Sunday 22nd March around 1am, the people of the following cities : Tangier, Fes, Salé, Ksar El Kebir, Tetouan and possible other ones have witnessed a peculiar event that nobody was expecting ; some particular Salafist groups have gathered in the streets to contribute to this crisis by shouting islamic phrases such as “Allaho Akbar” and shahada.
This act is a true testament of ignorance, stupidity and irresponsibility. Not only do they put their lives at risk but they also put the lives of their families and the whole population’s at risk, in some ways they destroyed what the government and its people have been trying to do for the past weeks.
When people witnessed this event and rumours have started to fester, the reactions seemed to be very hostile which is very normal since they’ve threatened the security of the whole state. But as time went by, we noticed people calling for capital punishment for these people, calling for violence and torture, calling for their imprisonment (knowing that imprisonment would be also regrouping many people under one big roof and it’s a very paradoxical response but let’s not get into that).
I’m not one to be the devil’s advocate but I do have some thoughts to share about these people; you all must understand that these people come from a very specific class in our Moroccan society, that they’re ignorant and uneducated, that in their minds, they mean well and they believe that they’re contributing somehow to the crisis.
Let’s not forget that these people don’t have the same access to information like we do, they don’t have the food and the comfort that we have. It’s not their fault that they were shaped to react like this amidst all the chaos, they’ve existed prior to the virus and the government rarely reacted face to these groups of people.
What happened last night was simply minority Islamic salafist groups demonstrating ignorance in the name of God and Islam, which was utterly irresponsible and foolish. However, what’s even more petrifying than this act itself is the reaction of the Moroccan people as a whole, people from these cities, especially Tangier, are getting harassed and bullied relentlessly on different platforms of social media. People sharing the pictures of POTENTIAL people who contributed to the demonstrations in order to facilitate the authority’s work, as if the authorities rely on Facebook for their work, as if there is any legitimacy to those facebook posts, I’m certain that some of the young boys who appeared on those posts have absolutely nothing to do with everything that happened. And all of sudden, their pictures are swarming on the internet without considering how badly that could actually affect and target them.
Not to mention the racist and xenophobic jokes spread all over twitter, Instagram and Facebook, people over sharing the video of The King Hassan II and when he called a certain groups of people who revolted against the system “Apaches” or “أوباش” without realizing that it was targeted to the people of other cities that do not include Tangier, also calling them “Zwamel” and contributing to a very hostile narrative not only against Tangier people but also against Moroccan homosexuals. You can tell how much people are hostile towards one region to another and how much hostility and hatred was in stored for it to be unleashed mercilessly like this.
What happened here is a very similar thing that happens to the people of African American as well as Latino communities in America, when an individual of colour commits a crime and then everyone turns against that community. Not knowing that there are countless of factors to that ignorance and many layers beneath those demonstrations.
Personally for me, the true ignorance is the reaction of the people to those demonstrations, calling for violence and torture not knowing how atrocious those acts are, requesting the government to seek those methods is purely inhumane and ignorant. Not everyone has food in their homes, not everyone has same the luxuries and comfort, violence is never the answer and shame on you if you called for it.
Stupidity and ignorance are in some particular contexts uncontrollable.
These people do not comprehend the virus and its grave danger quite yet, instead of insulting, harassing, making the most racist and xenophobic jokes, calling for violence, and sending ignorant WhatsApp audios, how about you consider spreading some useful information, how about you work on your patriotic speech and include everyone when addressing this pandemic?
On final thoughts, on these dark times, one must understand that chaos is scarier and far more dangerous than the virus itself, that we’re all in this together, all regions and all of the people. And that we should all think before we post as well as publish false and hostile narratives. And most importantly, don’t forget to wash your hands.
Side note: The fight against Covid-19 needs science, awareness and unity, not stigma, xenophobia and violence.
Opinionated 