My (very) late response to Doga

People who know me irl, know that I can be very, very lazy.
Now it’s time that you know that as well!

I promised to respond to this post at eatbees’ blog and to the question in general of why I’m afraid of the PJD coming to power.
I made that promise a long while ago. Sorry!
Anyhow, better late than never. Right?

First of all, I have a firm believe that religion and politics should be separated. That no religion or religious community should gather and form a political party. Hence my allergic reactions when somebody mentions the CDA, CU or SGP or confesses to be a member of it. (CDA, CU and SGP are the Christian parties in the Netherlands. Combined they have 49 parliamentary seats out of 150)
Those parties have an ideology based on the Bible. They strife to implement their ideology and policies on a national level. Thereby, indirectly, enforcing a (moderate) religious lifestyle on the rest of the population.
And I don’t digg that. I want abortion, condoms, prostitution, blasphemy, homosexuality, premarital sex, divorce and euthanasia for all.
If you have moral objections to it, fine, but as a mature individual you are perfectly able to follow your religious lifestyle without needing laws to help you with it.
Of course, a religious party isn’t per se repressive on all those subjects. The CDA has homosexual MP’s, showing that there are gradations in religiosity between religious parties. And not all non-religious parties are in favor of a free lifestyle.

Now, let me get back to the PJD. In my opinion the PJD is a party that is heavily and totally influenced by religion. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The party really tries to give itself a moderate image. Some members even try to compare the party to the Turkish PJD and claim that we shouldn’t be afraid.

But are they really that moderate? I don’t think so.
Let me give you some examples of some radical, xenophobic, homophobic and fanatic rants of the PJD. And then you can decide if you want to call them “moderate”

• 2000: Abdellilah Benkiran verbally abuses a female journalist who dared to wear a t-shirt with short sleeves in parliament.
• Editor-in-chief Lhassan Sarrat of the Attajdid newspaper, close to the PJD and considered as a mouhtpiece of that same party, sees the Asian tsunami as Gods punishment for homosexuality, sex tourism and child trafficking
• In 2005, MP’s of the PJD claim that a music festival held in Marrakech is used as a pretext to convert people to Christianity
• March 2003, the PJD, its mouthpieces and other islamist nutjobs launch a witch-hunt against everyone who wears heavy-metal shirts and listen to heavy metal music. They are considered to be devil-worshippers
• 2006: PJD asks the government to ban the movie Marock because of obscenity (Marock depicts the on-the-ground reality of upperclass Moroccan youth)
• 2003: The PJD wants the government to control foreign cultural centres so that they can not spread “immoral values” (later this statement is changed into: “we want the cultural centres to implement islamic principles”.)
• In 2004 PJD hotshot Ahmed Raissouni claims that music festivals are “sites of debauch and homosexuality”

And we can go on and on and on…..
But still, they call themselves moderate. I wonder what moderate means to them? Does it mean to enforce their lifestyle on the rest of the population? Does it mean that everyone who doesn’t want to wear a headscarf or wishes to listen to Slipknot is a homosexual, immoral, unislamic, convert and an outlaw free to be prosecuted by them?

PJD prides itself on the fact that it believes in democracy. That it wants to participate in a democracy. Well, we have to applaud that.
But I’m afraid that the PJD doesn’t fully understand the concept of democracy and all what comes with it.
Democracy rests on 2 pillars: majority rule and minority rights
Democracy doesn’t mean that one can oppress others, simply because they gained a majority or they believe they represent a majority. Democracy doesn’t mean that 1 victorious party should enforce its principles on the country’s minorities.
No, democracy means that a majority can rule a country but that it has to respect and protect the civil liberties of the different minorities.
The PJD seems to forget that in its campaigning and image-editing.

I fear that once the PJD wins the upcoming elections, they will ignore those parts of democracy that aren’t suitable for them (even if they are in a coalition government)
They showed us that they really don’t care that much about the civil liberties of others. They showed us that when they weren’t “in charge”. How will they act when they are “in charge”?

I also fear the reaction of the king and his royal cabinet when the PJD comes to power and starts to implement their ridiculous policies.
The king, who wishes to create an image of Morocco that is liberal/open/tolerant, will surely react in a non-democratic way. Of course, the king’s reaction won’t be something new. Moroccan kings have always reacted strangely and pushed the “democratic” government to the sideline, to implement their own policies. Couscous-democracy, is what I like to call it.
But until now, this happened with (nominal) secular parties in power.
Surely, the reaction of the king will be different when it comes to having an Islamist party in power?

I only hope that when the PJD wins the elections (and this is likely to happen), the king and other parties will react in a normal, civilized way.
It’s not likely that the PJD will govern alone, they have to seek a coalition. I hope that the other major parties will have some sense and guts to confront the PJD when it comes to their “social policies”

An electoral PJD-victory makes the future of Morocco look a bit darker. A bit of courage, opposition and vigilance is all we need to make that future look bright again.

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.

Daba (Now)

Through the blog of AbdouKamel I found this interesting site of DABA (Now)

Daba is an organization that aims to make politics interesting for women and youngsters and encourage them to participate.
They aim to break the political scene open for the youth and women, and hope that during the next elections (Sep. 2007) the voting-participation amongst this 2 groups will be higher.

Anyhow, you can read more on their site if you want more and precise information.

It is actually a very good initiative. They seem quite open and approachable. Which is unique in the Moroccan political sphere.
They hope to achieve their goals through an extensive multimedia-campaign and by touring the country.
All the major political parties (incl. the PJD) seem to be their target.

As an armchair-activist I like to criticize but in this particular case I couldn’t come up with any criticism. (believe me, that’s unique!)
I just hope that they’re going to survive.
I know how hard it is for an initiative like this to stay active and “fresh”. The old political scene, in almost every country, seems to have a strange dislike for everything thats young and/or female. Resulting in the decay of the organization (especially if you don’t have strong backers)

I was wondering if any of you met them? Or saw the tv-ads of Daba?