Brick by brick, Morocco rebuilds 12th-century mosque destroyed by 2023 earthquake
Tinmel (Morocco), Sep 24: The hand-carved domes and brick-laid arches had almost all been put back together when an earthquake shook Morocco so violently that they caved in on themselves and crashed to the earth.
After nearly 900 years, the Great Mosque of Tinmel lay in pieces – its minaret toppled, its prayer hall full of rubble, its outer walls knocked over.
But even in ruins, it remained holy ground for the residents of Tinmel. Villagers carried the sheet-laden bodies of the 15 community members killed in the quake down the hillside and placed them in front of the decimated mosque.
Among the mourners was Mohamed Hartatouch, who helped carry the remains of his son Abdelkrim. A 33-year-old substitute teacher, he died under bricks and collapsed walls while the village waited a day and a half for rescue crews to arrive.
“It looked like a storm. I wasn’t able to feel anything,” the grieving father said, remembering the day after the quake.
One year later, the rubble near Hartatouch’s half-standing home has been swept aside and Tinmel residents are eager to rebuild their homes and the mosque. They say the sacred site is a point of pride and source of income in a region where infrastructure and jobs were lacking long before the earthquake hit.
“It’s our past,” Redwan Aitsalah, a 32-year-old construction worker, said the week before the earthquake’s anniversary as he reconstructed his home overlooking the mosque.
The September 2023 quake left a path of destruction that will take Morocco years to recover from. It killed nearly 3,000 people, knocked down almost 60,000 homes and leveled at least 585 schools. The damage will cost about USD 12.3 billion to rebuild, according to government estimates.
Stretches of road were left unnavigable, including Tizi N’Test, the steep mountain pass that weaves from Marrakech to Tinmel and some of the hardest-hit villages near the earthquake’s epicentre.
Workers are now sifting through the rubble searching for the mosque’s puzzle pieces. They are stacking useable bricks and sorting the fragments of remaining decorative elements arch by arch and dome by dome, preparing to rebuild the mosque using as much of the remains as possible.
Though incomparable to the human loss and suffering, the restoration effort is among Morocco’s priorities as it attempts to rebuild. (AP)
Saudi Arabia issues stern warning to Pakistan for sending beggars under Umrah and Hajj visas
Islamabad, Sep 24: Saudi Arabia has warned Pakistan to take serious and urgent notice of beggars flooding the kingdom under Umrah and Hajj visas, calling on Islamabad’s Ministry of Religious Affairs to prevent such people from getting visas and entering its territory for begging purposes.
The Saudi government issued a warning to Pakistan after a large number of Pakistani nationals were caught begging in the country and were deported. It was revealed that the Pakistani beggars had entered into the kingdom under Umrah and Hajj visas, and were using their time to beg on the streets of Mecca and Medina.
Sources in Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs confirmed that Saudi Arabia has raised serious concerns over the growing number of Pakistani beggars landing in the kingdom on Umrah visas.
“Saudi Arabia has warned that if the situation is not controlled, it could negatively affect Pakistani Umrah and Hajj pilgrims,” said the source.
The ministry has introduced ‘Umrah Act’ aimed at regulating travel agencies facilitating Umrah trips and bringing them under one legal umbrella to keep a legal oversight over them and their procedures for visa provisions.
The issue of Pakistani beggars has been an embarrassment for the Shehbaz Sharif government for some time now and discussed recently during a meeting between the Interior Minister of Pakistan Mohsin Naqvi and the Saudi envoy in Islamabad Nawaf Bin Said Ahmed Al-Malki.
Naqvi had assured that strict measures were being taken against the “mafia” responsible for sending beggars to Saudi Arabia.
The Pakistan government has tasked the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to crack down on such networks and travel agencies, who are bringing shame and embarrassment to the country with their actions. “The beggars’ mafia is damaging Pakistan’s image,” said Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.
Several Gulf countries, which host the largest number of overseas Pakistanis, have raised serious concerns over the behavior of Pakistani citizens and have further tightened their scrutiny process for them. (IANS)