Tale of Two Cities: Contrasting Fez and Rabat- Ahmed Salat

This time a week ago, while writing my third summer blogpost, I was hit by a strong feeling. A feeling which I couldn’t really decide whether it was one of sadness or happiness. It hit me that that was the last night I was going to spend with my host family at fez- even possibly the last time I’d ever be at Fez. It was a feeling of sadness. Yet I was excited. Excited because I would be spending the next three weeks at Rabat and would visit a different city each weekend: Casablanca, Marrakech and Tangier respectively. And off we went the following day. Goodbye Fez!

Like I mentioned in my earlier posts, a lot of proper planning has been put into designing  Moroccan cities. Besides the unique architecture and planning each city has (and of course different colors of their Taxis- for example Fez has red, Rabat has blue and Meknes has light blue), each is unique for a particular crucial activity. Fez is the Moroccan religious center while Rabat is the administrative/political center; Casablanca is the business center while Marrakech and Tangier are more touristy!

Fun Fact: This year’s Super Cup Final will be held in Tangier, roughly two weeks from now, and  will involve La Liga giants Barcelona and Sevilla!

I have been in Rabat for almost a week now and while there might be quite a number of things it has in common with Fez, (we still eat bread with everything- I’m not complaining, it’s just fascinating) there’s a lot more difference. As the political hub of the country, this is where most administrative offices are and most of the crucial decisions are made. While at Fez, we mostly visited religious places such as the big mosque of the University of Al Quaraouiyine – the oldest existing educational institution in the world-, the Ibn Danan synagogue and  the Center for Suffism, at Rabat we have only visited administrative centers. We went to the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) headquarters and learnt a lot about the organization’s plans to promote education, science and culture in the Muslim World.

Figure 1 ISESCO’S Conference Room where leaders from the 53 member countries meet to discuss and come up with solutions to issues facing the Muslim World

Figure 2 Duke Students following Presentation on the organizations’ work, at the ISESCO Headquarters in Rabat

Today, we also had a rare opportunity to visit the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies and learnt a lot about their efforts to promote peace through educating people about the Islamic ethics and changing misconceptions that most people have about Islam. The world Islam itself means PEACE and that is what it should be all about.

Figure 3 Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies

Figure 4 Our meeting at the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies

These two meetings have so far been very helpful in understanding some of the most important issues in the Muslim World and how we can contribute to the needed change in the  future. I’m excited for the number of the visits to different offices that are coming up in the next two weeks including a tour of the US embassy in Rabat among others. Also stay tuned to read about the exciting excursions to Marrakech and Tangier the next two weekends!

 Appreciation

A very special thanks to everyone who has been following my summer activities! I can’t thank enough those who have been taking their time to read and share their thoughts on my blogs! Thank you and I hope you enjoy all of them