Le Monde.fr : Maroc: Diffusion interdite d'un hebdomadaire pour atteinte à l'islam
The Palace Crackdown
Le Monde reports that the Moroccan government has taken a step away from free speech by confiscating an issue of the magazine Nichane ("Straight") for having the temerity to print jokes about "religion, sex, and politics." Most particularly, the Palace deemed the publication to have launched an "attack against Islam" and to have published writings contrary to "public morale and morals." The royal prosecutor has launched an investigation into the publisher and the journalist Sanaa Al Aji.
The American Contrast
Regardless of what idiots like Newt Gingrich believe, the First Amendment is the essential linchpin of American Democracy. Central to the First Amendment are the ideas that the government will not restrict freedom of expression and that the government will not support one religion over another. Obviously, I have not seen the jokes in question, but even if they were of the most extreme and inflammatory sort, they could be published in America without prior restraint. (Even in this dark age, jokes in print are unlikely to be considered "incitement" outside of First Amendment protection.) In this sense, unlike so many others, alas, America is a beacon to the world, and Morocco will not be a true democracy until it adopts similar principles. After all that Islam has survived, it will survive a few jokes.
The Erosion of the American Example
Of course, in the Age of Bush, nothing is straightforward. Now that prosecutors are subpoenaing journalists in the Plame affair, threatening them with prosecution in the AIPAC scandal, and otherwise making noises about prosecuting journalists if they are in receipt of "state secrets, the bloom may be off the First Amendment rose even in America.