Maybe you did not follow this news : last Friday, Fouad Mourtada, a young Moroccan engineer, was sentenced to three years in jail and 10.000 dirham for creating a profile in Facebook with the name of Moulay Rachid, the young brother of king Mohamed VI.
The profile was created on January 15th, and remained online a few days only. In spite of the name of Moulay Rachid, it displayed the photo of Mourtada himself (but to notice that you have to know the face of the prince). The profile was closed without any mail or contact made from it. On the 5th of February, Mourtada was arrested at home, early in the morning, and very strongly questioned by the police (to the point of loosing consciousness). His family was informed on the morrow only. This family, who lives in Morocco and Canada, creates a site to support Mourtada "Help free Fouad", he is accused of fraudulence, and on the 22nd he is sentenced. His lawyer, of course, appeals the sentence.
This affair received a heavy coverage all around in the world, even on CNN, and of course a very negative one.
The sentence extremely heavy to our eyes, to the eyes of the Moroccan blogoma (blogging network), to the eyes of modernized Moroccans, who hopes for an on-going democratization of the country.
The sentence is even heavier because the law was curved and abused to make it possible, if "in the spirit of the law", there was an offense, to make it short of "violation of the sacredness of the royal family", in the details of the law, this offense, as actually committed on Facebook only, did not exist (you can find french explanation about it on the blog of a
moroccan lawyer).
On the other hand, the sentence was relatively moderated, compared to the maximum (5 years of jail) and compared to the huge fines that some newspapers have to pay (several millions of dirham, which amounts to several hundred thousands of euro), just for having printed jokes that every one repeats in the street.
More, to my greatest surprise, this sentence leaves most of Morocco totally unmoved. Speaking about it with my husband, with people who - like the vast majority of Moroccans - don't know anything about blogging, Web 2.0, because they have no access, because they lack the education, because they are not interested, because they have no time for that, because they use internet only to chat and remain in touche with the family abroad - I had the surprise to hear many people whose opinion I respect, who are no brutes nor fans of dictatorship, nor servile people accepting anything that comes from the power - some Mister Smith, so to say, I had the surprise to hear them answer "So what ?"
So what ? He knew the risks, didn't he ? You don't touch the royal family, that's all.
So what ? If he created this profile, it was to use it, and he was just prevented from doing so.
So what ? He was arrested and beaten ? Well, that happens to a lot of people, you know police here is not that soft, that's true, but we, Moroccans, neither, we are hard, and like cumin we have to be beaten to give some taste (to do something good).
So what ? And if he is not arrested, the next one will also make a profile and crook people claiming he is the prince.
So what ? He is an engineer, why did he do that ? He had a military education, he knew his risks and what he was doing.
And all these answers made me think a lot. I was shocked, I'm still shocked, by torture but I was not surprised, I know these beatings happen quite often.
It is true that the political power in Morocco is not soft. And for a long time. One hundred years ago, when a minister was fired, he was also hanged or quartered (sometimes both), and his possessions were confiscated, his family was killed or reduced to poverty, his concubines entered the harem of his follower - and that's why there are only walls in Bahia Palace in Marrakesh.
A little bit later, in the 50ies, the grandson of one of the former lords of the Atlas tried to revenge his beaten-to-death grand-father by killing the king.
And even more recently, the king Hassan II had to defend his life three times. At least once face to face with Oufkir, when it was a sheer question of survival, and kill or die.
How many of our democrat leaders had such a father ?
The king is sacred in Morocco. Sacred in the very first sense of holy.
The Mourtada affair showed that the words "crime of lese-majesty" still have their full meaning in Morocco, even when they lost it in our democracies where even the remaining kings are an "institution" subjected to the control of their citizen.
At least the meaning of strong for the Moroccan power.
You don't touch the royal family. One shows of the royal family only what it accepts to display, one says only what it agrees to be said.
One of the reasons Moulay Abd El Aziz lost his throne in the early twentieth century was some photos of him and his family, normal photos everywhere in Europe, but photos that deeply shocked Moroccans.
Obviously, this is a red line all Moroccans know.
And here comes the question of the difference between modern Morocco and traditional Morocco. Not to condemn Fouad because of modernity, because of the lack of impact, the insignificance of his act would have surprised traditional Morocco, would have been perceived as a signal of weakness.
Morocco sultans are no forgivers. The tradition know no pardon. And when this tradition is so young, only one hundred to thirty years old, forgiveness can be understood as weakness, and invitation to make worse.
I think Fouad was unlucky.
At first, his "case" happened when the police was finalizing a huge arrest of potential terrorists. Kind of situation where the ones "who know" prefer to check everything thrice.
Second, Fouad is born in Goulmima. There are in Morocco tenants of secularism and democracy, which is, in other words, end of royalty. They are mostly found in "bled siba" the former rebelled part of the country, never really submitted before colonization, and Goulmima is a stronghold of this country.
How can you say that ? To come from Goulmima would be the same as to be son of an IRA militant. Signal for defiance. Maybe Fouad has nothing to do with them, but his origin was a negative point, specially in Morocco, when tribes and local links are still a reality.
The worse for Fouad was that everyone spoke about him. A news too quickly issued by the local News Agency - M.A.P. - retired a few hours later, but too late, the whole Moroccan web and Facebook was in fire.
We will never know the reasons, why was this news issued, may be a policeman too happy and proud to have found the "big fish" and to get promotion (and specially in competition with his colleagues chasing terrorists ?), before realizing his mistake and withdrawing the news.
But that was too late. At the very moment Fouad became a celebrity on the web, at the moment pressure was put on the power, it was impossible to change and free Fouad, once the crockery proved to be false.
It is difficult to understand what it means to govern a country where more than 50% of the population is illiterate. In our world, not to read nor write is the exception. Someone who can't read receive many information all around from the 90% of the people having access to written sources.
More and more I know the traditional Morocco, more and more I realize the deep, very deep ignorance, one difficult for us to conceive, one which led witches to the bonfire only three centuries ago (the last witch sentenced to death was killed in 1827 in Switzerland). An ignorance that gives tremendous possibilities to those with a little bit more knowledge to manipulate people all around.
Sometimes, when I'm asked questions, because "I know so many things" I can't believe them. The last one was in Ouarzazate, from someone who has a good job, who reads and write, and asked earnestly whether it was true that some children slept for years in the womb of their mother before birth.
A few days ago, in M'semrir, not too far away from Goulmima, in this rebelled country, students triggered the inhabitants to demonstrate against the power and burn a Moroccan flag. But they courageously disappeared during the demonstration. One can find everyday on the web insanities, insults, obscenities and filth that would send anybody in the court in our countries, and they would get a very heavy fine. In Morocco, a fine that cannot be paid by the vast majority of the population, is called jail.
As soon as the "Mourtada case" was known all around the world, it was unthinkable to go back, it would have meant erasing the red line.
Fouad is surely innocent of anything real, and even if he "committed" something, this little something is very benign. In our eyes, it is a indignation to beat up and jail someone for this "nothing". Moroccan law is based on French law, and nobody should be jailed, nor sentenced on intentions, but on facts.
But we, we are no Moroccans, we are not the majority of traditional Moroccans. If the majority of a country accepts and understand this sentence, this is this majority that should evolve. And that can happen only with education and work, and bread.
That was Brecht who said "at first, food, then morality".
30% of Moroccans live under the poverty threshold of 2 dollars a day. And many of them are able of any kind of crockery to earn a few coins.
To this population belong the children who stone the tourists, when they don't accept to give a dirham or a euro. And the only solution to stop them is a heavy intervention of Moroccan police, beating them (and sometimes their parents).
That's a pity.
But that's the way it is.
This are changing.
Slowly.
A child is educated by school, of course, but not only, he is educated by his parents and if grand-parents. He receives their tradition.
You need more than ten years to change the mentality of a country.
Mohamed VI implemented a legal frameset in the field of family and women status, which is nearly a revolution. He destroys shanty towns, he fights against ignorance, he tries to develop his country, as quick as possible.
As possible.
And he also keeps the justice of his country free, because it maintained security and stability up to now.
He stopped the exactions of his police, and they have lost the power they had under Hassan II.
This week-end, as I was indignant, Moroccans told me "OK, you free him, and then? Others will believe they can do whatever they want. You want us to be attacked here like in Tangiers? You want Morocco to be like Algeria, with bombs?3
But those who say that are only some Moroccans. The country is not homogenous, and the difference between the three kind of people, westernised ones, middle-class ones and traditional ones is larger and larger, and more and more difficult to manage.
The amount of water you can put into a barrel is determined by the lower plank. Here in Morocco, the lower plank are the people who find the sentence of Mourtada normal. People who will also go to jail for years when they cross the red-line.
For example, five years in jail for illegal CD copy. That's also very heavy. A man of 95 years died in jail a few days ago, he was said to have insulted the king. For these people, it would be deeply unfair that Fouad escapes jail because he is educated.
In Thailand, insulting the King means ten years of jail. Grass is always greener in another field, and also dryer in a third one.
Countries that wanted to evolve too quickly paid a heavy price for it, like Iran.
Countries that entered democracy in one day, without learning it, quickly fall back into dictatorship, like Russia.
Morocco follows a difficult and dangerous path. I often have a picture in my mind, of the king like a ninja warrior doing the splits between to cliffs going apart, and only the strength of his toes keep them together.
Moudawana (personal status for women) was a huge leap towards modernity, Mourtada of the sentence of the "homosexuals of Ksar El Kebir" is a leap towards tradition.
I am shocked by the "Mourtada affair", I am even more shocked by the poverty and ignorance of a large part of the Moroccan population. Which is the source of the Mourtada case.
The most important fight in this country is not the one of bloggers afire for the "first blogger jailed in Morocco" (which is technically false, Fouad had no blog but a profile on Facebook). The most important battle is against ignorance.
Fouad's family showed a good expertise in Internet buzzing and was mocking a policeman who asked Fouad "why did you create Facebook?". This is a good demonstration of the overall ignorance of modernity, Web 2.0 ... and what would have "Mr Mohamed-Smith" understood or not of it.
Want to have an idea exactly where each photo was taken ? 
