.

On October 2014, Lamia was selected among the 50 emerging leaders of the Atlantic by the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. and the OCP Policy Center.

By Kevin Kriedemann

London - In this week’s episode of Talk To Al Jazeera, award-winning Algerian author and former military officer Yasmina Khadra discusses the Charlie Hebdoattack with Jacky Rowland.

The Kouachi brothers - the gunmen - were born in France to Algerian immigrant parents, but Khadra says discussions of the terrorist’s nationality are irrelevant. “For me, the murder doesn’t have an identity. It doesn’t have a nationality. It is characterised, it is identified by its wrongdoing. So I shouldn’t suddenly have to feel guilty because he’s Algerian. We’ve got to stop making this link that shouldn’t exist between where a murderer comes from and his act. We have to focus on the act, and nothing more.”

Khadra says the Charlie Hebdo attack affected him personally. “I was shocked,” he says. “Even if I’m Algerian, even if I’m from a country where 200,000 people died, where we went through a horribly dark time, we’re still shocked by the attack. Because each organised murder reminds us a little of what we lived through here in Algeria, and it’s natural that no-one can get used to that atrocity.”

Khadra reminds Rowland that Algeria was the first victim of extremist Islamic terrorism, with an armed conflict that began in 1991. “Algeria has lost more journalists than the rest of the world put together, you know?” he says, referring to the assassination of over 70 journalists during The Algerian Civil War. “So I don’t have the right to be Charlie. I can only invite Charlie to join the rest of us. Because we were the first victims, and when Algeria lived through its tragedy, it was completely isolated from the world; no-one was interested, and our heroes were passed off as assassins, as criminals. In the 2000s, they used to say that Algeria didn’t have any terrorists, that it was the military that killed people, and I still pay for having defended the truth.”

Khadra criticises the media’s focus on the terrorists’ religion. “The murderers were born in France; they were brought up in France; they are, to a certain extent, the children of France – they are not the children of Islam.”

“The only way we can fight against this plague is by isolating it,” he argues. “We must isolate it completely from what it is doing; stop associating it with a community it pretends to defend, or a religion it pretends to embody. A god doesn’t need to be defended by mortals. It’s God. How could He appoint mortals - venerable, miserable, poor beings – to defend him? We’re a little in the absurd. We’re living in absurdity at its most impure.”

Khadra says we’re living through “a battle of extremes…  On one side, in France, for example, freedom of speech is sacred. On the other, for all those who believe, religion is sacred. And of course, both are right to defend their values. But both are wrong to impose their values upon others.”

He says that, contrary to the stereotype of Islamic men in the mainstream media and Hollywood, “Most Muslim men are brave, generous, welcoming, they express love, they are brotherly, and I can't see how one can allow oneself to limit a Muslim nation to a few thousand people who are misled.”

He argues strongly for the importance of multiculturalism. “We’re always scared of multiculturalism – I think it’s the future of humanity. I’m multicultural. I know about Western culture, Eastern culture, Arabic Berber culture, because I’m Berber too. I’m Algerian – and this is how I try to understand my era… I’ve always said in my books, he who lives his life fully is he who knows how to live, who can love a part of each religion and a song from each folklore. And this is how we are really human beings. If not, we stay French, we stay Algerian, we stay Qatari, and we will never know how to be human.”

Khadra also discusses his work, politics, freedom of speech, and why no one wants to listen to the truth today.

Taroudante- The French National Observatory Against Islamophobia has recorded 116 anti-Muslim acts in France since the Paris attacks that targeted the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7.

The Observatory has shown an increase of Islamophobic acts over the last twelve days after the attacks of Charlie Hebdo. In the twelve days after the attacks, there were almost as many anti-Muslim acts as there was in eight months in 2014.

The 116 Islamophobic acts include 28 actions against places of worship and 88 threats in letters or drawings on walls.

Abdallah Zekri, the president of the Observatory, said, "this is unacceptable”. He called upon “the government, beyond reassuring speeches, to take action to end this scourge," he added.

In addition to the recorded anti-Muslim acts, Zekri said, “we forget what is happening on social networks.”

“There are calls for the assassination of the leaders of Islam in France and burning their mosque. It is a minority, but we should stop there, because we are creating a phobia and undermining the living together," he added.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls posted on Twitter reassuring Muslims in France. “Mosques have been adversely affected. I want to assure our Muslim compatriots of my support. Every French person must be protected.”

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