Moroccan Hezbollah in Germany

Ok, this has to be the weirdest news-item I have read in a very long time.

According to the MEMRI-blog, an Algerian parliamentarian revealed the existence of a Moroccan “Hizbullah Party” in Germany.
He revealed it to the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. I checked the site of the latter but couldn’t find anything, but that’s mainly because the site is only being updated once a day or so.

But it still seems strange that an Algerian parliamentarian reveals this, don’t you think?
I hope to read the article sooner or later. I’ll harass the Arab newsagent tomorrow (he always keeps old copies of the last few days somewhere in his shop), otherwise I’ll just read it online when the site is finally updated.

Laila Lalami & Marvin Howe

Ooh, I’m so excited!

I just ordered books from Amazon for the first time! I actually feel very dirty now. You see, I got this phobia when it comes to online shopping.
I love bookstores and every weekend I go through the shelfs of Waterstone’s or Foyles (the largest bookstores in London), usually leaving with a book or two. It is comfortable, you can skim through the books and you can smell the books ( I got this tic that I have to smell a book a couple of times before actually buying it)

So I felt like I betrayed my dearest habit when I ordered “Hope & Other Dangerous Pursuits” of Laila Lalami and “Morocco: the islamist awakening and other challenges” of Marvine Howe.
But I’m so excited now, I might harass the receptionist/night guard downstairs continuously to see if the books already arrived.

I hope the books smell nice!

The world capital of the 21st century

According to New York Magazine, London is supposed to be the capital of the world.

The city is young, there are a lot of immigrants/expats, financial services are booming and the culture scene is impressive.

According to the magazine it comes down to this “In short, New York is cardiganed Woody Allen and London is party-dressed Lily Allen.”





The skyline of London (some buildings still have to be realized)



Well that’s very, very nice. I mean living in a world capital, only 10million others can say that!

But its not all glamour, party and Lilly Allen. It’s tough, tough I tell you!

I have to move out in 2 months (2nd of June) and so I have to find a new apartment. And that proofs to be really difficult.

I did some viewing today and it was really disappointing. One apartment looked downright infested with I dont know what. The other one wasn’t even in London I think.

I don’t have a lot of wishes, I’m very easy. But I don’t want to travel 1 hour or more. It’s time-consuming, really expensive and smelly (the tube here is disgusting!)



But it just looks like that I have to settle with a shabby apartment somewhere in a shabby suburb, travelling in a shabby transport-system.

“Party-dressed Lily Allen” my *ss!



The already legendary NY vs London issue of NY Mag:

http://nymag.com/guides/TOC/london/

Reply to a Syrian homosexual

Dear Lina,

I read the interview you had with Esra’a from Mideast Youth a couple of times. And every time I read it, I had mixed feelings.
First of all, I want to say “well done!” and I admire you. It takes a lot of courage and strength to come out as an Arab homosexual. Especially when you still live in the Arab world.
You risked your (social) life to be yourself and free. I can only applaud that.

But as I said, I had mixed feelings when I read your interview. Disappointment, sadness and confusion were those other feelings. Don’t take the following as an attack. You can say and believe whatever you want. But I just want to show you some contradicting comments/remarks you made.

You seem to take a very harsh stance towards other gays who encounter the same prejudices you encounter in your daily life.
You say you don’t agree with homosexuals who like to cross-dress and you even qualify it as “not very normal”
You clearly still fight against the concept of “normal” that is enforced by religious and conservative maniacs but in the meantime you, the “victim” of prejudice, turned into an aggressor by stating that there are limits of what is to be considered normal for gays!
Can’t you see that you’re making the same basic mistake as those religious/conservative maniacs? You’re, in a way, siding with them by saying that what cross-dressers/feminine gays do is not normal. Those maniacs want to enforce their own limits of normal, which they base on their own irrelevant feelings and fairy tales, to create an atmosphere where people are the same without room for any diversity.
You’re trying to do that as well. You’re trying to use your own concept of what you consider to be “a normal gay” to decide what is “good” and what is “bad” gay-activism.
You say that you “want to see people to open their minds and accept humans in all their colors, preferences and forms.”
Shouldn’t start with opening your own mind and accept other kind of gays?
We will never see a less homophobic Middle East if we keep on battling amongst ourselves on what is normal and what not.

Another point of critique is about your last comment. You don’t encourage other Arab gays to come out because you lost your family and others lose their lives.
First, let me tell you that we kind of share the same story. I too got rejected and kicked out of my family house when I came out. I too found a caring family that treats me as their own.
They protected me from the harassment and threats from my own family. And now their funding my education in a foreign country.
But eventually I’m happy with how things went. I’m free and independent to explore and dictate my own course of life.
It is of course a horrible feeling to live without your own family but that is the price we pay.
I encourage other Arab gays to come out as well. We should realize that we will never get accepted if we stay in the closet because of fear.
Coming out is the first step in the whole process of being accepted by our society.
Our stories (of the ones who did have the guts to come out) should be an encouragement for others to come out.
We are the proof that it is possible to be gay, arab, muslim and alive.

cross-posted on Mideast Youth

Idiotic German judge

It can’t get worse than this, right?

A German judge refuses a “fast” divorce for a Moroccan woman, because the Koran allows domestic violence. Domestic violence being the reason why the woman wanted a divorce.
Link

I always feel so happy and secure when non-Moroccan/non-muslim people decide how I should interpret and live according my cultural background.
It’s just a little dark side of apologetic multiculturalism. It just happens from time to time.
Fueling anti-immigrant/anti-muslim tensions and ignoring the fact that most Moroccans just want to live according to the law of their country of residence.

Viva el multiculturalismo!

Interview with a Syrian homosexual (reading tip)

Esra’a of Mideast Youth just posted an interview she had with a Syrian lesbian.

It is really interesting, since it is a good example of how Arab LGBT (with life-experience in the Middle East) perceive gay-activism and homosexuality.

I was planning to write a more extensive blog-post about it today, but I love procrastinating and siesta-ing.
But expect it to show up here somewhere around Friday/Saturday

Link

TV-news

Finally a seperate Star Academy for the Maghreb-region!
I was getting fed up with all those contestants from Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. At a sudden moment they all start to look like each other.
I do hope that more big (Arab) shows come with their own Maghreb-version.
I mean, we áre a little bit different.

Another bit of tv-news is the little uproar in the Netherlands about the decision to replace RTL7 (one of the most boring Dutch tv-channels) in the Amsterdam cable-tv package with Rotana Music.
According to the body responsible for the distribution of cable airtime (or whatever you call it in English), RTL7 is performing very bad in the Amsterdam region. So they decided to replace it with Rotana Music because of the big Arabic speaking population of Amsterdam.
Stupid decision. First of all, there is no big Arabic speaking population in Amsterdam. Unless you count the 1500-strong Egyptian community as big. The biggest community from the MENA are the Moroccans. Most of them speak a Imazighen language or Darija. 2 languages you hardly ever hear on Rotana.
Second of all, every self-respecting Moroccan household has a satellite-dish. So they already receive Rotana.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. I want E! TV or the Fashion Channel. Not Rotana!

Blanco voting and the next elections

Through this post of Xoussef and this post of Moonlight , I stumbled upon this editorial of Ahmed Benchemsi of Telquel.

Benchemsi advises people to vote blanco during the next elections. According to him it’s the only relevant choice during the elections. He predicts that the “blanco vote”-party would be one of the biggest winners.
It would wake up the political elite of the country and cause a change in the Moroccan politics.

I kind of understand his point of view. Blanco voting is usually a very good way of showing your disillusion with the current political state.
But I’m wary of the consequences this may have in the upcoming elections.
It’s almost certain that the PJD, the islamist party, will be the only winner during the next elections.
Other mainstream, (nominally) secular parties are facing a major defeat.

And for some reason, I don’t believe that the blanco-voter is the same as the PJD-voter. A blanco-voter is usually not a member of a grass-root movement like the PJD. Otherwise they wouldn’t vote blanco (correct me if I’m wrong)
The people who would vote blanco are usually the people who used to vote for traditional parties (in this case the (nominally) secular parties of Morocco)
In other words, a blanco vote equals a vote for the PJD. The electoral victory of the PJD will seem even bigger.

I wonder if Benchemsi knows what the full impact is of a blanco vote.
The main reasons why he advises a blanco vote are political and democratic change. Are these changes possible if only 1 party wins the elections with a very large majority?
Is it possible to achieve democratic changes if the ruling elite is shellshocked by its loss and introduces undemocratic measures to do some damage-control (something that is bound to happen)
Benchemsi really must see the PJD as a political party that wants to achieve democratic and political change for áll the Moroccans. Instead, the PJD is a party that wants to turn Morocco into a more conservative, religious, closed country.

I actually doubt it that Benchemsi really wants to see the PJD as the only victorious party during the next elections. I also doubt it that he believes that the PJD is the only motor behind political and democratic changes.
Instead, I think that he just made a remark without really understanding what the true impact of it is.

On post-frequency, homesickness and 60’s pop

I try, really try to post everyday. But these days I’m just really not in the mood.
But I will force myself from now on. OK not really but I’ll try!

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I’m really homesick. So homesick, that I ate 2 jumbo-packs of Dutch chocolate-sprinkles in 1 day. Which made even more sad, because I’m addicted to Dutch chocolate-sprinkles and I can’t buy them anywhere here in London.
But I still have my Dutch smoked sausages and dried herring!

Anyhow, I’m going on a holiday to Amsterdam somewhere around the 10th of May.
Its the semifinals and finals of the Eurovision Song Contest that weekend. And as a queer I can’t miss out on that! Alcohol, finger food, bitchiness and horrible music. Thats what life is all about!

And concerning nice/horrible music. You have to download the Pipettes!
My “super-father” send me the album by post. According to him it’s 60’s girlpop pulp, and therefore typically me. I received it yesterday and I’ve been listening to it since.

Click for their Myspace

Stop the orgy of arrests

Following the suicide-attack of some egoist-islamist nutjob in Casablanca, the Moroccan government decided to have another “crackdown” and arrested 18 suspects.

Morocco has a very rich history of arresting tens of suspects at the same time.
But we damn well know that usually this is just a big show. The Moroccan government can’t expect the people to believe that all of them are actual accomplices or had something to do with the attacks.
This is just a dirty, inhuman, un-free way of working.

On one hand I’m happy with every blow the government brings to the islamist nutjobs, I prefer to see a Morocco where everybody has the right to be free. In that field Morocco is not perfect, but the current government/regime are the only ones who can make the step forward. Islamist nutjobs are only able to make a step backwards ( a couple of centuries backwards)

On the other hand, I’m against this type of mass-arrests. Arrests that will only further anger some segments of the population.
It’s not an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. Somebody needs to have the upper-hand. Don’t let the islamist nutjobs be the one.

A little bit of decent justice, won’t do anybody harm.