Technical Point

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More on Arabs and the Holocaust

First Arab Nominated for Holocaust Honor - washingtonpost.com

Khaled Abdelwahhab saved a group of Tunisian Jews by hiding them on his farm during World War II. Now, he iis the first Arab to be nominated as "Righteous Among the Nations" an honor bestowed upon non-Jews who saved Jews from the Nazis by Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the Holocaust.

Abdelwahhab was nominated by Robert Satloff, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a U.S. think tank.

Satloff said that after the Sept. 11 attacks, he went to Morocco to research what happened during the Nazi genocide in hopes of countering Holocaust denial in the Arab world and tempering some of the sentiments he thought helped pave the way for the attacks.

While the recognition of Abdelwahhab is welcome, it seems sad to me that it has come so late to so few.

Note: Although Morocco was controlled by Vichy France and not the Nazis directly, the story notes the role of Mohammed V in saving Moroccan Jews. Nomination two?

Chunneling Through Gibraltar

Morocco and Spain are engaged in serious discussions of the possibility of digging a channel tunnel or "chunnel" under the Straits of Gibraltar in order to connect Morocco and Spain by 2025, according to the Washington Post. After reading of the desperation with which immigrants try to cross the Straits clandestinely by boat now, one wonders what the implications for immigration would be, but certainly it would help to draw Europe and North Africa closer.  Of course, any improvement in the Moroccan economy as a result of more developed infrastructure can only have a positive effect on the number of desperate sea crossings.


Bad Press for Morocco

MESSAGE CENTER - washingtonpost.com

Two American women report that as tourists, they were treated much better in Tunisia than in Morocco:

Most of all, women travelers are well-treated there. As two women traveling together, we were courteously treated wherever we went: in villages as well as Tunis, in outdoor eateries, in the markets, on the streets. This was in stark contrast to our unpleasant experience in Morocco a year before, where we felt uncomfortable at outdoor cafes and men in the streets made snake noises at us.

I am curious as to whether this experience is typical, and, if so, why it might be. Unfortunately I do not know enough about Tunisia to do more than speculate, although I wonder if there is a difference in the degree of government control over the population. I get the impression that Tunisia offers an antiseptic welcome to foreign tourists because the government would crack down on anyone who gave foreigners a hard time. I do not know, however, and I would welcome any more informed commentary.

Another Blow to a Free Press

The Morocco Report: Aboubakr Jamai Resigns, Cites Unpayable Fine

Morocco Report has a good background and analysis piece on the resignation of publisher Aboubakir Jamai from the leadership of Le Journal Hebdomadaire, one of Morocco's leading magazines. Crushed under the burden of a fine in the neighborhood of $350,000, Jamai is resigning before the government starts to seize the magazine's assets, and he is rumored to be contemplating exile.

To my mind, crushing an independent press is not the best way for the Moroccan government to counter the threat of impending Islamic radicalization. In the end, education, literacy, and the free exchange of ideas is going to be the best bulwark against fundamentalism of any stripe. One is reminded of Thomas More's comment in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, that if you cut down all of the laws to get at the devil, then in the end there will be nothing between the devil and you. Then again, More was ultimately no favorite of the King.

Roundup

Moroccan bloggers react to Nichane verdict (Magharebia.com)

Magharebia has a roundup of Moroccan bloggers' reactions to the Nichane crisis. Personally, I am close to a free speech absolutist. While I do think that there should be actions in the law for slander and libel, I do not think that any speech should be criminal. And there are no "red lines" in a free society; all subjects are open to comment, including but not limited to Islam, Judaism, Christianity, the Holocaust, the King, the President, and whichever war your country is engaged in at the moment. The cure for unacceptable ideas is not government intervention, but truth and persuasion. That's why in this country we allow Nazis to march and Klansmen to rally, however antithetical their ideas are to American values and common decency.

Apology In Response to Eatbees

eatbees blog � Foreign Aristocrat

"What am I doing writing about Morocco anyway?"

Eatbees asked himself this pointed question in 2004 and continues t ask it today. It is a question I ask myself regularly.

What am I doing writing about Morocco anyway? A country where I lived once, but to which I have not returned for many years. The sheer presumptuousness is breathtaking.

"None but a blockhead would write except for money," said Samuel Johnson. Yet here I write, day after day, for no compensation except my own amusement. (Or vanity? as Eatbees asks.)

A superficial response is the typical blogger's retort: "It's my blog, and I can write what I d**n well please. If you do not like it, read something else." Ultimately, not a very satisfying answer.

More to the point, I think, is that a blog is a way to discipline myself to learn more about something that I am interested in, and hopefully to share a little bit of what I learn. I really do not pretend to be an authority, but I also think that I have learned something more with each entry I post, and with each response I get. I am thankful for the people I have met or spoken with through my blog who are more knowledgeable than I. (You know who you are!)

Eatbees asks in what coin we pay for our ringside seat at the Moroccan spectacle. I think the most genuine coin is interest, love, and respect. I hope that my blog, however inadequately, reflects those values. However privileged my position as an American has been vis a vis Morocco, I have been too often humbled to take it for granted.

Sword of Damocles

Laila Lalami | Nichane: Update

Laila Lalami weighs in on the Nichane judgment, which despite being less than the penalty sought, she characterizes as a "Sword of Damocles" over the journalists' heads. One misstep, and they could be subject to jail time. As a strategy by the palace for dealing with Islamists, she deems it a failure, a strategy more likely to encourage them than not.

Better Than Expected

The Morocco Report: Nichane Journalists Given Three Year Suspended Sentence

Morocco Report appears to break the news in the English blogosphere of the sentencing of the Nichane journalists:

Nichane editor Driss Ksikes and journalist Sanae Al-Aji were each handed a three year suspended sentence today for having published an article considered "defamation to Islam."

In addition to the suspended sentence, the magazine was banned for two months and fined 80,000 Moroccan dirhams (about $9,320 USD).

Although the sentence is lighter than that sought by the prosecutor, it is a grim portent for freedom of the press when journalists are prosecuted for reprinting popular jokes.

See also Larbi (French) and the usual brisk commentary. As one commentator points out, the real battle now is to change the press law, which dictates imprisonment over expressions of opinion.

Update: Eatbees and View from Fez have further analysis; Morocco Report says that a change in the press law may be in the offing.

Nadia Has the Scoop

Nadia's Blog (French) has a scathing description of the opening of the trial of the magazine NIchane for offending public morals by reprinting popular jokes. Nadia reports that the presiding judge played a role more reminiscent of a parent scolding children than a magistrate upholding the law. Not only does her account evoke the bias in the proceeding, but it also suggests that the majesty of the law has been forsaken for popular prejudice and political games. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand what is going on in the Nichane affair, and brava to Nadia for her courage in reporting it!

Coffee! Cafe! Qahwa!

I don't drink much alcohol anymore. Coffee, though, is another matter. I start the weekday morning with a sizable cup (20 oz.) of drip coffee, sometimes with a little half and half, from the City Place Cafe (which is Moroccan owned and operated). At lunch, I usually go to Border's and sit down with a 12 oz. cup of black coffee and a book until my lunch hour is over. In the afternoon, I go over to the Caribou and pick up a small skim latte.

On the weekend, I usually just brew up a big pot of drip coffee, but if I am feeling a little energetic, I will make French press, a latte, a cappuccino, an espresso, or even Turkish coffee (yum!). That said, I do not really pretend to be a coffee connoisseur. However, for those who aspire to connoisseurship, the Washington Post today has a guide to "cupping" beans for taste, aroma, and freshness and a guide to the best brands in the Washington area.

Even though the United States has developed quite a coffee culture in the past twenty years, thanks in significant part to the sometimes reviled Starbucks, we still do not have the rich tradition of much of the rest of the world. For a hint of how cafe culture has matured in Morocco, see Laila Lalami's Café, Anyone?

Dear Mr. Ambassador

His Excellency Aziz Mekouar
Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco
1601 21st Street, NW
Washington DC 20009, USA
Tel No : (202) 462-7979 Fax No : (202) 265-0161

Americans disappointed in Morocco's recent actions toward Nichane and Le Journal Hebdomadaire may want to drop a note to Morocco's Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Aziz Mekouar. It goes without saying that the most persuasive letter is one that is respectful of the Ambassador and the government and calmly reasoned.

Freedom of the press is a value that Americans cherish and respect in others, and one that they would like to see observed by their longtime friends in Morocco. Moreover, freedom of the press supports a healthy and stable civic society and serves to counteract extremism of every kind. Freedom of the press is not a threat to Islam, which can and will be vigorously defended in the press by Muslims and others. For these reasons, we ask that Morocco reconsider its recent actions limiting freedom of the press through the prosecution of Nichane and Le Journal Hebdomadaire.

The Impending Fate of Nichane and the Riddle of the PJD

Eatbees has a timely but grim reflection on the likely sentence awaiting Nichane journalists Sanaa El Aji and Driss Ksikes for having the temerity to publish some popular jokes that happened to mention God and the Prophet.

Eatbees also poses the following very insightful conundrum: The monarchy appears to be taking harsh measures against Nichane in order to preempt popular Islamist sentiment. The Islamist Party of Justice and Development (PJD), however, like all legal parties in Morocco, is subordinate to the king. So why do the monarchy and the political classes seem to be so panicked over the possibility of a PJD electoral victory? (Not that I think this would be a good thing, but thwarting it might be worse.)

A better approach, it would seem, would be to uphold the freedom of the press and basic civil liberties and allow the citizenry to vote freely for whom they prefer. A naive policy in the short run perhaps, but a wiser one in the long term.

Shipped to Morocco for Torture

The Imperial Presidency 2.0 - New York Times

The New York Times' lead editorial reiterates allegations that the Bush administration is using Morocco for "extraordinary rendition" and torture of terror suspects:

Mr. Mohamed was a target of another favorite Bush administration practice: “extraordinary rendition,” in which foreign citizens are snatched off the streets of their hometowns and secretly shipped to countries where they can be abused and tortured on behalf of the American government. Mr. Mohamed — whose name appears nowhere in either of the cases against Mr. Padilla — has said he was tortured in Morocco until he signed a confession that he conspired with Mr. Padilla. The Bush administration clearly has no intention of answering that claim, and plans to keep Mr. Mohamed in extralegal detention indefinitely.