In September 2009, during the month of Ramadan, a group of young Moroccan activists planned an outdoor lunch to protest religious coercion in their country. The initiative, publicized through Facebook, provoked insults and death threats from Islamists. The picnic itself never took place because the protesters were intercepted by police who dispersed them. Some of the organizers were arrested, and are now facing prosecution.
The Moroccan French-language weekly TelQuel devoted three articles to the initiative. One of them, by the paper's editor Ahmed Réda Benchemsi, condemned the radicalization of Moroccan society and the tolerance of the authorities towards the Islamists, arguing that the regime is fostering extremists who will one day threaten its existence.
Following are details and excerpts from the TelQuel articles.[1]
A Picnic to Protest a Law Contravening Religious Freedom
TelQuel reports that in late August 2009, activist Zineb El Rhazoui Ibtissam created a Facebook group called Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties (MALI),[2] whose declared aim was to defend individual freedoms, including religious freedom. The group's picnic, planned for September 13, was meant to be a protest against Article 222 of the Moroccan penal code, which makes it a crime for Muslims to eat in public during Ramadan.[3] The participants were to meet at the Mohammedia train station (between Rabat and Casablanca), and gather in a nearby forest where all of them – fasters and non-fasters alike – would discuss freedom of belief in a peaceful atmosphere.
The announcement on Facebook triggered numerous hostile responses, including insults and death threats, such as, "We know what you look like, we'll come and kill you."
Moroccan News Agency: The Protesters Will Be Prosecuted
On the day of the picnic, the police stationed forces at the meeting place to prevent the protest from taking place. One of the protesters reported: "There were regular police, [but also] auxiliary forces, [policemen on] motorbikes, the secret service … and even the mounted police!" The Spanish daily El Mundo reported the incident under the sarcastic headline "Morocco: 100 Police Officers Against 10 Sandwiches."
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The next day, the Moroccan news agency MAP (Maroc Agence Presse) reported that "The Moroccan initiators of this event, who encouraged [people] to violate the fast in public, will be prosecuted..." The conservative Moroccan press published photos of Zineb El Rhazoui and her friends with captions like: "A juvenile provocation or an attack on Islam?"; "They are alien to our [society]"; and "The new apostles of fitna [i.e., internal strife]."
Even Moroccan officials responded to the affair. The king's advisor, Mohamed Moatassim, called on the leaders of the major political parties to firmly condemn the picnic initiative. A fast-food restaurant placed a sign on its door saying, "During Ramadan, only children and non-Muslims adults will be served."
The Police Tried to Present the Protest as a Plot Directed from Spain
One of the protestors, named Nizar, told TelQuel that after his interrogation the police urged him to sign a false statement saying that a Spanish journalist had encouraged him and the other activists to violate the Ramadan fast. "They invented stories to support the theory of a plot directed from Spain, and wanted to put them all in my mouth," he said. Nizar refused to sign, but after four days of questioning, his friends did sign the false statement.
The Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) and Moroccan Human Rights Organization (OMDH) defended the activists, and the international organization Human Rights Watch called on the Moroccan authorities to drop the charges against them.
TelQuel Editor: The Regime is Defending the Intolerant Masses Who Will Eventually Threaten Its Existence
TelQuel editor Benchemsi wrote: "Our society is becoming more and more religiously coercive and violent, both morally and physically… However, alongside the mainstream, [there has emerged a liberal] minority, which since the early 2000s has learned to make itself heard. These defenders of individual freedoms present an alternative model…They include members of the intelligentsia, but also professionals from the fields of media, art and music, and social activists (more educated or less educated urban youth, members of the Internet community, and... human rights activists).
"These people are indeed a minority, but they are not keeping a low profile. Instead, they are bravely ignoring the pressure of their surroundings, [and daring to] live more and more freely without worrying about how others see them. Having freed themselves from family guardianship, they do not fast [on Ramadan] and do not conceal this fact. They lead a free and guiltless sex life, debate [issues of] secularism and identity, and criticize the regime's lack of democracy… [But instead of supporting them], the authorities… align themselves with the stronger camp: the intolerant masses that will eventually threaten [the regime's] existence..."
Endnotes:
[1] http://www.telquel-online.com/391/couverture_391.shtml, http://www.telquel-online.com/391/edito_391.shtml, http://www.telquel-online.com/390/actu_maroc3_390.shtml, September 2009.
[2] In French: Mouvement Alternatif pour les Libertés Individuelles.
[3] The law states: "Any [individual] known to belong to the Muslim religion who publically violates the fast during [the month of] Ramadan without [proper] religious grounds will be sentenced to six months' imprisonment and to a fine of between 12 and 120 dirhams."
