How football ignited a debate over whether Moroccans are Africans, Arabs or Amazigh - or all three.
In our series of letters from African journalists, Magdi Abdelhadi looks at how football ignited a row about Moroccan identity.
Culturally many Moroccans see themselves more as Arabs than Africans - and some sub-Saharan Africans in Morocco complain that racist attitudes are never far from the surface. The furore reflects recent efforts by the monarch to encourage closer ties with the rest of the African continent. "Africa is my home, and I am coming back home," King Mohammed VI said in 2017 as Morocco was re-admitted to the Africa Union after a 30-year absence in a row overBut Morocco is also a member of the Arab League - so officially belongs to both cultural spheres.
As the tournament got under way, the vocabulary of pan-Arabism and Islamism crept back to the front. In the conflict over the ban on alcohol or the use of the OneLove armband of the LGBTQ, advocates of Islamism and pan-Arabism came to the defence of Qatar, Islam and traditional values against "the imperialist West".
This argument was strengthened when some of the Moroccan team's players celebrated their successes by unfurling a Palestinian flag on the pitch. "Morocco is different from the Middle East, because it is fundamentally a Berber society, the Arabs came as outsiders in the 7th Century. Today in Morocco there are Arabs, Berbers, Muslims, Jews, atheists, non-religionists and Baha'is, there are Shias and Sunnis."
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
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