From our special envoy to Morocco,
Bismillah. The earthquake that struck Morocco on Friday September 8 did not leave many buildings standing in the High Atlas region. If, logically, it was the traditional houses with stone walls which suffered the most, the earthquake shattered other more recent infrastructures, notably mosques. But the resilience of the villagers meant that the cult did not stop.
After a journey of several hours from Agadir, we were able to reach Tirknit during the night from Thursday to Friday. This village of 400 inhabitants is in a way the gateway to the High Atlas from the Taroudant region. As soon as the car engine stopped, the muezzin’s voice was heard, loud and clear. It was 4:50 a.m., we were in the middle of a devastated mountain without any minaret standing on the horizon. As soon as he had finished his prayer in the middle of the deserted road, Icham, our guide, understood our questioning look: “They made a temporary mosque in a tent below the road, among the other tents where shelter now the inhabitants of Tirknit,” he explains to us.
In a tent, outside, with or without loudspeaker
Installing a replacement mosque is one of the first tasks that the victims took pride in completing after the earthquake. And this, in all the places, even the most remote. The Adebdi Mosque, in the mountains beyond Tirknit, didn’t hold up either. The imam also provides worship in an improvised location. Even higher in the mountain, in Tizirte, the minaret of the brand new mosque can be seen from afar from the track that leads to the village. Even up close, the building appears to be in good condition, as if it were the only building in the village to have been spared.
“We see the damage from the inside,” laments a resident who lets us into the place of worship. As soon as you walk through the door, you don’t need to be an expert to know that the mosque will never again welcome any worshipers, an impressive crack cutting the building in two widthwise. As a result, as the women have arranged for cooking or washing, preaching is now also done outside. And in Tizirte, which has only 200 inhabitants, the call to prayer does not even require a loudspeaker to be heard.