Rabat - An Algerian woman has caused an uproar in social media in Morocco after she accused it of being a country of sorcery. The allegations were made live during an episode of Star Academy, a reality show broadcast from Lebanon.
Kenza Morsli, an Algerian participants appears to be telling one of her colleagues in the show that “Moroccans are known for doing sorcery.”
The broadcast of the episode was cut off as soon as the Algerian woman made this allegation. Later in the show, Kenza appears telling a male colleague that her mother asked her to mingle only with Egyptians and Lebanese and avoid Moroccans.
Kenza was apparently annoyed by the success of her Moroccan rival Ibtissam Taskat who enjoy popularity with the public of the show.
The allegations made by the young Algerian came a couple of weeks after she brought up the question of the Sahara conflict during a dinner that gathered all the participants of the show. As the participants were having dinner, she referred to the conflict using the phrase “Western Sahara,” which is commonly used by Algerians and others who support the Polisario to stress that the territory does not belong to Morocco.
The footage of the show created an uproar and being shared and commented by Moroccans who launched a Hashtag on Twitter called “Red line” in Arabic. The users of the Hashtag call on every Moroccan to share it widely and to express their disapproval and condemnation of the accusations leveled at Morocco by the Algerian participant. They also called on the Moroccan embassy in Beirut to take the necessary steps to push the organizers of the show to exclude Kenza Morsli.
The allegations made by Kenza came in a context of deteriorated relations between Morocco and Algeria. The already strained relations between the two neighbors were compounded last week after the Algerian army opened fire on a group of Moroccans at the borders between the two countries. The incident left one Moroccan man seriously injured.