Marrakech to be newest sister city for Scottsdale

Scottsdale is boarding the "Marrakech Express," as it plans a sister city partnership with the Moroccan community.

This will be Scottsdale’s first such partnership with an Arab location.

While it’s not officially off the ground, both cities have already made numerous contacts, and Scottsdale Sister Cities Association plans to visit Marrakech early next year.

"Marrakech is what I consider really exciting because of the opportunity it gives us to have a relationship with a Muslim community that has a lot of similar characteristics to Scottsdale," said Roger Nelson, president of Scottsdale Sister Cities Association.

A desert climate, vibrant art scene and tourism-based economy are found in both cities, he said.

But the project has potential to do much more than educate about Morocco, supporters say. They said they believe it will allow residents to learn about each culture in their own back yards.

"With (the) building of a mosque up in north Scottsdale, I think it’s a great time for the community to reach out and establish a connection with them through another Muslim country," Nelson said.

"We have a lot of mosques in the area, and a lot of the downtown Scottsdale merchants are Arabs, so we know we have a big (Muslim) population," said Margo Wilson, a member of the Sister Cities Association. "And they are thinking that this is a good thing to bring a knowledge of the Muslim culture to Scottsdale."

Wilson’s enthusiasm for the project is partly due to her memories of working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco in the 1970s.

But it’s not only Muslims who live in Morocco, said Michel Benharbon, a Scottsdale business owner who was born in Casablanca.

Like him, there are many Moroccans of Jewish descent now living in the Valley, he said.

This year, he said, roughly 250 people showed up at a Valley Mimouna celebration, which is a Jewish Moroccan feast held on the last night of Passover.

Benharbon and Hakim Benmoussa, a Moroccan Muslim, are good friends and are actively involved with the Sister City project.

"Given how the situation is in the Middle East, and the bad stuff you hear all the time, well, we are the best of friends and we want to represent the tolerance and diversity of Morocco," Benmoussa said.

The formal partnership between the two cities is just beginning, but soon there will be more Moroccan connections in town.

Benharbon plans to bring a little bit of his homeland to Scottsdale when he opens a Moroccan restaurant in fall that will also sell art and other items imported from Morocco.

And Scottsdale Sister Cities plans to visit Marrakech in early 2006. Nelson said he soon hopes to start teacher and student exchanges.

And Benmoussa wants to create a Moroccan festival in Scottsdale.

Nelson said his Moroccan counterparts are eager to discuss how Scottsdale’s municipal government works, and how it handles the problems of developing transportation and water systems.

Scottsdale has four other sister cities: Cairns, Australia; Kingston, Canada; Alamos, Mexico; and Interlaken, Switzerland.

About Morocco

Capital: Rabat Gained Independence: 1956, from France Religion: 98 percent Muslim; also Christian and Jewish Official language: Arabic Other languages: Berber, French Area: Slightly larger than California Government: Constitutional monarchy

Source: CIA World Factbook