Historic Moment!!!

But also controversial. In the midst of the Israeli blockade on Gaza, this photo might spark angry protests and lead to a further deterioration of Al-Azhar in the eyes of Egyptians.

مغربي يذكر أميناتو حيدر بمغربيتها

حسن السمغوني , يحضر حفل تتويج أميناتو حيدر بجائزه كينيدي لحقوق الإنسان و يذكر الصحراويين الحاضرين بجوازاتهم المغربيه . مولود سعيد, ممثل البوليساريو في أمريكا "و الديبلوماسي " , كان يسب حسن السمغوني و يصفه بالكلب اللذي ينبح .

'Polisario Front Plans to Ride RFK Award to a PR Bonanza'

Two Moroccan-American groups, MAC and MCU,are rallying the Moroccan-American community to express their discontent about RFK Human Rights' choice of Aminatou Haidar, a Moroccan Sahrawi militant, as recipient of its yearly award. As this is a clear message sent by a well respected senator, the award per-se is revealing of the reality of activism on the side of pro-Moroccan groups:

--> I personally see that as much as it is significant for Aminatou Haidar to receive the award it is also honoring for Morocco's leapfrog in its human rights record. Aminatou Haidar is currently using a Moroccan passport to travel around the world and meet with leftist politicians and international human rights group to give her own version of the story.

--> Awarding this to Aminatou Haidar means that the Polisario militants have been working diligently to reach out to people in power, make known their activities, and may be make claims of human rights violations by the Moroccan authorities. The RFK committee did not know about Aminatou Haidar by chance; the militants must have approached the committee at least a few years ago.

--> The Moroccan-American groups are not playing a pro-active role in approaching the different segments of the American political body to give the official Moroccan perspective about the conflict, the historical ties between the Alawite Kingdom and the Saharan tribes, and Morocco's autonomy plan as the only practical and fair solution to this conflict.

Al-Massae's Financial Assets Seized

A Rabat court ordered the seizure of Al-Massae's bank account as well as its Editor-in-Chief's personal bank account, according to Rachid Nini in yesterday's editorial. He warned readers that his daily might stop print and distribution anytime and told them not to be surprised if they don't see it in the kiosks.
The court's decision seems to be the mercy bullet in the head of the most popular newspaper in Morocco, which provided a room for the average Moroccans to read about their grievances with unemployment, corruption, and poverty. Al-Massae stood out with its severe criticism for Abbas Al-Fassi's government, the closed-circle of businessmen with close ties to the Makhzen[regime], and Husni Bensliman, the very powerful head of Royal Gendarmerie and one of the last standing aides of late King Hassan II.
Despite the significant increase in civil liberties and improvement of human rights during the last decade, Moroccan independent press has been punished frequently for crossing the red lines of Monarchy, the contested southern provinces, and the military. Moroccan judges have issued some exotic sentences on journalists who crossed those lines. Ali Lmrabet was sentenced to a ban of 10 years from practicing journalism, and he went to neighboring Spain. Khalid Al-Jamei was fined a large sum, pushing him to flee to the United States. Now, Rachid Nini will most likely go to Qatar, given his close ties to some Al-jazeera's staff, or Spain.

Press Reactions:
French daily Le Monde seems to be the first news outlet to report about the near death of the most popular Moroccan newspaper.

French Weekly Banned in Morocco

Cover of the international version of L'express magazine.

Current issue of French weekly, L'express, has been banned in Morocco for alleged "blasphemy against Islam's prophet," the French daily reported. Apparently what triggered the ban from the Moroccan authorities' perspective, was the depiction of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) on the magazine's cover, though in the international publication, the prophet's face is smudged. There are seveal foreign language publications in Morocco where the prophet's face is shown, and so far, it's not clear if the Moroccan authorities had scores to settle with L'express, or really found the photo offensive.