Thriving On Fear

When, on 20 September 2008, I wrote “Erraji’s free! Who’s next at the stake?” I did not expect the infamous Moroccan justice system to be so forthcoming with the answer. The image of Yassine Belassal, a high-school senior from the suburbs of Marrakesh and an overzealous fan of the Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona, did certainly not fit what, in my mind, would be the next victim of the antediluvian system. It has now been established that in today’s “democratic” Morocco, on King Mohammed VI’s watch, government officials are on a mission to purge teenagers whose idolization of their favorite soccer teams supersedes the expected unadulterated devotion to the king.  When the judge, different than the ones who condemned Erraji and Mortada, but sporting the same retrograde mentality, meted out a one year sentence to Yassine for writing on a blackboard: Allah, Homeland, Barca (the diminutive for FC Barcelona), thus modifying Morocco’s motto: Allah, Homeland, King, he provided a glimpse of what most fear will be the future in Morocco: a relapse into its past oppressive self under Hassan II.

 

How far is the Moroccan government from rounding up its citizens because they prefer to attend a soccer game instead of lining up along the main arteries of their cities for hours under a blistering sun waiting for the motorcade of the king? How long before switching the channel when the king is delivering the Throne Day speech is considered a violation of article 41 of the Freedom of the Press?

 

The Moroccan judges seem to be marching on the beat of their own surreal cadence, from one false call to the next, one misjudgment to the next. Such is not the case. In a country where the gossamer veil of history is thickened by government censorship and authority is by devolution, the leadership fears nothing more than the emergence of a noncompliant grassroots mentality. An impetuous remark doled out in the jocular and unsparing tradition so characteristic of Moroccans could be considered politically erosive and is dealt with in the most flagrant of ways: a distressing and disproportionate jail sentence or/and a debilitating fine, delivered through the “democratically” tested processes of the judicial system. These transgressions do not go unnoticed by national and international observers; these judicial rulings, when they gain universal notoriety and paint the Moroccan regime as repressive of its citizens’ freedoms and transgressive of human rights, are rapidly rescinded by the highest levels in government. The strategic aim of the government is not to jail high school students and young bloggers, but to inculcate in Morocco’s youth the same fear and self-censorship that, during the lead years, shackled their parents.

 

These miscarriages of justice belie the claim that a democratic system is taking roots in Morocco. The foundation of a democracy is a justice system committed to the protection of the rights of citizens to voice their grievances and denounce the unfair practices of their government. And why not, exalt Barca more than anything else if so they choose.  

 A. T. B. Copyright © 2008