Africa Review
View of the Chamber of deputies in Rabat. Demands of secularism in the country have been ignored for years. Photo | FILE |
By ABDERRAHIM EL OUALI Posted Wednesday, November 23 2011 at 09:38
When he decided to publicly express his views about Islam, Kacem El Ghazzali had no idea that he was going to be beaten up and his life threatened. In spite of this, he continues his fight from his country of asylum for the freedom of faith in the Islamic kingdom of Morocco.
Kacem El Ghazzali called the international community last year to intervene to end Sharia law in Arab and Muslim countries. A preacher in a mosque incited Muslims to kill him.
El Ghazzali, who was a student, received threats through e-mail and phone. Later, he was severely beaten by other students and administrative staff of his secondary school. Human rights activists then organised a campaign of solidarity with El Ghazzali, who was finally given political asylum in Switzerland in April.
El Ghazzali, who was born and brought up in Meknes, 230 km northeast of Casablanca, received a deep religious education from his father, who wanted him to be an Imam. Paradoxically, the young El Ghazzali saw religion as “a philosophy of persecution and oppression that throws all questions out of our galaxy.”
The “modern and democratic” Morocco did not tolerate such views made public by El Ghazzali on his blog, despite the official policy of openness. Freedom of religion, although guaranteed by the constitution, is still far from being so in the life of Moroccans.
Marginalised
The Moroccan penal code imposes up to three years’ imprisonment on a person who “destabilises” the faith of Muslims in the kingdom. In fact, Moroccans who are born Muslim but adopt another religion or atheism fall under this category.
The winds of the Arab Spring were unable to bring about a separation between politics and religion in this North African country of 32 million inhabitants. Islam, in the latest constitution, approved July 1, continues to be the official religion of the State.
Demands of secularism were raised during the uprising dubbed the Movement of February 20th, but “the arrival of Islamists in the movement ruined the scene and has limited these demands before putting them completely aside,” El Ghazzali told IPS.
