{"id":1543,"date":"2002-07-22T01:18:33","date_gmt":"2002-07-22T06:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1543"},"modified":"2002-07-22T01:18:33","modified_gmt":"2002-07-22T06:18:33","slug":"morocco_spain_500_years_of_territorial_claims_continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2002\/07\/morocco_spain_500_years_of_territorial_claims_continue\/","title":{"rendered":": Morocco &amp;amp; Spain: 500 Years of Territorial Claims Continue"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>It seems silly for people who aren\u2019t familiar with the history of Spain and Morocco, but last week\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Farticles%2FA39970-2002Jul21.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">tangle of troops<\/a> on an uninhabited, 30-acre island that the Moroccans call \u201cLeila\u201d and the Spanish call \u201cParsley\u201d is the latest chapter in a 500-year old territorial struggle that so far has no end in sight.  After Morocco sent a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com%2F2002%2FWORLD%2Fafrica%2F07%2F12%2Fspain.morocco.ap%2Findex.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">handful of troops<\/a> to the rock 200 yards off the Moroccan coast, Spain sent 75 Legionnaires and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk%2Fworldlatest%2Fstory%2F0%2C1280%2C-1877533%2C00.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">war vessels<\/a> to remove them.  The island became <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com%2Fdailyglobe2%2F195%2Fnation%2FMorocco_Spain_seek_to_defuse_tensions%2B.shtml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">uninhabited once again<\/a> this week after a negotiated <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk%2Fhi%2Fenglish%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fnewsid_2143000%2F2143406.stm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">cease-fire<\/a>.  Now for the background; follow along carefully:  Morocco claims that the rock reverted to their control upon their independence in 1956 and that it is \u201chumiliating\u201d to have the rock in question, along with Morocco-embedded enclaves Ceuta and Melilla, in Spanish hands.  Spain claims that the territories are rightfully theirs.  \u201cCeuta is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Farticles%2FA33679-2002Jul19.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">not like Gibraltar<\/a>,\u201d explained a former Spanish army commander. \u201cGibraltar was once Spanish, but Ceuta was never Moroccan.\u201d  Moroccans contrast Spain\u2019s stated goal of retrieving Gibraltar (which Britain announced this week it would <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk%2Fhi%2Fenglish%2Fuk_politics%2Fnewsid_2124000%2F2124330.stm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">share with Spain<\/a>), and Madrid\u2019s reluctance to return the favor to Morocco for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com%2F2002%2FWORLD%2Fafrica%2F07%2F13%2Fmorocco.spain.reut%2Findex.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ceuta and Melilla<\/a>.  Morocco brings up Spain\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.warflag.com%2Fshadow%2Fhistory%2Fspainmorocco.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">colonial occupation<\/a> of Morocco, and Spain retorts by pointing out Morocco\u2019s occupation of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oneworld.org%2Fguides%2Fsahara%2Fhistory.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Western Sahara<\/a>.  How far back does this go? Muslim Spain and the Inquisition, perhaps?<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Morocco claims the island of Leila\/Perejil, Spain refuses to hand back Ceuta &amp; Melilla (while begging the UK for Gibraltar), and so on and so on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>: Morocco &amp;amp; Spain: 500 Years of Territorial Claims Continue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Morocco claims the island of Leila\/Perejil, Spain refuses to hand back Ceuta &amp; 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