allAfrica.com -- Morocco: WPFC Urges Release of Publisher
Lmrabet's case, literally, adds insult to injury because he was charged with Morocco's insult laws, obsolete pieces of legislation which date back to colonial times and provide a chilling tool for public officials to shield themselves from society's scrutiny.
I have almost reached the end of Albert Hourani's History of the Arab Peoples. Not only is the separate history of Morocco fascinating, but also the ruthless colonization of the Maghreb as a whole by the European powers. The situation in Algeria today is much easier to comprehend once one understands the extent to which the French colonizers completely subjugated the Algerian people, reserving land, wealth, education and power to themselves. My friend Rachid once said to me in Morocco: "Nous some les indiens." At the time, I did not really see the parallel to the American frontier, but the parallel is a little clearer after reading Hourani's account of the colonization of Algeria and its cataclysmic war of independence.
I am trying Movable Type with my Maghreban weblog also.