The Politics Of Silence

Even as Morocco’s Minister of Foreign affairs Taieb Fassi-Fihri, during his meetings in Marrakesh with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton within the framework of the Forum for the Future, continues to tout, in his usual saccharine tone, the country’s “soaring democracy,” his nepotistic government sustains its hypocritical and duplicitous campaign against freedom of political expression subjecting the independent media to convulsions capable, I fear, of decimating the country’s prospect to an unfeigned democracy. Its deliberate immolation of Akhbar Al Youm carried on this week when the Moroccan police, at the behest of the ministry of interior, extrajudicially seized the newspaper and prevented its dissemination. Last Friday, in a Casablanca circuit court, a judge sentenced the paper’s publishing director, Tawfik Bouachrine, and caricaturist Khalid Kadar to a suspended jail sentence of eight years, a combined forfeiture of $412,118.00, and ordered its offices sequestered indefinitely. Prior to the sentencing, the offices of Akhbar Al Youm had been summarily shut down for 36 days. Bouachrine and Kadar were sentenced in accordance with article 267 of the penal code and article 41 of the press law.

Khaled Naceri, during a press conference on Thursday 29th, 2009, delivered a sonorous encomium on Morocco’s continued efforts to foster a eudaemonia for Morocco’s palmy independent media. The unhampered circulation of 1200 foreign newspapers and magazines, Naceri stated, attests the country’s freedom of expression. In fact, in light of the recent publication of Femmes Du Maroc and Telquel, one would find it difficult to gainsay the government’s claim of freedom of expression. Personally, I encourage such publications; I am a proponent of a diverse erudition that expands one’s mind and furthers one’s horizon beyond religious panophobia and gratification as envisioned in hell and heaven. But I hardly consider those as a reflection of freedom of expression in Morocco. Neither should you.

A true measure of freedom of expression is when established ideas and institutions are intellectually and politically challenged by dissenting opinions that are afforded as much a platform as concordant ones. This has never been the case in Morocco where critics of the king, his entourage, and his government are often vilified and their ideas muted. The insidious ingenuity of our government has made it such that its contention there are no prisoners of opinion in its detention centers is actually true; there are only criminals who broke the law and were promptly judged and sentenced by a court of law. As Naceri is fond of averring, Morocco is a country of law and order.

There are laws that uphold democracy and protect the people. There are others specifically intended to protect the rulers and advance their agenda. The latter are what civil liberties lawyer and writer Harvey A. Silverglate describes as the “over-criminalization” laws. A fully loaded oppressive system creates its own panoptic laws and appoints obsequious judges to enforce them. Take the nebulous articles 41 and 42 of the press law. Both were implemented in 2002 and are designed to protect the royal family from calumny and criticism. They are invoked to impose penalties on a broad swath of journalistic activity. A journalist could be charged under article 42 if his article is deemed insulting to the royal family. If the journalist’s defense strategy is to demonstrate that the information published is indeed true and argues in favor of the people’s need to know, he/she could be prosecuted under article 41 – statement undermining the monarchic institution – which carries a stiffer sentence; whether the statement is true or false is irrelevant to the judge. For a case in point, consider Idriss Chahtane, Tawfik Bouachrine, Khalid Kadar, Noureddine Miftah, Meriem Moukrim, Ali Lmrabet, etc.

Clearly article 41 and 42 and other similar laws are deleterious to freedom of the press and the citizens’ right to political expression. Since the 2002 press law reform, the government has been straining information streamed to the public through a sieve. Increasingly more journalists and bloggers are being arrested and sentenced each year. Such practices by the authorities and the onerous laws they impose stand against the conscience of every Moroccan who believes in Justice and equality. A select few are put on a pedestal being unaccountable for their actions. Above the law. Deities. We all have heard stories of members of the Moroccan elite committing blatant transgressions and walk away with impunity and without as much as a whiff of an investigation being initiated by the authorities.

Historical and literary examples of established authorities unwilling to countenance challenges to their absolutism abound. Didn’t Quraysh have established laws protecting their idols? But we never think of the prophet Mohammed as a criminal for breaking them. If you were a Jerusalemite and you saw Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane, would you have called the Romans? If you were Antigone, would you have left your brother’s body to rot on the battlefield in obedience to the edict of Creon the king?

A true democracy rectifies the laws that belie the people’s conscience and undermine the underlying principles of equality and freedom. In the U. S., a bill to protect journalists who refuse to divulge the identities of their sources is currently being discussed in the Senate. In Morocco, there are no laws protecting journalists from gratuitous actions by the government. Journalists are walking lightning rods in an eonian thunderstorm. The situation is made even more tragic by unnerving unassertiveness of the population, the absence of a true national debate over the government’s overboard harassment, and the elusiveness of a reformative structure to remedy the problem. I suspect more journalists will be charged with invidiousness and hauled off to jail, except those the government succeeded in domesticating such as Rachid Nini of Al Masae.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Don’t Blame Femmes Du Maroc

Some of the reactions sparked by the naked picture of Nadia Larguet on the November cover of Femmes Du Maroc (FDM) and the article I wrote about it are rather unsettling. Some make it sound as if Hustler or playboy is being conspicuously sold in newsstands Morocco over, as if FDM is of the same caliber as those magazines that commercialize a woman’s feminine parts as sexual toys for the mind. Our society thinks that all nakedness is immoral and all of today’s modern disposition is immodest and perversive.

Let’s consider FDM’s cover as a Rorschach test of sorts (no offense Nadia. I’m not saying you’re an inkblot.) Those who view the naked pregnant woman’s picture as pornography are, in my opinion, projecting their insecurities and frustrations. Those are the ones who seem incapable of controlling their thoughts and urges. They would rather see a woman clad in a burqa and sequestered at home. If those ideas had prevailed in the 14th century, there would never have been a renaissance; is the “Venus of Irbino” painting pornography? are Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine Chapel not art? Is Moroccan writer Abdellah Taia’s novels not literature because he is gay? Is Morocco’s Latrache Abderahmane a neopegan because of his “Nu au Hamam”?

I agree that Islam provided women with rights they were denied by pre-Islamic Arabian societies. However, many scholars agree that the status of woman, after the death of the prophet, slowly reverted back to what it was in pre-Islam era. Islamic women enjoyed more rights during the prophet’s life than they do today.

I respect the choice of some women to wear hijab. Unfortunately, for most women in Moslem countries, it is not a choice; it is a familial and/or societal imposition that is, if not physical, ideological. Western women that wear the hijab are latently aware that there is a set of nonreligious laws upholding their rights not just as women, but as wives. They are content in knowing that their pious husbands cannot possibly admonish and banish them – in accordance with the Holy Qur’an, Chapter 4, Verse 34 – without incurring the wrath of a divorce judge. They reckon their husbands cannot marry younger women as they grow older. It would be unconceivable for an educated woman to detach herself from the protection provided by the laws of modern societies and accept the subjugation exacted on women in countries like Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. And why go far? In rural Morocco today, thousands of bereaved women are battling an archaic system that deprives them of their land inheritance because they have no surviving male relatives.

Some argued that Nadia Larguet does not represent the Moroccan women suffering in our inner cities and remote villages, that she could care less about the plight of women. It may be so. However, Women’s rights advocacy was introduced in the Arab world not by illiterate and destitute women, but by educated, middle class and bourgeois ones. Do you think it would have made sense if FDM posted the photograph of an unknown, poor, and naked woman? A fellow blogger, Jillian C. York, asked me if it was necessary to use such a shocking strategy to convey a message. My answer is “absolutely yes!”

Do you seriously believe that our problems are caused by the permissiveness adopted from the western world? Do you honestly think that outside of official channels, our kids do not have access to pornography, drugs, Alchohol…? The exposure of Moroccan teenagers to satellite porn channels is a tropism to the repressiveness of our societies; Women are accosted daily in the street of our Moslem cities by frustrated men who demand sex. The hijab and the niqab does not make a difference to them. We’d rather not see any immorality, but we know it is writhing behind our closed doors. We assign a death or life value to a woman’s hymen as if that shred of skin sums up her character and virtue. Teen pregnancy has much to do with sex-ed. A full awareness of the repercussions of unprotected and/or antenuptial sex – Islam calls for the mindless prohibition of the act – can mitigate much of the social problems Morocco is currently mired in.

Of course the king would rather allow naked women on magazine covers and Sex and the City to film in Morocco. It allows his government to proclaim before the world that indeed we have freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

It’s not about Nadia Larguet. She was hardly a household name. The cover of FDM touches the very heart of one of our main problems today not just in Morocco, but in the Arab and Islamic world. We tend to see a naked woman as a sex object only, even a pregnant or an old woman, or a pubescent girl. It speaks volumes of our mentality. It’s not magazines like FDM that are corrupting our morals. We are already driven by a repressed concupiscence hardly witnessed in western countries.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

I Am Pregnant And I Exist

In an already bifurcated country, The November issue of Femmes du Maroc – Women of Morocco, a Moroccan magazine that caters to the interests of Moroccan women with a panoply of feminine subjects is bound to turn into lascivious fodder for a misguided and testosterone charged fringe of society, an opportunity for vitriolic religious condemnations and exhortations to aspiring jihadists to perverted religious zealots, and a cause for celebration to post-feminists and advocates of women’s rights. The magazine dedicated its cover to a very pregnant former 2M anchorwoman Nadia Larguet, in the buff, with one hand covering her breast and the other one holding her belly a la Demi Moore on the cover of the August 1991 Vanity Fair. A first in an Arab and a Moslem country. It will certainly spur a vocal public backlash against Mrs. Larguet and Femmes du Maroc. National and international news outlets will cover the story ad nauseam.

The issue transcends the aesthetic aspects of pregnancy and nudity. The exclusionary and sometimes castigating treatment pregnant women are subjected to is a leading cause of abortion in Morocco where the number of out of wedlock pregnancies have dramatically risen. The pool of medical doctors performing abortions today has grown exponentially. They charge 3000 Dirhams ($391.00). Additionally, an increased number of women, especially in rural areas where medical oversight is minimal and sometimes non-existent, die from standard pregnancy complications.

The message of the magazine’s cover is a loud and clear confirmation of the self: I am pregnant; I am beautiful, and I exist. I agree. In our society, pregnant women need to feel less excluded and be viewed in a more gratifying fashion. For a country like Morocco, where television channels are flipped at the mere sight of a man an a woman kissing, where, in neighborhood foodstuff stores, menstrual pads are stuffed in a black plastic bag to conceal them from the embarassed looks of customers, the idea is outrageous. I find it revolutionary and prescient. I am hoping the cover will set off a debate on what some might see as mere sexual objectification of women and others as feminine empowerment. I see in it an expression of the beauty of fertility and a much needed glamorization of woman as a genitor of life in a male dominated society that regards pregnant women – especially those in their third quarter – as nothing more than diaphanously dressed humanoid incubators, breast feeders, care providers. Generally speaking, men in the Arab culture are outside the emotional support system of their pregnant wives. The task is often delegated to female family members. Husbands who accompany their pregnant wives to OBGY consultations are a rarity. Seldom do men assist their delivering wives or witness the birth of their babies; they financially support the endeavor, but remain content in their impervious insularity.

I will ask you to not judge the magazine by its cover. You can choose to see it as nothing more than a nude picture. Such is your prerogative. You can also choose to see the glossy cover as an attention grabber to all the problems women endure on a daily basis. Everyday, in a remote decrepit mud hut in one of our villages, a pregnant woman is dying from complications while her husband, because of that traditional mindset we are so attached to, is detached from that reality. The problem is in the multitudes of abortion clinics in our cities. The problem is the increased teenage pregnancies caused by, not promiscuity, but lack of sexual education. Tradition has not solved these problems. In fact, in some cases, it has exacerbated them. It takes moral fortitude to recognize that aspects of our traditions are part of the problem. It’s outrageous to me that there are some who refuse to see beyond the nudity. Was it necessary to sensationalize the issue with a nude picture? Absolutely! Because the Arab psyche is so traumatized that only shock therapy would work. Countless articles were written about Moroccan women’s problems, but they all failed to dislodge the entrenched retral thinking. If a polemic is what will do, so be it.

We need to purge ourselves of that mentality. 

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Morocco: Criminalizing The Independent Media

The Moroccan government’s unremitting onset against freedoms of the press and of expression has been gaining momentum recently. After the arrest of Idriss Chahtane, the managing editor of the weekly Al Michaal, and the sentencing of Rachid Mhamid and Mustapha Hirane, two journalists working for the same weekly, the gavel struck again in the case of Ali Anouzla, the managing editor of Al Jarida Al Oula, and Bouchra Eddou, a journalist of the same daily. Both journalists were handed suspended jail terms of a year and three months respectively. Sentencing of Tawfik Bouachrine, the publishing director of Akhbar Al-Yaoum, and Khalid Kadar, a caricaturist for the same paper, was postponed till October 30th. A jail sentence, it seems, will soon constitute a required journalistic credential to establish the bona fides of Moroccan independent journalists and activist bloggers who write in defense of democratic principles in Morocco.

The French newspaper Le Monde and its corresponding Spanish one El Pais were banned in Morocco for publishing caricatures by Jean Plantu lampooning the Moroccan royal family. Khalid Naceri, in justifying the banning to the Spanish Agency for International Information, labeled the caricatures irreverent to the monarchic institution. The government’s tendency to apotheosize the royal family is rather disturbing and creates an environment that is hostile to the permanence of democratic ideas.

The shamelessness of the Moroccan government’s dictatorial policies against the independent media is even more contrasted now that the French and Spanish governments have opted to respect the rights of Le Monde and El Pais to free expression. Indeed, one has to ponder the Moroccan government’s emerging political praxis of distressing the country’s national institutions and citizens to ingratiate itself with foreign organizations and regimes so as to promote its recreant foreign policy. A Moroccan court of law, at the behest of the Moroccan government, amerced Le Journal Hebdomadaire with the ludicrous fine of 250,000 Euros for an alleged libel on the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center (ESISC), a Belgian think tank. Some suspect the government’s litigation against Le Journal was motivated by the fact that ESISC’s president, Claude Moniquet, a staunch advocate of Israeli tactics in Gaza and the West Bank, has supported, through his editorials, Morocco’s position on “Western Sahara;” In a similar fashion, Al Jarida Al Oula, Al Ahdat Al Maghribia et Al Massae were put in the dock for supposedly defaming libya’s dictator by calling him a …dictator. They were ordered to pay 99,000 Euros each.

Such practices created significant strains between the government and the independent media. Based on comments left on a number of online Moroccan newspapers, the Moroccan people consider their current government disastrously unprepared for the advance of democracy. Indeed, our inchoate and paranoid government is run by men who did not suffer the crucible of Hassan II’s regime, but strengthened it, moralized it, rationalized it the same way they are today rationalizing their repressive actions against the independent media and Moroccan’s right to express their views on the leadership. The strategy they have conceived and orchestrate has lowered the standards of free speech and pluralism and is inching the country to a post Hassan II nadir.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

TAXI

I just posted my latest short story – TAXI. You can read it here.

About Face

Driss Chahtane

If you want to find journalists, human rights activists, and bloggers that speak their mind in Morocco today, look first in the government’s prisons. Then, check the holding pens of the country’s judicial system. You will find them clustered in groups waiting to be slaughtered. Driss Chahtane, Mostapha Hairan, and Rachid Mhamid of Al-Mashaal have just been meted out excessive prison sentences and fines for their publication of what the government alleged was false information on the king’s health. The sentences are disproportionate to the offenses and are most likely political reprisals to bridle what our irascible government deems a rambunctious independent media that has, in its view, stymied the democratic process. But the true cause to the unraveling of the democratic process in Morocco is not the independent media. The Moroccan government was never adept at dealing with opposing ideas. The government’s baleful reactions to the beachheads the media establishes in our hamstrung freedoms of expression and of the press have widened the schism dividing the reality of democracy in Morocco and the government’s florid rhetoric and slogans.

The king’s speech, on August 20, in which he announced a sweeping revampment of the judicial system, buoyed up people’s hopes that the democratic experiment in Morocco might succeed after all. To some, it was an indicator the king is attuned to his subjects’ primary concerns. Morocco’s antediluvian justice system, it is argued, is a major anti-democracy juggernaut. Its reform would represent a positive token of the government’s commitment to democracy. What happened after the speech seemed rather counterintuitive; Abdelwahid Radi, Morocco’s minister of justice, promoted judges he was expected to retire; he raised the salaries of self-serving judicial bureaucrats. The closed-door judicial proceedings against journalists and activists have intensified. The system’s gumption fails to materialize when it comes to investigating its own officials. When Mohamed Taieb Ahmed, a.k.a. El Nene, Morocco’s infamous drug lord, recently provided the names of high ranking judges as being on his payroll, and the information was leaked to the media, the justice system tried to cover it up. None of the judges was ever summoned by the police. The system’s licentiousness in cases involving prominent political or business figures is shameless and revolting. Hassan Al Ya’koubi and others come to mind. In retrospect, the king’s August 20 announcement seemed more an appeasement policy than a genuine effort to overhaul the system. It seems to me democracy in Morocco has the durability of a smoke ring.

Toufik Bouachrine

Toufiq Bouachrine and Khalid Gueddar, both from Akhbar Al-Youm, are already pushed through the curvy corral toward judges who have demonstrated an uncanny knack for injustice. Akhbar Al-Youm published a caricature by Gueddar depicting Mouly Ismael with as a background the Moroccan flag centered by a Star of David. Chakib Benmoussa, the minister of interior, in a blatant violation of due process, ordered the newspaper shut and its assets seized. Bouachrine has no legal recourse to address the grievance. When he brought the issue up to Khaled Nasseri, the minister of communication and the government’s official spokesman, during a news conference, the latter’s answer was so unintelligible it sounded like he was scatting. Who in Morocco doubts that Bouachrine and Gueddar’s verdicts have already been decided?

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Banning Zafzaf

Mohamed Zafzaf

For the past three years, at the start of each school year and ever since Mohamed Zafzaf’s novel “An attempt to living” was introduced into the 9th grade curriculum, Islamic political parties and activists in Morocco have been calling for its banning. They contend the novel desensitizes the students to debauchery and entices them into un-Islamic behavior. Al-Tajdid, the official newspaper of the Salafist party Al Adala Wa Tanmiya – Justice and Development, published an article on 25 September, 2009, decrying the inclusion, once again, of the “immoral” novel in this year’s curriculum and calling for its removal.

The banning of literary books is not idiosyncratic to Morocco or Islam. More open societies indulged in the delineation of its artists; in the majority of the cases such repression is driven by religion. European and American conservatives and religious zealots have banned quite a few books. George Orwell’s “1984” was banned in Jackson County, FL for being “pro-communist and containing sexually explicit material;” Selman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” was banned, yes! yes! by Ayatollah Khomeiny’s Iran, but also by the Wichita, KS, public library for being blasphemous to the prophet Mohammed; Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” was burnt in Drake, N.D.; Lee Harper’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” was banned in schools in Lindale, TX in 1996 because it “conflicted with the values of the community.” Even Hergé’s famous “Tintin au Congo” is banned from the public surface of the Brooklyn Public Library after patrons complained it was “racially offensive to black people.” The list goes on and on. You can find a more comprehensive list at the Banned Books web site of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom:www.ala.org/bbooks.

Mohamed Choukri

There was a time in Morocco when the Islamist groups and the repressive government of Hassan II, despite their irreconcilable political and religious differences, equally loathed Moroccan literature, especially the Arabic written one whose writers broke away from the romantic mold and the burdened narrative of the previous generation – Abdelkrim Ghalab, Abdelmajid Benjelloun, Mohamed Barada and others . The Islamic groups, which at the time were impotent and mostly underground, were incapable of voicing their acrimonious condemnations, let alone act on them. Hassan II, on the other hand, jailed Moroccan writers and poets and banned their books simply for exposing pretense by their unsparing depiction of the hopelessness, violence, despair, and deprivation that were the stuff of daily life to the majority of Moroccans.

Driss Khouri

Up until the nineties, the term “Arabic literature” in Morocco excluded Moroccan writers, playwrights, and poets. The Moroccan Abdelfattah Kilito, one of the most celebrated literary critics in the Arab World, noted in an article he wrote for “Art and Thought,” a cultural magazine published by the Goethe Institute, that for Moroccan readers, literary books came from the Middle East and western countries. The curriculums the ministry of education designed for all levels of education regarded Morocco’s native literature as one of a lesser kind. Suffice it to say that Mohamed Choukri’s autobiographical novel “For Bread Alone” was originally written in Arabic, but was first published in English in 1973. It wasn’t until 1982 that the book was published in its original form; it was, then, banned from 1983 to 2000. Zafzaf himself became known to mainstream Morocco posthumously. Abdellah Zrika, one of the most famous poets in Morocco today, spent two years in jail and saw many of his poems censored. Idriss Khouri was marginalized. These were (Idriss Khouri is still alive and writing) the Louis-Ferdinand Céline, the Charles Bukowski, the Pedro Juan Gutiérrez of Morocco.

Since Mohamed VI became king, the government has largely withdrawn itself from banning literary books. Islamist, however, resurged as a brutal repressive force against Morocco’s bards of brothels and bars. They labeled some apostates and accused others of heresy. Their constant venomous and over-the-top opposition should come as no surprise; Zafzaf and other Moroccan writers like him railed against a society that both the government and Islam failed; they wrote, not to the academia, but to the downtrodden of Moroccan society in a style far from mellifluous. While the Islamic fringe is revolted, Moroccan readers are besotted by their realism and easy diction.

Between Morocco and a more consensual society, its Islamists. There are writers, poets, and artists in Morocco today who impose on themselves a stiflingself-sensorship and whose creative process is stymied by the pernicious ideology Islamists advocate. Their work, consequently, is piffle compared to that of Zafzaf et al. If the Islamists have their say, school curriculums will consist of nothing more than the Koran and hadith. This literature that Czeslaw Milosz, in one of his poems, described as “A feast of brief hopes, a rally of the proud,/A tournament of hunchbacks, literature” will be on sufferance, or disappear.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Wissam Al ‘Arch Bestowed on a Jewish Lobbyist

The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, bestowed, on 29 September, 2009, the Wissam Al Arch – Knight of the Order of the Throne of the Kingdom of Morocco, one of the country’s highest honors, on Jason Isaacson, director of government and international affairs of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), an American lobbying group that advocates Jewish interests worldwide, according to a company press release. AJC’s clout is far reaching internationally and is courted by high level political and business figures in the U.S. and overseas. They have strong ties with the current U.S. administration as well as officials from previous administrations.

The ceremony was held during a dinner organized in Isaacson’s honor at the New York residence of Morocco’s ambassador to the United Nations Mohammed Loulichki. Among the attendees was Serge Berdugo, the president of the Israeli Communities Council of Morocco (Conseil des Communautés Israelites du Maroc), Taieb Fassi Fehri, Morocco’s foreign minister, Israeli officials, and AJC’s most senior leadership. Taïeb Fassi Fihri was reported to have secretly met earlier during the week with Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and its Deputy Prime Minister.

Coincidently, the last Wissam Al Arch the king bestowed was on a Jewish personality, Chief Rabbi of Morocco Aaron Monsonego, on 20 July 2009.

It has been speculated that in the absence of a viable Moroccan lobbying group in the United States, AJC, in coordination with the Israeli Communities Council of Morocco, has been assisting the Moroccan government in promoting its political agenda, emblazoning its image, and revitalizing its military procurement efforts. In the absence of tangible diplomatic bargaining chips such as oil or natural gas, a dependable coalition, or a military force to be reckoned with, Morocco seems to be relying on relations with the U.S. and Israel as deterrents to Algeria and Spain. To that effect, it has made substantial concessions putting itself at odds internally, with its citizens, and externally, with other Arab and Islamic nations.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Akhbar Al Youm: Moulay Ishmail?

Morocco’s ministry of interior ordered the seizure and banning of independent Moroccan newspaper Akhbar Al Youm for three days in a row, 26-28 September, 2009. According to a ministerial communiqué, the banned paper published a caricature of Mouly Ismail, the cousin of Mohammed VI, as he was celebrating his wedding with as a backdrop a Moroccan flag centered by… a Star of David. Taoufik Bouachrine, the owner of the newspaper, inveighed against the government’s decision to ban the Monday and Tuesday prints of his newspaper since the controversial caricature was published over the weekend. He denied the caricature depicted a Star of David. The Wiccan star on the Moroccan flag lacks the criss-crossing pattern shown on the caricature of Akhbar Al Youm.

The government is charging the newspaper with disrespecting a member of the royal family and flagrant anti-Semitism. It confiscated the newspaper’s offices and publishing locales. In an unusual course of action by the royal family, Mouly Ismail decided to sue Akhbar Al Youm for defamation.

The Moroccan government has grown increasingly sensitive to the country’s independent media as they broached subjects considered verboten. Its judicial and political cannonade of independent journalists and artists, and the newspapers and magazines they work for belies its averment it advocates and protects freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Some observers pointed out that the government stands as the backstage instigator of the ad hominem bickering plaguing the independent media these days.

Knowing the story behind the rift between Bouachrine and Nini of Al Masae, the latter is going to have a field day with this one.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Morocco Updates: M.A.L.I, Zainab, Israel

Bite size morsels of information to keep you abreast of stories you care about.

M.A.L.I: Much Ado About Nothing
Zainab El-Rhazoui, the confounder (not the co-founder) of the Alternative Movement for Individual Freedoms (MALI), finally reappeared last Wednesday. Apparently, she was hiding at a friend’s house as she was worried the police would brutalize her. After her reappearance, she was questioned for eight hours and let go. Of course, if the authorities did not raise Cain by dispatching over a hundred police troops to the Mohemmadia train station, nobody would have noticed MALI. How the government was alerted to MALI’s plan is subject to speculation. It did not stop at that; Morocco’s Council of Islamic Scholars (Oulemas) publicly condemned the group and its intended act, Chakib Benmoussa, Morocco’s minister of interior, rallied the leadership of Morocco’s political parties and civil associations to express their strong disapproval, Moroccan media filled its pages with elongated articles on the two bits of information available. Al Massae, the unofficial official newspaper, went so far as to publish chat transcripts hacked from Facebook. I, myself, wrote about the issue stating that MALI’s action was ill-advised and lacking courage; the right of Moroccan citizens who were born Muslim to embrace a different religion is worthier. The government couldn’t have hoped for a better opportunity to sidetrack the nation’s attention from its recent setbacks such as its diplomatic blunder in Libya, the hike in consumer prices, the rise of violent crimes, the spiking unemployment rates, the communal election debacles. So much so that I believe if MALI did not exist, the government would have created it.

ZAINAB: The pressure is on

Zainab and the judge

The case of Zainab Shtet, an eleven-year old maid that was tortured by her employers, a judge and his wife, is still dragging. The defendants are still free to roam as they please. In fact, a few days ago, the judge and his family visited Zainab’s village, in the region of Taza. They slaughtered a sheep outside her parent’s home, a long-standing tradition in the area designed to amend for an offence. Through intermediaries, they offered Zainab’s father enticing monetary incentives and exerted tremendous social pressure for him to drop the charges; he refused. Using his connections in the judicial circles, the judge was also able to have the description of Zainab’s injuries changed from “lasting” to “superficial” and the charge lessened from a felony to a misdemeanor. In an ideal Morocco, the judge’s actions should lead to an array of criminal sanctions. The removal of this judge from his tenure should constitute a positive first step toward the judicial reform Morocco’s king advocated in his last speech. According to Moroccan human right associations, Morocco counts between sixty and eighty thousand underage maids. Since the story of Zainab broke, a number of demonstrations have been organized requesting the government’s involvement to protect them.

ISRAEL/MOROCCO: Not public yet
According to reports from numerous news outlets, Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and its Deputy Prime Minister, secretly met in New York, Thursday 24, 2008, on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly activity, with his Moroccan counterpart Taïeb Fassi Fihri. The Moroccan government has neither denied nor confirmed the news. Relations between the two countries have thawed out since U.S. president Barack Obama’s letter to Mohammed VI requesting Morocco’s proactive assistance in ending Israel’s isolation in the region. Meanwhile, protests against the normalization of relations with Israel continue to be organized by various pro-Palestinian and human rights associations in Moroccan cities. The Moroccan authorities have been tolerating these demonstrations to bolster its image as a striving democracy. On Saturday 25, 2009, a request to organize a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Marrakesh was denied by local authorities. When the organizers objected to the refusal, they were confronted by an overwhelming police force. Some suspect the government’s refusal to authorize the pro-Palestinian demonstration has to do with the five-day 26th International Population Conference being held in Marrakesh since Sunday and which is attended by an Israeli delegation. Aside from the fact that Morocco will stand to benefit from an open relationship with Israel, it is the only way the Israeli/Palestinian issue could be resolved. The emotionally charged and slogan-filled rallying cries to push Israel to the sea are unavailing. It occurs to me now that I have never seen in Morocco a demonstration against affluent Gulf citizens coming to Morocco for sex tourism.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Regional Vigilance, Global Effect

The recent arrests by Morocco ‘security services of twenty-four members of a terrorist network reinforces the country’s position as a viable partner to the U.S. in the global war on terrorism and a major contributor to regional security. The arrests culminated a sophisticated operation that required coordination and deconfliction between multiple security and intelligence disciplines in a number of towns and cities across the kingdom and extensive cross-cueing between Morocco’s territorial security department and U.S. military intelligence and European law enforcement assets.

Judging from the scope of its operations, the network arrested is a fully functional consortium of cells each with a specific mission and leadership; one cell was in charge of spotting and assessing potential candidates and their recruitment; the logistical cell organized the housing and transportation of militants in and out of the country and the procurement of weapons and equipment in support of operations; the operational cell conducted casings of possible targets and was in charge of the execution of operations. The network was operating in conjunction with other terrorist support cells in Sweden, Belgium, Syria, and Iraq. According to the Interior Ministry, it was recruiting and channeling suicide bombers to support Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and Somalia; prior to its arrest, the network was in the process of recruiting ten volunteers and had sent twenty militants to fight in Iraq. Members of the group were scheduled to receive training on explosives from Al Qaeda operatives and were planning large scale attacks in Morocco.

Copyright AFP

In the past two years, the Moroccan government has refocused its security posture to address a growing national security threat; the change came in response to security warnings issued by U.S. forces heavily engaged in combat against Al Qaeda in multiple areas of operations. Based on the interrogations of detained insurgents and the document and media exploitation of their sites, the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point published reports indicating that foreign fighters hailing from as far as Morocco and Algeria constitute a tremendous impediment to regional stability. In Iraq, foreign fighters constitute no more than ten percent of Al Qaeda ’strength, but make up ninety percent of the suicide bombers. As Al Qaeda was being forced out of its strongholds in Iraq and Afghanistan, Moroccan militants from its rank and file returned home steeped in guerilla warfare and tempered by combat. In July 2008, Moroccan security forces dismantled a terrorist network in Tangier and neighboring cities arresting thirty-eight of its operatives. Forty-three others suspected of links with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are charged under anti-terrorism legislation and are awaiting trial. Last week, five Mauritanians were arrested at the Moroccan/Mauritanian entry point Bir Guendouz with a substantial load of 7.62 rounds.

There is a need for a sensitization campaign targeting the pool of potential candidates Al Qaeda recruiters approach. According to the CTC, the majority of foreign fighters are lured into Iraq and Afghanistan with promises that they will be fighting Americans; the majority of Al Qaeda operations in those countries are indiscriminately directed at local civilians and infrastructure. Some foreign fighters are used as drivers of vehicles that are, unbeknownst to them, loaded with explosives and remotely detonated in crowded areas. Morocco’s increased vigilance and steadfast campaign to eliminate the terrorist threat in the region and undermine its global effects are commendable and will most likely be lauded in the 2009 U.S. report on Morocco’s Terrorism Countermeasures; the number of Moroccan militants entering Iraq and Afghanistan has drastically diminished. However, I believe Morocco ‘security forces are still reactive, the effectiveness of the security measures in place limited and their gains tactical as long as improving the economy, creating employment opportunities, and heeding to the needs of the citizens are not a priorities.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

The Libyan Hobo

A van belonging to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center and transporting one of its most serious mental patient was involved in a serious accident, early morning, Wednesday, September 23, 2009, in the Turtle Bay neighborhood, just around the corner from the United Nations headquarters. No injuries were noted, but the patient, who is said to be suffering from psychiatric comorbidity and excessive manifestations of hubris, escaped. He was later spotted at the United Nations Assembly lecturing world leaders to sleep.

All joking aside, there is a reason why it took Qaddafi, the king of kings, the leader of leaders, the imam of all Muslims, forty years to finally step before the United Nations Assembly, He wasn’t ready. Based on today’s speech, he still isn’t. During his ninety-five minute diatribe, flailing yellow pages on which he had scribbled notes, he ranted about the security council calling it a “terror council,” advocated his perspicacious political solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, lamented the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King and shared his hunch they were caused by conspiracies, then tossed a copy of the U.N. Charter like a Frisbee, and purported the swine flu is a military or a corporate weapon. He called the U.S. President “our son.” Reinforcing the belief that dictatorship is genetically ingrained in Africans, he called for Obama to be a president for life. At one point, he admonished the audience for not paying attention to his speech asking them if they were jetlagged; he proposed the United Nations Headquarters be relocated to Libya or China. He concluded by promoting his website. Qaddafi himself looked exhausted, which is understandable since he couldn’t find a place to pitch his tent; he was turned down by major hotels and real-estate agencies in New York. Not even the Charles Gay Assessment Shelter would take him in. I doubt the next recipient of “Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights” will be a New Yorker.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

The Naked Truth About MALI’s Eating Disorder

Photo by Spencer Tunick

I resisted commenting on the arrest of the six members of the e-group “Alternative movement for individual freedoms,” known as “MALI,” who crash-landed on reality and caused much of a bedlam in Morocco recently when they decided to eat publically during the fasting hours of Ramadan in an attempt to call for the abrogation of article 222 of Morocco’s penal code. I thought the group vain, their protest self-serving and quixotic, their initiative worthy, but their judgment poor. Their actions were those of a temerarious group of privileged youths who, despite living in Morocco, lack perspective on the social trepidations of the average Moroccan. I also thought the group lacked courage. Why call for the right of Morocco’s Muslims to disregard Ramadan if so they choose when the real issue is the right of Morocco’s Muslims to tergiversate on Islam?

Article 222, which stipulates that any Muslim who publically breaks the fast before sunset during the month of Ramadan will be punished by the law, holds within it quite a contradiction; how can a person be considered a Muslim if he decides, out of his own volition, not to fast during Ramadan, one of the five pillars of Islam incumbent on all Muslims? One has to wonder what criteria the government uses to determine the denomination of Moroccans. Is a Moroccan a Muslim by virtue of his pedigree, or his public proclamation of faith and his actions in support of its fundamental precepts? It is no wonder that some observers saw in the group’s action a stand against the flagrant hypocrisy permeating the Moroccan society. But such hypocrisy is hardly an idiosyncratic character of Morocco or Islam; all cultures and religions are hypocritical. Hypocrisy is not an inconsistency in religious theory for the quest for enlightenment is a sempiternal process. Samuel Johnson explains it best in “Rambler No. 14” when he says:

Nothing is more unjust, however common, than to charge with hypocrisy him that expresses zeal for those virtues which he neglects to practice; since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions, without having yet obtained the victory, as a man may be confident of the advantages of a voyage, or a journey, without having courage or industry to undertake it, and may honestly recommend to others, those attempts which he neglects himself.

In protesting against the prohibition of public eating during fasting hours, MALI stood against not the Moroccan government, but the majority of Moroccans. As restrictive as article 222 is, it is also protective; its drafters took into serious consideration the dormant fanatic strain inherent in Islamic thinking. If the MALI group carried out their plan to untimely break the fast publically and the police did not get involved, its members would most likely be lynched by a heterogeneous crowd whose members would regard them as “natural apostates.” Its potentially mortal actions would be justified by the prophet Mohammed ‘saying:

“Whoever amongst you sees anything objectionable, let him change it with his hand, if he is not able, then with his tongue, and if he is not even able to do so, then with his heart, and the latter is the weakest form of faith.”

“MALI” failed to realize that article 222 is in complete concordance with article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states:

In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

Indeed, one cannot advocate individual freedom without stressing the importance of individual responsibility. Embracing an ethics of unfettered individualism will cause any society to fragment. Even in the U.S., where individualism was described by Alexis de Tocqueville as fundamental to its character, the cohesiveness of society is recognized; Mormons, for instance, understood this when they acquiesced to federal and state laws prohibiting polygyny, a practice that was instrumental to the survival of the sect in the 1800s. Individual freedom does not constitute a license to contravene existing values of institutions that are designed to, not restrain an individual, but uphold the integrity of a community and maintain the civility of its members. A naked man calmly wandering in public places would be arrested in any city, be it Rabat, Paris, New York City, or Tokyo, and individual freedom would never be considered a vindicating justification.

The Moroccan authorities saw in MALI’s eating disorder an unparallel opportunity to subvert the serious efforts of those calling for legitimate reforms. It rallied political, social, and governmental entities to condemn opposition activists whom it painted as deleterious to the values and the unity of the Moroccan society. So, thank you MALI.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Are Morocco And Algeria Gearing Up For Arms Race?

On March 2008, I reported on Morocco’s purchase of 24 F-16 Block 52+ fighter jets from Lockheed Martin at a cost of $2.4 billion dollars (read it here). The purchase was in response to Algeria’s March 2006 $8 billion military and technical cooperation agreement with Russia $1.3 billion of which was allotted for the purchase of 29 single-seater MiG-29SMT fighters and six two-seater MiG-29UB fighters. Algeria terminated the contract in 2007 upon receipt of the first batch of MiG-29s which, after a technical inspection, were deemed defective and of inferior quality than stipulated. To redeem itself, Russia renegotiated the contract and offered Algeria new MiG-35 Fulcrum fighter aircraft and 16 Su-30 Flanker fighters. The Russian government also approved a $2.5 billion contract between Irkut Corporation and the Algerian government to supply the latter with 28 Su-30MKA fighters by 2010. In June 2009, The Algerian ministry of defense signed a contract with Agusta Westland, an Italian company of the Finmeccanica Group, to purchase 100 helicopters of various nomenclatures for its gendarmerie, police, and civil protection agency. The Finmeccanica Group is already committed to equip the Algerian navy with 6 AW101s helicopters and 4 Super Lynx 300 MK 130.

On September 9, 2009, Morocco was able to secure congressional approval for the purchase of support equipment and weapons for the F-16C/D Block 50/52 in conjunction with its F-16 contract with Lockheed Martin. The package is valued at $187 million and includes 28 AGM-65D Maverick missiles, a tactical, air-to-surface guided missile designed for close air support, interdiction, and defense suppression mission against a variety of tactical targets. It is developed by Hughes Aircraft and Raytheon. An F-16 can carry up to 6 Mavericks. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, a government entity that promotes military-to-military contacts in support of U.S. foreign policy and national security interests, has indicated that Morocco was also approved for the purchase of 28 M-61 vulcan cannons, a Gatling-style rotary gun produced by General Dynamics, and 60 enhanced Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) Paveway II, a laser guided bomb (LGB) that utilizes a Mk82 500-pound general purpose warhead. Additionally, Morocco requested the installation of communications, air combat pods, targeting pods, ground stations, night vision goggles (NVGs), joint mission planning systems, and radar warning receivers. This latest procurement will increase the interoperability between the U.S. and Morocco and enhance asset capabilities in bi-lateral terrorism prevention operations in the region.

Earlier this year, a Moroccan air force delegation led by Colonel M’hamed Saufi toured Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. Personnel from Morocco’s Royal Air Force are currently being trained at Luke’s and 162nd Fighter Wing airbase in Tucson, Arizona on the mission support, maintenance of F-16 and the organizational elements involved in the base operations of a fighter wing, i.e., civil engineers and fire department, communications, logistics readiness, security forces, and base services. Morocco is currently building an air force base specifically designed to support F-16 operations.

It is worth noting that, with $5.4 billion worth of arms contracts, Morocco is the third top-buyer of military hardware and weaponry in the developing world in 2008, surpassed only by United Arab Emirates, with $9.7 billion in arms deals, and Saudi Arabia, with $8.7 billion. The United States holds 70.1 percent of the arms market; its arms sales in 2008 totaled $29.6 billion. Russia comes in a far second with $3.3 billion.

Considering that Morocco and Algeria are embroiled in a diplomatic dispute over “Western Sahara,” analysts are voicing serious concerns that the two countries are gearing up for an arms race that will upset the delicate status quo balance of the increasingly bifurcated Maghreb.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

The Star-crossed Lovers

The National Action Group for Solidarity with Iraq and Palestine and its chief coordinator, Khaled Soufiani, in conjunction with other Moroccan human rights and civil activists and associations organized, on September 9, 2009, a demonstration in the heart of Morocco’s capital Rabat in support of Palestine and to protest the discernable traits of normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel. The demonstrators inveighed against the establishment of the Amazigh-Israeli Friendship Association, the selling of Israeli products in local markets, and the recent distribution of Israel Magazine by Sochepress. Mr. Soufiani, reflecting stock thinking in the Moroccan society and the Arab street in general, was quoted saying that “the normalization of relations with Israel is treason and whoever supports it is a criminal and complicit in the atrocities Israel perpetrates on the Palestinians.”

Morocco and Israel severed diplomatic relations in October of 2000 when their respective liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv were closed. However, unofficial political, economic, and non-conventional military contacts subsisted. There have been no official communiqués from the governments of Morocco and Israel on the subject. Israeli news outlets, however, have been reporting with added frequency on the growing economic and cultural relations between the two countries. Last month, the Moroccan defense attaché attended the farewell party of Israel’s military attaché to the U. S. Major-General Benny Gantz who, in July 2006, led Israeli ground forces into Lebanon; According to Sam Ben Chetrit, chairman of the World Federation of Moroccan Jewry, Mohammed VI hosted, two months ago, a high-ranking delegation from Israel which included Knesset members and community leaders. American and European journalists known to be advocates of Israel’s agenda have recently been writing overly favorable articles about Morocco in which they extolled its laicism, economic development, and advance toward democracy.

As protesters were chanting anti-Israeli slogans and burning the Israeli flag in downtown Rabat, thousands of Jews from around the world, to include Israel, were gathered in Essaouira in a Hailula pilgrimage to the shrine of Rabbi Chaim Pinto, a Jewish saint. For that occasion, the mayor of Essaouira, Nabil Kharoubi, hosted Jewish dignitaries in an official reception attended by representatives from the local government and political parties. The reception included a joint prayer. Similar Jewish pilgrimages to the shrine of Abraham Ben Zmirro, in Safi, and others throughout Morocco have been taking place since the eighties and constitute a substantial source of revenue to Morocco’s tourism industry. Last year, more than eighty organized groups travelled to Morocco to celebrate Sukkot. With this year’s Jewish high holiday season approaching, thousands of Israelis plan on celebrating Rosh Hashana, September 18, and Sukkot, October 2, in Morocco.

To tap into this market, Yambateva, one of Israel’s largest travel agencies, has announced its merger with Maroc Tours and anticipates opening its local offices in Marrakesh. The offices will be staffed by locally employed personnel and managed by Yambateva envoy David Edri.

Heeding U. S. President Barack Obama’s call for greater Arab openness toward Israel, Morocco is reported to be willing to grant a blanket airspace clearance to Israel’s commercial aviation and reopen Israel’s liaison office in Rabat. Qatar, Oman, and Egypt are taking similar measures. Without fanfare, Egypt has been refurbishing dilapidated synagogues. Just last year, when asked in Parliament about the presence of Israeli books in the Alexandria Library, Farouk Hosni, its Minister of Culture replied: “Let’s burn these books. If there are any, I will burn them myself before you.” When Elie Wiesel, Claude Lanzmann and Bernard-Henri Lévy denounced him in an articles titled “The Shame of a Disaster Foretold” published by Le Monde and called for his candidacy to the UNESCO’s cultural conciliator-in-chief to be rejected, Mr. Hosni, humbled and contrite, publicly apologized for his opprobrious words against the Jewish culture and assumed a more conciliatory tone. He has shown a degree of openness when he invited Daniel Barenboim to conduct the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, and pledged to translate the works of Israeli writers Amos Oz and David Grossman into Arabic.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Morocco: In Dire Need Of Journalistic maturity

Every time a Moroccan newspaper or magazine is banned from publication, a journalist or an editor investigated by the government, freedom of speech advocates and international media, like El Pais and Le Monde, cry wolf. They refuse to look beyond the fact that the government is “harassing” journalists and “suppressing” freedom of the media. They mount a campaign decrying the actions of the government as if they were unjustifiable, as though unethical, biased journalistic reporting were a myth.

The undemocratic quiddity of our government has been descried countless times before; It is an undeniable fact that the Moroccan government has sought to muzzle the independent media when it denounces its authoritarian practices, uncovers the suborn schemes of its elite, and calls for political accountability. Yet, when journalists who are more thrilled to see their names in print than to serve the public’s need to be informed publish information that is exaggerated and sometimes false, the authorities need to intervene. Often, when the government reacts to such conjectural and sensationalistic reporting, it is easily denied the benefit of the doubt and its actions are immediately labeled repressive and undemocratic. We forget that the mark of a free and responsible press is its obligation to stave off disinformation, especially the kind concocted by foreign intelligence services and designed to undermine Morocco ‘stability and adversely affect its economy.

When, on 26 August, the Palace, uncharacteristically, issued an official communiqué informing the nation the king is convalescing due to a viral gastroenteritis (commonly known as stomach flu), Al-Jarida Al-Oula, Al-Ayam and Al-Michaal larded the report with speculations. Al-Michaal’s front page read: THE SECRET BEHIND THE KING’S ILLNESS; Al-Jarida Al-Oula’s Bouchra Edaou, citing an anonymous medical source, reported the cause of the king’s rotavirus infection as the abuse of corticosteroids to treat asthma; her article further assumptively reported that the king’s illness prompted the cancellation of his scheduled trip to Casablanca and a Ramadan religious conference; the government requested an investigation be conducted and Ali Anouzla, the editor-in-chief of the paper, and Mrs. Edaou were promptly called in to be questioned on the source of their information. Journalists from Al-Ayam and Al-Michaal were also summoned and questioned. Based on accounts by other Moroccan journalists, the government is trying to determine if the journalists used foreign sources who might be harboring ill-designs for Morocco. I don’t see in this a government campaign to squelch dissent. Allegation on the seriousness of the king’s illness could have adverse effects on Morocco ‘stability and economy. The U.S. followed the same course of action when it investigated Judith Miller, a New York Times journalist, on her implication in compromising the identity of Valerie Plame, a covert CIA officer and the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. Miller ‘source was no other than I. Lewis Libby, then the Chief of Staff of Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby provided the information to Miller at the behest of Cheney and in retaliation to former Ambassador Wilson’s lack of support to the Bush administration’s efforts against Iraq.

The issue is not comparing outing a CIA operative and the king’s stomach flu; the issue is what constitutes national security level information. Unfortunately, in Morocco, speculation about the king’s health the way Al-Jarida Al-Oula, Al-Ayam and Al-Michaal is tantamount to divulging classified military information.

I agree that the fact remains most efforts by the Moroccan government toward journalists are to squelch dissent. And I agree freedom should be unconditional and freedom of speech should be unhindered. But I also know that ultimate freedom is chimerical and freedom of speech unbridled by a personal conscience and a sense of responsibility is detrimental to society; we cannot, under the banner of freedom of speech, say and write false allegations knowing the end result could very well be aggravating. In the U. S. for instance, the First Amendment is looked at not independently, but through the prism of the fighting-words doctrine.

You would agree, I am sure, that simply by the extent of their influence on the public, the responsibility is even greater on journalists. Disinformation is a cardinal sin serious journalists take extreme measures to avoid – assessing the source’s placement and access, qualifying his/her knowledge, validating the information.

No journalist in Morocco will deny this fact: Al-Jarida Al-Oula, Al-Ayam and Al-Michaal DO NOT have sources with the placement and access required to report the information they published on their pages. Other than what the official communiqué put forth, there is no other information available. We are left with two possibilities: either they are speculating and feeding the public misinformation, or they were being fed information by an entity which has a highly placed source within the king’s entourage. I am going on a limb here and say that the only entity with the savoir-faire, funds, and assets to run that type of operation is an established, government-run, foreign intelligence service. Some in Morocco suspect it’s Spain’s.

We don’t need self-proclaimed serious political newspapers dedicating their front pages to speculate on the king’s every sneeze and cough and divert the public’s attention from grave issues such as the recent utter failures of Morocco’s craven and politically naïve diplomats in addressing the Western Sahara issue. We need an independent media that exercises not self-censorship, but good judgment and selflessness in the conduct of their duties; one that adheres not to Delphic influences, but to personal conscience and unwavering character. Freedom is a greater responsibility; Al-Jarida Al-Oula, Al-Ayam and Al-Michaal demonstrated in this particular case that they could not strap it on and take charge. Let’s hope this is nothing more than a snag.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Zainab

Zainab Shtet photo by Alalam newspaper

I cannot imagine what the life of Zainab Shtet is like. And nor can you. Her father, Mohammed, compelled by dire financial circumstances, placed her as maid for a pittance when she was barely ten. His excuse can never abrogate his responsibility in his daughter’s unspeakable ordeal. Her employer is an affluent family of five, a husband and his wife and their three sons, living in a large villa in the swanky Al-Wahda neighborhood, in the suburbs of Oujda. The husband is a judge, an arbiter of justice, a guardian of society’s moral compass. Zainab, who is eleven-years old today, was their servant, their beast of burden, their slave. And much like when Moroccan nobility owned slaves, the dignified judge and his family thought they had the right of life and death over her.

A few days ago, Zainab was found badly injured, disoriented, and running for her life away from the family’s home. She knew not where to go, to whom to talk; she was weak and hysterical, still a short distance from her employer’s villa, when she drew the attention of passersby. They stopped her. Their eyes widened in horror and their jaws dropped to the floor when they discovered the extent of her injuries.

Zainab looked emaciated. Her body was bruised and bleeding from beatings. She was branded on her lips with a red-hot iron. She was burned with boiling oil on her chest and private areas. She was illiterate. She never experienced the joy of playing with friends. Her future was decided for her: trudge around the mill till the day she dies. And a few days ago, she almost did.

The case of Zainab is a shocking reminder of how the mentality of some members of our society is still encapsulated in a primitive time we thought was long dissolved by our civility and modern education. It is an indicator the feral violence we thought subdued still writhes beneath the surface of our perfunctory affability. For I think that, albeit Zainab’s plight was exceptional in its savagery, the unlawful employment, physical, mental, and sexual abuse of underage children is a pervasive problem in a Morocco where employing maids is believed to elevate one’s social status. The issue fronts and centers only when the insidious abuses are discovered, which often happens by sheer happenstance.

The application of the law to the facts should serve justice in this case for the facts are undeniable. However, there have been precedents in Morocco’s judicial annals where exonerations were impossible, and yet justice was never served. The Moroccan justice system is replete with decisions warped by corruption and partnership. The judge-perpetrator has already been reported trying to hound the victim’s father to settle the matter out of court. I am sure there is a gaggle of judges whose behavior in private circles does not comport with the principles of human rights and decency and who themselves employ underage children siding with him.

The father of Zainab is guilty, the judge and his family are guilty, and we as a society whose indifference exacerbates and prolongs the victimization of these children are equally accountable. Often when there is an outcry, it is too late, but the signs have been present all along and we chose to ignore them. The judge’s apathetic neighbors have been witnessing the torturers’ contemptible depredations against zainab for months; they heard her tormented cries and screams, their insults and the dastardly beatings.

I am reminded of a speech Mr. Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel gave at the White House in 1999 “The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees — not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.”

Let us not betray Zainab.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

An Ideal Moroccan According to Khalid Naciri

Khalid Naciri

Every time I listen to Mr. Khalid Naciri, Morocco’s communication Minister and the government’s official spokesperson, justifying the Moroccan government’s use of anachronistic and undemocratic laws to ban TelQuel, Nichane, and Le Monde in response to their publication of a survey – the integrity of which I find dubious – on Mohammed VI’s governance in the past decade, I feel as though I were in a dizzy bat race; I stand befuddled by his acutely cockeyed rational. He has no compunction calling for an echt democratic national debate whilst explicitly enjoining silence on the issue of the monarchic institution. Moroccans are ordered here not to voice their opinions on the king whose decisions dramatically influence their well-being on a daily basis. Is this what the Moroccan government defines as democracy? A muzzled nation precluded from voicing an opinion? It is then against the law for Moroccan citizens to send cantankerous letters to newspaper editors deploring the king’s ineffectiveness in dealing with poverty, corruption, crime, unemployment, inadequate healthcare, and police brutality. Mr. Naciri, who is fond of touting Morocco’s frenzied judicial campaign against the independent media as fair-minded and up to the standard of western democratic nations, fails to juxtapose Morocco’s monarchic institution with that of democratic nations such as Sweden, Spain and the United Kingdom where the kings and queen are respectfully regarded out of civility and not fear of reprisal. The ban starkly illustrates how putative reforms failed to expand freedom of speech despite the government’s assertions of the contrary; it is one more reminder that Morocco is a country of 35 million myrmidons expected by law to venerate and be servile to one man and his lugubrious minders. In a country where Islam is the official religion, and yet, the statutory prohibition on the sale and consumption of alcohol is not imposed by the government, one has to suspect the authorities’ enforcement of the constitution’s intransigent laws protecting the monarchy are tantamount to anthropolatry.

I am convinced that because of politicians like Abbas El Fassi, Chakib Benmoussa, Khalid Naciri, and theirs ilk’s, we will never have a serious national discussion on political responsibility, accountability, justice, and democracy in Morocco. A cynical Naceri, in an attempt to exploit a situation his government created and to further the business and political interests of his cohorts, wrote, in terms at once both defiant and conciliatory, an article in the government’s rag Le Matin painting the independent media, activist bloggers, and opposition political parties as inimical to the majority of Moroccans. He stated that Morocco is ravaged by the vociferations of a nihilistic choir undermining with negative discourse the government’s effort to modernize and democratize the nation; he hanged the independent media in effigy accusing it of irresponsible sensationalism; he postulated that Morocco is victim of intellectual terrorism. What Naciri is calling for is a blind assentiveness from all Moroccans; dissention is unappreciated by Morocco’s government. He argues that maximizing on Morocco’s potential, securing its economic advancement, and bolstering its democratization is contingent upon a monolithic approach to a national agenda. Mr. Naciri is convinced Morocco’s progress is stymied not by the rampant corruption rotting his government from within, the contractual fraud high level greedy officials commit to feather their nests, the incumbents whose commitment to the Moroccan people has faltered, or never existed, but by an independent media, private citizen bloggers, and opposition politicians who have resiliently denounced the government’s wrongdoing.

Hassan II must be chortling and cheering you on in his grave, Mr. Naciri.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

Ten Years Later …

Like most Moroccans, I remember where I was when, on 23 July 1999 and after a thirty-eight-year reign, Hassan II died. The majority of adult Moroccans today grew up enwrapped by his exalted image and compensatory grandiose achievements which engorged the nation’s media; his pictures fluttered along city streets and took a prominent place on all administrative walls to enforce his omnipresence; in hushed tones and fear, Moroccans bruited about the disappearances, the killings, the torture, the mass graves, the Oufkir family, and Tazmamert. Hassan II was a king whose knack to sustain the loyalty of his subjects by intricately balancing violence and philanthropy was legendary.

I couldn’t help thinking then that the following days were momentous for the Moroccan people. In a country where the legislative, executive, and judicial powers all rest on the fingertip of a single man, the upsetting of that balance could be the catalyst for bloody mayhem. The thought was spurred by a U.S. Department of State advisory I had read a few months back warning that in the eventuality Hassan II died, the Royal Armed Forces general commanders could deploy their troops into the streets, impose martial law, and overthrow the monarchy. The moment the passing of Hassan II was announced by the king to be Mohammed VI, whose face withstood maudlinness, many Moroccans rushed out to buy essential alimentary provisions; those who were vacationing by the seaside packed their tents, pots and pans, and rushed home. The country was braced for the worst. That night, many Moroccans bemourned the departed shedding Stockholm syndrome induced tears; most remained home listening and watching in an attempt to assimilate the unexpected interregnum.

Mohammed VI was declared king the same day his father died, but it was only when the new king’s ascension to the throne was celebrated on 30 July in Tetouan that Moroccans’ fears subsided and a feeling of hope and expectation suffused the nation. There was a yearning for a better life and expectations were high. The young king was seen as a panacea to Morocco’s socioeconomic problems and its political complexities. Unlike his cynically pragmatic father, Mohammed VI grew up to be an idealist. He was quick to reassure his newly inherited subjects of his intention to hardwire Morocco to the future through a new notion of authority and a different political bearing. He vowed to strengthen security and stability, and combat corruption and poverty; he pledged to bring the rule of law and prosperity to the country, to protect civil liberties and human rights, and to reinforce national unity. For that purpose, he dismissed Driss Basri and other key political figures closely linked to his father’s repressive regime and meticulously surrounded himself with efficient, reform-minded technocrats. In a conciliatory tone, he welcomed political opposition and directed his attention to areas of Morocco Hassan II, out of pure vindictiveness, alienated. In the headiness of that moment, the future could not have looked brighter and the blossoming of democracy seemed eminent.

Much has been written and said about the successes and failures of the policies Mohammed VI has been trying to implement since his enthronement. I am one of those who believe that more has been accomplished in the past ten years than during the reign of Hassan II. The young sovereign drafted an outline for comprehensive social and economic reforms designed to limit Morocco’s dependency on agriculture and tourism as sole revenue pillars; he ordered wide-ranging development projects such as the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), the Tangier/Med project, and the Vision 2010 project which attracted noteworthy domestic and foreign investments to the tourism sector. The ground work has been laid to spur the aeronautics, auto, and mining industries and to propel Morocco from a mere consumer to a producer. In 2004, the revised Family Code (Moudawana) and the creation of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission buoyed the prospect of democracy and attested to the king’s commitment to resolve past grievances and abrogate the political mindset that allowed “the years of lead” to happen.

Mohammed VI assigned the execution and oversight of the economic projects he wanted to see realized to government officials he appointed. To the exception of a few enterprises upon which he followed up personally, the contracts for the developmental projects were handed over to a small circle of businessmen and politicians with strong governmental ties. Moroccan politicians are heeding the advice Hassan II gave to a formation of officers after Oufkir’s failed assassination attempt; he told them:”Don’t do politics, make money instead.” Corruption has been rampant in public administrations, incumbents’ abuse of their power has been flagrant, and political coercion is common place; swaths of land allocated for touristic or industrial projects are sold below market value to select individuals, standard administrative procedures are routinely bypassed, and tax impositions associated with these projects are seldom enforced. Recently, the government of Abbas Fassi granted the Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola companies in Morocco 50 million Dirhams (6,29 million dollars), collected from tax payers, to mitigate the inflated price of sugar. According to Nizar Barak, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister in Charge of General and Economic Affairs and, lo and behold, the son in law of the Prime Minister, justified such measure as necessary to prevent an increase in the price of soft drinks. As if Moroccans could live without sugar, but not without a refreshing glass of coca cola. The past decade has been flecked with reports on similar blunders.

Of all the policies and reforms introduced by Mohammed VI, of all the projects he launched, none constitutes a more veracious yardstick for judging the democratization of Morocco than the freedom of expression and the media. The large scale fraud perpetrated by appointed government officials entrusted by the king to implement his guidance and the deleterious incompetence they exhibit in the conduct of their public functions are fodder for an independent media that blossomed in the years after the death of Hassan II when the country saw a surge in freedom of expression and the press; issues previously considered proscribed became imprimi potest. Journalist probing beneath the governmental carapace exposed the unctuousness and complacency of lowly officials and the multi-million dollar grafted dealings of ministers; they chronicled the rough-hewn tactics of a peevish-natured police force and the hardscrabble life of the majority of the Moroccans whose struggle to cope with the turbulent vicissitudes of the nation, despite the government’s hyperbolic reports on economic growth, remained unmitigated. It took the government three years to catch on. In 2002, it introduced an onerous legislation to the press code giving partisan judges larger latitude to prosecute on very general grounds political media coverage deemed contentious. Since then, numerous newspapers and magazines were amerced with devitalizing fines designed to bankrupt the publications. The government’s judicial campaign extended to private citizens such as bloggers and human rights and civil liberties associations whose members’ opinions were considered critical of official action – or inaction.

When Mohammed VI took over in 1999, he consulted with then Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi on whether he should discontinue monarchic practices, such as the hand-kissing, he assessed incompatible with his image as a modern king. Youssoufi, an USFP opposition leader who was jailed for eighteen months and spent many years exiled before Hassan II appointed him in 1998 as Prime Minister to give credence to his reforms, advised against it arguing that the kingdom is by nature ritualistic and the king’s power is expressed through citizens’ genuflection. Many have been jailed for criticizing royal members. Transgressions by the king’s family members are never addressed judicially; when Hassan Al Ya’koubi, an in-law of the king, shot in broad daylight Tariq Mouhib, a traffic police officer, for pulling him over for running a traffic light, the government intervened to protect the perpetrator and detained the wounded police officer; the case was never brought to justice. The royal family and high ranking government officials are above the law. The sanctity of the palace and the incontestability of the king’s authority as sole governor of the country are subjects the Moroccan government is unwilling to compromise. The Moroccan constitution, which vests sovereignty not in the people as it is the case in democratic nations, but in the king, is impervious to amendment and therefore incompatible with the principle of a rule by the people. The government’s unyielding posture vis-à-vis a comprehensive constitutional reform emerges as a bellwether issue in Morocco’s democratization debate. A number of foreign and local newspapers and magazines were banned for addressing the shortcomings of the government and the king in the past ten years. The French daily Le Monde in conjunction with the Moroccan weeklies TelQuel and Nichan published a survey in which 91% of Moroccans expressed favorable opinion on Mohammed VI, but were skeptical of his earnestness to address social woes such as poverty and to democratize the country. They were banned by the interior ministry. Khalid Naciri, Morocco’s Minister of Communication, explained that “the monarchy can not be the subject of a debate.”

Because the king retains exclusive governing power and he appoints all other positions within the Moroccan government, the nepotistic Prime Minister and his cabinet are not public officials; their fealty is not to the Moroccan people, but to the king. They bridle at citizens’ criticism on their failure to tackle decisively any of the issues conventionally identified as crucial to democratization. Dialectical debate is not organic to Morocco’s political culture. It is then understandable that, much like during the reign of Hassan II, in the past ten years, not one politician stood before the Moroccan people and took responsibility for government failures. The king has ultimate responsibility and the king does not account for his actions – or the actions of his representatives – to his subjects. The communal and legislative elections the government hails as a sure sign of democracy in Morocco amount to fanciful pretense. There is no political party in Morocco that can aspire to ever act on their campaign pledges without the approbation of the king. Forget democratic ascendancy.

I was sitting at a café not far from Passage El Glaoui a few days ago when I asked the chain smoking guy sitting next to me what he thought was the most important thing we achieved in the past ten years. Between two puffs he smiled and said:”We achieved nothing. They did.”

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009

The Worth of Innocence

Last Monday, a Moroccan judge in Meknes decided on the case of a twenty-three-year old man charged with molesting and raping a three-year-old girl. The perpetrator, a relative of the victim, wheedled the youngster to a secluded area on the roof of her parents’ home to perform his lascivious act on her. The girl told her mother who notified the police. The young man was arrested and the victim was examined by a doctor who validated the mother’s accusations when he found traces of the attacker ‘semen in the private parts of the victim.

For such a horrific crime, the Moroccan judge imposed a sentence of four years with the possibility of parole and a fine of 30,000 Dirhams (Approximately $3,751.00). One could only speculate as to the reason behind the leniency. Such a sentence, far from being just and hardly an exception in the annals of Morocco’s sclerotic judicial system, is an incitement to child molestation and rape. It denotes a criminal lack of understanding of the nature of pedophiles whom modern psychotherapists consider mentally sick and label as “regressed offenders” due to their degenerate social skills when interacting with other adults. Their abusive behavior stems from their thirst for power and control in relationships, easier to achieve with children than with adults. A large number of child molesters are recidivists.

By the time the offender serves his sentence, his victim will be six or seven years old, ripe for his predation once more.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009