“It was a big deal for me to go to the university. Education is the candle. It gives you the light to see in front of you and the window that lets you out into another world. We need much more education for everyone in Morocco.
My great-grandparents settled our village. I played and fished in the river. We had a little black and white television and watched an hour of news. A movie started after that, but the generator went out before the movie was over. We started learning about the world when we got electricity in our village and listened to the radio.”
I met my wife when I saw her walking down the street. I was almost hit by a bus because I was standing in the street when I stopped her to talk. I knew she was the one I would marry.

Morocco is a double country with Berbers and Arabs. There are big problems, joblessness and corruption. It is hard to start a business here. It is even hard to travel and leave Morocco to see other countries. However, there is solidarity because our Islamic religious values keep us together. Islam is a religion of respect and compassion. It teaches that we are a guest in this world.

You are lucky that in the U.S. that one person can make a difference. That is a beautiful idea. In reality, that is not easy to happen here.

It takes many people to rise up and to make a change and to be advanced and developed. Look at what happened in the U.S. and Europe after revolutions. Change isn’t free. That is the big challenge in the Arab countries. Who is this person who will sacrifice his life and who will he do it for? If you aren’t educated, you don’t know how to make the changes. I have listened to John Lewis, the Civil Rights leader. Those kinds of people make a difference and fight for a reason. I don’t know when we will stand up and fight. Education is the answer. Victor Hugo said to open the school and close the prisons. Dictators keep people ignorant so they can control them, but education is going to be how we make the changes we need to make in Morocco and Islam. Ignorance is a difficult thing to change. When you are ignorant, you fight against knowledge.”