A Morocco–Netherlands match, and a recurring question: can we still call that which is Amazigh “Arab”? From the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to the preparations for the 2030 World Cup, Rachid Raha revisits years of identity confusion fueled by the media and institutions, advocating for North African history, genetics, and culture to finally be named with accuracy.
Following the football match played on Tuesday morning between Morocco and the Netherlands, I revisited this self-evident question: Are Moroccans Arab?
I have previously addressed this topic with Ms. Elena Sánchez Caballero, then interim president of RTVE (Spanish Radio and Television), by criticizing RTVE news programs that, during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, offended the sensibilities of Moroccan and African citizens by labeling the Moroccan national team an “Arab selection.” At the time, Morocco had qualified for the quarterfinals of the competition. In my letter, I emphasized that the players of this southern Mediterranean neighboring country represented all Moroccans and North Africans, who are “Amazigh,” and are in no way “Arabs” from the Asian continent. I pointed out that, however, referring to the team as “Moors” would pose no problem, as this term is even more appropriate and derives from maurus, which itself comes from mis tamurt. In Amazigh, this means “son of the land,” an expression designating the ancient inhabitants of Mauretania Tingitana, the name given to Morocco during the Roman era. The word Morocco, for its part, is a contraction of tamurt n Yakuch, the land of God.
At the time, I received an unsatisfactory response from Ms. María San Juan, from the RTVE Audience Ombudsman team, who persisted in labeling Morocco and its inhabitants as “Arabs.” I felt compelled to send her another letter, reaffirming that “the Kingdom of Morocco has never been an Arab country and, like all other North African countries, it never will be.” Why?
(Video of a young Moroccan having his Amazigh flag torn away at the FIFA 2026 World Cup)
In my response, I highlighted the example of the Club World Cup final between Real Madrid (Spain) and Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia), played on Saturday, February 11, 2023, in Rabat. This match had sparked immense enthusiasm, high expectations, and palpable fervor. Do you remember who the Moroccan public, and by extension the Amazigh public of North Africa, supported? I pointed out to the RTVE ombudsman that, according to her statements, the Moroccan (and Amazigh) masses should have taken sides with the Saudis, since they are “Arab” and “Muslim” brotherly peoples. Well, no! The Moroccan public cheered with fervor and conviction for the “Spanish” and “Christian” team. Moroccans supported the Spanish “infidels” instead of their brothers in “Arabness” and “Islamic religion”! It is almost the same as with the Morocco-Netherlands match, where one might expect Mexicans, who are Catholic, to support the Christian Dutch rather than the Muslim Moroccans, and Algerians, supposedly “Arab” and “Muslim” brothers, to support the Moroccan footballers and not the Dutch.
In reality, as our eminent researcher Mohamed Chafik pointed out in his study The Berbers and their contribution to the development of Mediterranean cultures: “May our Arab co-religionists understand that non-Arabs also have the right to be proud of their identity! The Berbers (Imazighen) simply want to be Berbers (Imazighen), just as the Chinese are Chinese, the Japanese are Japanese, and the Arabs are Arabs.”
Let us not forget that when Moroccans submitted their bid for the 2026 World Cup, Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon preferred to vote in favor of the Yankee “infidels” rather than in favor of the “fake Arabs” who, for them, constitute all the inhabitants of North Africa.
However, as the 2030 FIFA World Cup approaches, which Morocco will co-organize with Spain and Portugal, we continue to draw the attention of the leaders of the three Western Mediterranean football federations, and in particular that of Mr. Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), to express our deep disappointment at the persistent discrimination against the Amazigh language and culture.
During the presentation of the 2030 FIFA World Cup on October 28, 2023, in Rabat, in the presence of Mr. Pedro Rocha, president of the [Spanish] Federation, and Mr. Fernando Gomes, president of the FPF, no mention was made of this language and culture—which are an integral part of Moroccan identity—neither in the logo nor on the round-table posters. Nor was the rich, shared history of these three countries mentioned. Consequently, we categorically refuse to have this exclusion interpreted as a falsification and amputation of our collective memory. It is our duty to highlight the role of the ancient Amazighs as builders of Mediterranean civilizations and their contribution to the formation of Andalusian civilization.
It would be very useful and of great interest to recall history and, in particular, the idea that the ancient Amazighs contributed to the creation of these Mediterranean civilizations, notably the Iberian civilization, even before the arrival of the Phoenicians and the advent of the Roman Empire. This is confirmed, in particular, by the genetic anthropology studies of the prestigious Spanish immunologist, Professor Dr. Antonio Arnaiz Villena, of the Complutense University of Madrid, who asserts that the Iberians and Amazighs share the same North African origins. In the same vein, the famous academic Mohamed Chafik writes: “From all these vicissitudes of history, it has become apparent that the Amazigh elites had acculturated in various ways and had richly contributed to the development of the great Mediterranean cultures.” Furthermore, the Amazigh people of Morocco, known as “Moros” among our Iberian neighbors, have the great historical merit of having built a remarkable common civilization for eight centuries: the Muslim civilization of medieval Andalusia, from the conquest of Gibraltar by the Amazigh Tariq ibn Ziyad in 711 until the expulsion of the last Moriscos from the Alpujarras, in the province of Granada, in 1609. In this regard, it would be appropriate for tourism officials on both sides of the Western Mediterranean to relaunch and develop the ambitious “Andalusian Heritage” Foundation project regarding tourist itineraries of Andalusian heritage, a project initiated by lawyer Jerónimo Páez in 1995.
On February 17th, on the occasion of the thirty-seventh anniversary of the creation of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), I took the initiative to ask the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia, and Libya to dissolve this Union. The “Arab Maghreb Union” (AMU) has completely failed because it was built on the denial of North Africa’s ancient history and authentic Amazigh-African identity, adopting a reductive, discriminatory, and inappropriate denomination: “Arab Maghreb.” It is based essentially on an imported, artificial, and imposed ideology, “Arab-Islamism,” which is at the root of the decline of this regional entity.
Consequently, the 35th edition of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, recently held in Morocco, provided an eloquent illustration of this. The total lack of solidarity among North African supporters was glaring: Moroccan fans supporting the Congolese or Nigerian national teams against Algeria; Algerian and Tunisian fans openly expressing their satisfaction after Morocco’s defeat in the controversial final against Senegal; or the enthusiasm of Moroccan fans during Nigeria’s victory against Egypt, the country where Gamal Abdel Nasser had established Pan-Arabism as a state religion.
Regarding this resounding failure of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco, in his speech at the 28th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on January 31, 2017, declared: “Morocco has always considered that one must first draw strength from the integration of its Maghreb sub-region*. However, it must be noted that the flame of the AMU has gone out, because faith in a common interest has disappeared! The mobilizing momentum of the Maghreb ideal, promoted by the pioneering generations of the 50s, has been betrayed. Today, we note with regret that the AMU is the least integrated region of the African continent, if not the entire planet…”
In short, we call upon all journalists, intellectuals, and academics of the three countries bordering the Strait of Gibraltar to use realistic terminology, free from any ideological bias and from the promotion of a decadent Arab nationalism, at the expense of scientific objectivity, the latest archaeological discoveries, and historical truth. Consequently, we will not stop recommending that you avoid expressions such as “Arab team,” “Arab football,” “Arab Maghreb,” “Arab Ummah,” “Arab nation,” or “Arab Spring”… Know that these terms deeply offend the sensibilities, identity, and pride of millions of Moroccan and Amazigh citizens, as well as millions of emigrants or European citizens of Amazigh origin residing in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Portugal. When the “Atlas Lions” win a match, like the one that just took place in Mexico, the latter take to the streets, waving the Moroccan and Amazigh flags, in the major cities of the European Union.
The success of these young Amazigh Moroccan footballers, as well as the recent opening of the Amazigh Museum in the Alhambra complex in Granada—unfortunately ignored by the Spanish national press—invite us to deepen our research and organize more Hispano-Portuguese-Moroccan cultural events to deepen our understanding of the Amazigh culture, which has united these three countries for millennia, but which remains one of the most neglected subjects by their universities and intellectual circles.
Rachid Raha, President of the World Amazigh Assembly and the “David Montgomery Hart” Foundation for Amazigh Studies
*North African: the term Maghreb is an Arabist political term.