On the other hand, Morocco is one such country that had long since refused to have diplomatic relations with Israel and whose king Mohamed 6th was/still is the president of the Jerusalem committee, a division of the Arab league (an absolute notion considering Morocco is technically not Arab but dominantly Amazigh) up until recently. The largely unpopular decision to start diplomatic relations with Israel “coincided” with Trump’s rash last minute decision (literally during his last weeks in office) to “grant” Morocco sovereignty over the disputed territories. A decision which has since been challenged by many congress members in a letter to president Biden to withdraw and rescind.

One does not have to be a genius to see right through this quid pro quo. Generally speaking Morocco, as a regime, did not at all represent the will of the People, the vast majority of which are utter die hard Palestine supporters, and is sending a clear message that it will do what it takes to keep the spirit of capitalism and the interests of the oligarchy alive, as the disputed territories are rich in natural resources, most of which (as is the case with northern natural resources) goes to the private coffers of the oligarchy while the people wallow in poverty.

So, Morocco, strategically placed at the western most and northern most tips of the African continent, at only about 8 miles away by sea from Spain, the gateway to Europe, holds yet another important winning card to thwart the international community and prevent it from ever calling it out on its repeated and violent repression of its citizens and myriad of violations of human rights: the immigrants. Having mastered the art of both, tit for tat as well as the quid pro quo strategies, Morocco takes its role of a gatekeeper very seriously and enforces a very strict scrutiny over immigration, thus keeping Europe “safe” from the hordes of Africans whose countries it had plundered, explored, depleted and left in ruins, in exchange of continued aid and the carte Blanche to do as it sees fit to whip its citizens into submission. So Europe turns the blind eye on the continued cries for help from severely repressed Moroccan citizens so long as Morocco continues to protect it from the consequences of its own greed, colonialism and imperialism.

This delicate balance has recently been shattered when the president of the separatist government, Brahim Lghali – who, in all fairness, is also accused of crimes against humanity vis a vis his involvement in the torture of Moroccan POWs – was admitted into a hospital in Spain for treatment. Morocco, naturally, wants his head on a spike, Spain won’t deliver him on ethical grounds citing: Humanitarian reasons, so Morocco, today, the first decent weather day after Ramadhan lockdown, allowed a mass exodus from its shores of over 3000 people to cross ny sea to the Spanish territory of Ceuta, a Moroccan city technically and geographically but a colony under Spanish sovereignty. It is Morocco’s way to teach Spain a lesson as it seems to have forgotten the exact terms of their previous agreement, thus absolving it of having to deliver its end of the bargain.

3000 precious lives throwing themselves in the Mediterranean in hopes of reaching the other side where the grass is greener. 3000 lives, mere pawns in this high stakes game of thrones including hundreds of unaccompanied minors, at the mercy of uncertainty, flirting with an imminent watery grave while the Moroccan coastguard did not lift a finger to secure the border, thus aiding and abetting this large scale human trafficking operation in callous disregard of human life.

Immigrants, the latest pawn in this despicable political game of intense chess in which neither party had come to the conscious realization that they’re playing with the lives of actual human beings whose wellbeing and livelihood matters.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Amazigh World News’ editorial views.

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Rabii and all his comrades who were held in the Tangier prison were recently released on the anniversary of the “Throne” national holiday. All, that is, with the exception of Mohamed Jelloul, the teacher, twice political prisoner father of 3 who is spending his 8th year behind bars and who got all his rights revoked before being herded to solitary confinement without cause.

Rabii’s critical decision is the latest in a series of rapid succession events concerning the “Rif Hirak” remaining political prisoners whose situation continues to escalate over the past few weeks. It was a mere 24 hours ago that the public has learned Of Ashraf Moudid’s suicide attempt in the Selouan prison in Nador and the decisions of both Bilal Ahabbad and Mahmoud Bouhanoush, the youngest political prisoners (both initially indicted as minor children) in that same prison to also also enter an open ended hunger strike in protest of the inhumane conditions they endure at the hands of the warden, which were the main reason their comrade Ashraf tried to put an end to his life.

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Additionally, the public just learned that Nabil Ahamjik and Nacer Zefzafi, currently held in Ras Lma prison in Fez have entered an open ended hunger strike themselves since last Friday on account of yet another round of unprovoked escalations from the prison administration. The news were communicated through their respective mothers who included a very powerfully moving, heartbreaking and tearful plea to save their sons’ lives whom have not been able to visit their since March of 2020 because of covid-19 restrictions and who have since been abused and mistreated.

In light of these issues at hand and as the Makhzen continues to tighten the grip on the political prisoners currently in its custody, showing no relief in sight, Rabii declares that “he sees no choice but to yet again put his life on the line and enter another open ended hunger strike” so as to draw attention to all these issues and “heed my comrades’ requests and demands and hear their suppressed voices, awaiting their eventual release”.

https://www.facebook.com/ELABLAK.RABIE/posts/116596473487773

The letter, which was endorsed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as well as the currently imprisoned members of the Catalan Independence Movement, to name a few was delivered on April 30th was in response to a solemn Humanitarian appeal, issued by Ms. Bachelet’s office a mere 5 days earlier on April 25th, urging the world governments to “drastically reduce” their overcrowded prison population by releasing “the sick and the elderly as well as each and every person who is imprisoned without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners and others detained for expressing critical opinions or dissidence”.

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The letter articulated their growing alarm that their respective governments are not heeding this Humanitarian exhortation, “… concerned that many States are not complying with your recommendations, since as you stated, maintaining inmates in detention during this pandemic carries a high risk to their life and health” concurring with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ findings that “in countries that are doing very large prisoner releases, (they) have not been necessarily releasing those types of prisoners.” This is particularly true for Morocco who issued a “Humanitarian” release benefiting a total of 5654 inmates on April 5th, with not one single political prisoner in their midst.

The letter further stressed the bleak reality of their prospects “the situation becomes even more worrying when we take into account the lack of hygiene, sanitary resources and overcrowding in the prisons and detention centers of most of our countries. The outbreaks are rising day by day in prisons, as well as the number of deaths.”

The substandard Moroccan prisons where Nacer Zefzafi is serving out his punitive 20 year sentence along with more than 60 other Rif movement prisoners and about 60+ other independent political prisoners, have virtually become death traps throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the Moroccan Observatory for Prisons’ 2019 annul report, the country is notorious for not only its blatant overcrowding “The prison of Al Arjat 1, a few kilometers north of Rabat, is at 205% of its capacity, while the Moul El Bergui Safi prison is at 173% and Morocco’s largest prison, ‘Oukasha’ in Casablanca, is at 172% capacity …” but also their sadistic inhumane lack of basic hygiene, making the medically recommended “social distancing” an impossibility.

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The United Nations was not the first nor will it be the last apparatus to urge Morocco to immediately and unconditionally release all its political prisoners to no avail. Amnesty International has also issued a similar plea on April 7th and so did a collaboration of Moroccan activists. All initiatives and appeals for a humanitarian release of Political Prisoners continues to be systematically ignored by the Moroccan government even as numerous prisons across the country (Ouarzazat, Q’sar K’bir, Tetouan, Tangier 2, Sale 2 and Oujda) have been confirmed to have been compromised by the deadly virus.

The potential threat to the lives of these political prisoners scales up with each passing day, especially that many suffer from serious health conditions, further made worse by their multiple hunger strikes and lack of basic nutrition in the Moroccan prison system.

The Arabic lettering reads: RIF, which is a region in current northern Morocco that has, only a few short decades ago, been the epicenter of its own independent democratic republic, threatening the seat of the monarchy as a political regime, seeing as the latter was colluding with imperialist Europe, pawning the land, people and resources so it can keep the throne. That republican initiative was short lived, as it threatened the political powers of that period, which earned it a swift squashing by the Moroccan regime with foreign help using chemical weapons, the devastating effects of which still reverberate in the entire region to this day.

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Further, the Rif has been center stage of recent protests after the state sanctioned murder of a fish monger, Mohcin Fikri in October of 2016, which was the last straw its residents needed to demand total socioeconomic change, building the region’s infrastructure which remains non existent to this day and raise awareness the systematically marginalized region’s status quo of collective punishment for daring to stand for democracy.

The collective punishment started for the almost entirely Amazigh region since 1926 with documented massacres/genocide as well as dire infrastructural and socioeconomic sanctions on everyone living within its boundaries. The Rif continues to not have a functioning hospital or a university, as a strict minimum to this day.

The Rif movement leaders and activists got arrested by the thousands and each put in prison serving hefty sentences, prompting the entire country to take to the streets in solidarity. Far from being idle, Younes did not miss the opportunity to join in the hundreds and thousands of protesters demanding immediate freedom to the Riffian political prisoners and for the Moroccan regime to work with the residents in order to solve their local problems and develop the entire region mainly known for its breath taking beaches and fresh fish.

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Because of this particular picture that he proudly and innocently took to mark his stance, Younes was fired from his job as a car parking lot attendant, a job that, meager as its wages were, was enough to sustain hard working Younes for years, not having to ask for a handout. Younes who found himself unemployed without cause, fought hard within the union to challenge their arbitrary decision, a journey that took him down the moroccan bureaucracy for almost an entire year, during which he was all the more adamant about his rights and the constitutional ones of all Moroccan citizens, and so naturally, he continued to organize and attend rallies and protests.

In addition to Beijing fired, Younes received a couple summons to answer to some charges related to his political posts on Facebook. When those didn’t pan out, he was arrested late last week in a mock “raid” on the neighborhood coffee shop he spends most of his days in, stating that said coffee shop is known for drug activity, which may or may not be true, however, Younes was the only person arrested there with 10g of hashish (cannabis) in his pockets. Younes never once hid the fact that he occasionally enjoys a few puffs of cannabis for medical and recreational reasons, being caught with only 10 grams (the size of a human fingernail) was proof to his innocence, only to be shocked with the heavy charge of drug dealing and intention to distribute added to his previous list of political troublemaker.

All this while Younes has had no income for the past few months and struggles making ends meet doing manual labor here and there to afford his basics on a strict minimum, in direct contradiction with the prosecution’s false claim of his “drug dealing” which would have solved so many of his problems if it were the case.

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The prosecution decided to release him on his own recognizance until he is tried for this laughable charge. Always true to his policy of total transparency, Younes, of course, told his entire story on Facebook with dates, details of his harassment and arrests and names of those involved, only to be surprised on Friday evening with yet another SWAT team arresting him at that same coffee shop located on this street, in direct retaliation directly after publishing details of his story with their harassment over the past year.

His friends and activist friends all took to the street to demand his immediate and non conditional release, condemning this policy of obvious political retaliation against all the voices that cannot be bought!

It is worth noting that Younes has no family, his parents are deceased and nobody would have noticed even if he was executed, if it weren’t for the activist community who spread the word of his arrest.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Amazigh World News’ editorial views.

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On this same token, authorities in Casablanca, the city that remained one of the very few that continued to take to the streets protesting corruption and other abuses within the system, have had its last 2 peaceful protests in the Feb 20th Square violently shut down by authorities, corresponding with citywide arbitrary arrests and/or prosecutorial summons of most of its activists. These coercions in the once “liberal” epicenter come as a shock to the rest of the country watching in astounding horror, as many other hotbeds have been systematically crushed namely: Fez, Sidi Ifni, Asfi, Al Hoceima and Rif, J’rada, Zagora and Tangier to list a few, cities that saw a methodical repression and ruthless persecution of its activists, thus aborting all forms of direct actions.

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This escalation is particularly perplexing as, after two decades of hard work to rectify its previous barefaced persecutions and blatant abuse of human rights under the reign of Hassan 2, the new Moroccan regime which has literally launched its rule early this millennia by declaring it an era of “justice/equity and reconciliation” in an effort to smooth its international image so as to sway the votes to its favor over the Western Sahara affair, has now resorted to a flagrant display of its disregard for human rights, starting with but not limited to the basic right to free expression

Morocco is currently treading on very thin ice on the personal liberties front, and is living a stage of proceeding-with-extreme-prejudice against any and all voices of opposition, in blatant disregard for the international community’s urging to exercise caution and allow a margin of liberties within its borders. Political observers and analysts around the world are wondering about this bold defiance just as Morocco, yet again received a substantial amount from the EU with the sole purpose of controlling its “illegal immigration” dilemma.

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With its strategic position, literally at the gate of Africa toward Europe, Morocco is a popular transitional destination for Sub-Saharan African immigrants seeking to flee their civil-war torn and pillaged countries toward better opportunities in the European continent. Europe, which had looted and ransacked the entire continent over the last century and a half until it was forced to withdraw politically and militarily, had to protect its economic interests by fueling civil wars and sponsoring armed militias that act as a political deterrent and distraction from ending said interests through the democratic process.

As such, tens of millions have been displaced and forced to flee with their lives seeking better opportunities up north. This life or death migration takes them through Morocco because of its close proximity to Gibraltar and Spain, and its two Spanish border cities of Ceuta and Melila. The EU union, trying to get a head start on its own illegal immigration problem, is generously endowing the Moroccan regime to police this migration before it reaches their borders.

However, this isn’t the only demon Morocco is using to pressure the EU into giving it free reign to terrorize its citizens. As it is working hard to recover from an era of religious fanaticism and zealotry that has dangerously spread a whole lot wilder than it has intended for it when it directly and indirectly boosted creed and superstition at the expense of science, arts and creativity. Consequently, social tendencies were gearing toward illiteracy and zealotry, creating a deadly combination that has reached critical mass breeding violence and terrorism within its borders, and beyond. To quell this perilous miscreation, Morocco cracked down on all sleeper cells and declared its own war on religious fanaticism, earning it billions of $$ from its allies up north who have also tasted from the bitter chalice of terrorism at the hands of North African indoctrinated individuals.

As both issues are of the utmost priority to the international community, and whereas Morocco proved its worth as an ally in combatting and quelling both woes, the EU is in no position to apply any sort of pressure on the Moroccan regime to respect the very bases of the Geneva convention regarding its treatment of prisoners in general, and political prisoners in particular.

As such, and while it has tried hard to balance between oppressing its people and maintaining a somewhat humanitarian image with the international community over the past two decades, Morocco’s new escalation in persecuting and imprisoning non violent activists for their Facebook posts is shockingly idiosyncratic in nature and raises more than a few worried eyebrows. For the first time in decades, Morocco, which has (falsely) prided itself on its ZERO political prisoners, can no longer make that claim in light of the newest arrests.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Amazigh World News’ editorial views.

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The next batch down is a deck of 15 years handed down to Mohamed El Haki, Zakaria Adahshour and Mohamed Bouhanouch, followed by a cluster of 10 years, another of 5, then 3 and 2 respectively.

Ever since their collective and Hollywood style arrest a year ago, all the Hirak leaders have been consistently reporting acts of cruelty and inhumane treatment for the duration of their incarceration at the hands of the world renown sadistic and sociopathic Moroccan henchmen, with their infamously disgraceful track record of torture and abuse. For instance, Mohamed Jelloul, the undisputed godfather and spiritual leader of the movement, though he was incarcerated for most of it, also wasn’t spared. He had just left prison after a 5 year long stretch for his involvement with the organization of the February 20th movement in 2012, and was plucked right back up with the rest a mere 40 days after his release, only to be sentenced to 10 years, this time around.

Nasser Zefzafi, spoke in open court about his torture and rape with a wooden bat, prior to being brought to a solitary cell, away from the rest of the prison population for the entire duration of his incarceration. Equally, Rabie Al Ablak also complained of torture and beatings and having had a loaded gun pointed at him at one point and his clothes striped from him while being threatened with rape. When his requests to open an investigation in his torture allegations went unanswered, he entered a series of hunger strikes, the longest of which lasted 48 days and nearly killed him.

Not to be outdone, nearly all the political prisoners have entered a hunger strike at one point or another, during their yearlong incarceration, in an effort to get some of their very basic rights restored. As far as everybody knows, Rabie is, until the writing of this article, still on his 30th day of another hunger strike and his life is in real danger, which still did not spare him a harsh sentence of 5 years. Journalism and the press also got its share of repression when Mohamed Al Asrihi and Abdelali Houd were penalized with a 5 year long sentence each for running the online news sites of Rif24 and AraghiTV correspondingly and Jawad Essabiri got 2 years for being on the staff of Rif24 as well.

Early in the evening last night on June 25th, and in a surprising twist of events, Investigative Journalist and Reporter Hamid Mahdaouy, who was also detained at the same facility, facing an equally inhumane treatment and heavy charges for his role during the Hirak, got a sudden and unecpected court decision to try him separately. A decision that stunned the public attending the trials and his defense team alike, most likely in an attempt to eliminate all possible complications the Moroccan courts might face at sentencing, as it knew all along that all of the Hirak leaders were going to be massacred, legally speaking. Having that one reporter in their midst who was arrested many months after they were, with a different set of charges against him was only going to further obfuscate the sentencing process.

During their trials, the Hirak leaders were not afforded the opportunity to present evidence or witnesses in their own defense. They stood in open court, many times, and accused it of losing its impartiality and commitment to justice, therefore infringing on their universal rights to a Fair Trial, otherwise guaranteed to them not only constitutionally, but also internationally through every convention and treaty that Morocco prides itself on being a part of. When all their attempts and those of their attorneys went in vain, the group decided, in unison, to boycott the trial proceedings and instructed their respective defense teams to act in a similar fashion. As such, there was no closing statement from the defense team, nor did they get to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses.

These young men who, by all accounts, have done nothing but organize amongest themselves and took the streets at the wake of the state-sanctioned murder of fishmonger Mohcin Fikri in October 2016, which had brought the entire city of El Hoceima and its surrounding suburbs together to demand justice for him as well as shed the light on the marginalization of the region, due to the royal decree, deeming it a military territory. These educated, polite, ethical and soft spoken young men and women got their heads together and took to the streets to demand a cancer center, a university and to lift the militarization on their city, only to be accused of some of the worst crimes out there including separatism, and treason.

Merely a few days after the holiday celebrating the end of Ramadhan, Riffians and the rest of Morocco and the world is stunned at the callousness of the Moroccan regime, and directly points the finger not just at the judicial system and its lack of impartiality, or the government itself, but at the royal institution no less, for, all the judgments rendered in courts today, were so on the name of “his majesty” the king, leaving all those who heard in shock and disbelief, having no choice but to blame the institution for having influenced and directly inspired these trials, considered by most Moroccans as well rehearsed scenes, and nothing but smoke in mirrors to cover up the entire regime’s conspiracy against all those who dare challenge it.

Today will forever remain deeply etched in the memories of those who care enough to remember, how justice was gruesomely beheaded at the guillotine and innocence massacred at the altar of tyranny. Today, marks an important milestone in the lives of all these women, wives, mothers and sisters, left to raise little children without the men in their lives, their chants of freedom and (Youyous/Zghreedas) filling the stale, depressed air suspended above the skies of the bleeding Rif. Today is the day nobody has any more delusions about the extent to which the Moroccan regime is willing to go to protect its throne exactly the way it is. Today is the day hopes for a better Morocco simply committed suicide, rather than crash at the shores of despotism and tyranny. Today is the day dictatorship declared a bloody victory over all. A sad day, indeed, for justice seekers everywhere in Morocco.

Christopher Columbus did NOT discover the Americas more than 500 years ago, simply because we now know that archaeology proved beyond the shadow of doubt, that the Vikings, at the very least, made that journey West to the Americas centuries before Columbus did, and settled in for 90+ years, then packed up and left. They didn’t rob, or ethnically cleanse the place of its inhabitant, they lived here off the land, only took what was necessary for their survival and maintained relative peace with the natives. What Christopher Columbus did was not an act of heroism as it we were made to believe, not by a long shot.

He savagely and mercilessly proceeded to systematically attack and kill the natives who rescued him when him and his crew were lost at sea, enslave their women and children and seize their riches for his imperialist masters back in Europe. He was the superior warrior, and they stood no chance. He could shoot them from a distance, or use gunpowder to blow up their encampments, poison their water sources and snipe away their youth without directly exposing himself or his companions to their arrows, darts or spears. Driven by his insatiable greed, he robbed the land and took what wasn’t his for the taking, and killed whoever stood in the way of that.

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This single stroke of fate, driven by greed and blessed by the church and reinvented as an act of salvation to the “heathen” and the “savages” who occupied these territories before the rest European settlers came in by the boatloads. This despicable “discovery” marked the single most cataclysmic unstoppable and irreversible devastation to the land: the ethnic cleansing of nearly 100 million of the populace and the irreparable loss of historic and cultural cornucopia. GONE! All of it, just gone! Not a single book or written account survived such wretchedness.

While the cases of the Americas and Australia are still fresh in history’s memory, several other equally devastating invasions have been taking place across the world and through time, from Persia and Kurdistan to Tamazgha, which is what I’d like to focus on for the next few minutes.
What’s sad is that while the world recognizes the Aborigines, Persians and the Kurds as being the indigenous with just causes, they still don’t know who the Amazigh are.

Tamazgha land is a large North African strip ranging from the Siwa valley in modern day Egypt to the East, to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic to the West and everything in between.

Because of its strategic location and its natural resources, Tamazgha has been invaded by almost every civilization who could get to it by sea or by land: from the Romans to the Phoenicians and even the Vandals and the Visigoth, they all gave Tamazgha a go; and who has not heard of the Punic wars! … and about 1200 years ago, the Arabs tried their luck as well, and never left since.

Because their incursions were also of a religious consequence, history failed yet again to accurately recall what truly happened and the Amazigh were subdued into silence and forcible acceptance of the slow and continuous deadening of their identity. While many ethnicities have killed each other to rule the region since the Arab’s arrival to Tamazgha (the Moravids and Moahids dynasties for instance were Amazigh) THEOCRACY, the mother of all evil, has never left us to this day. Be they Arabs or Amazigh, everyone who governed Tamzgha since has done so in the name of Allah leaving very little to the actual people, and steadily chipping away at their identity and civilization one tradition at a time.

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Under the current Alaoui rule in Morocco, the Amazigh have suffered marginalization, persecution and many other grave injustices, and up until recently, it was still illegal for them to even give their children Amazigh names; a basic human right. In a country where close to 10 million do not understand or speak Arabic, the official language is STILL Arabic! For millions, this means that they cannot take care of their very basic administrative needs without needing an interpreter, IN THEIR OWN HOME! It also means that they cannot be civically nor politically engaged since they don’t understand their rights nor their obligations as Moroccan citizens.

They don’t understand the constitution, the penal system or the “royal” speeches (which trump the law, according to that very same constitution that they don’t understand), all because the Alaoui dynasty used religion during their humble beginnings to gain people’s trust, only to enslave and persecute them later.

Theocracy made is possible for the Alaouis to gain legitimacy on account that they are direct descendants of prophet Muhamad PBUH and therefore lay claim to the region. The Amazigh, yet another invaded nation that has been forced to annihilate its culture and lose its identity so the imperialists can get their way. Except that they are not finding the courage to say ENOUGH!

I am a Moroccan, therefore I am an Amazigh, be it partially or totally, we are ALL amazigh. As such, those “big projects” to further arabitize us, and call Tamazgha the “great Arabic Maghreb” are NEVER going to see the light of day, not today, not EVER! To claim that Tamazgha is the “Great Arabic Maghreb” is the same as claiming that the USA and Canada are a part of the UK; notions that defy logic and even basic geography, since Britain is in Europe, and Arabia is in the Middle East, NOT NORTH AFRICA! Please have some self respect and quit it with your reverse Darwinism! It is not okay for you, or anyone to claim their culture is superior, and use this pathetic excuse to shove it down people’s throats.

You are welcome to still be Arabs in Tamazgha, you just can’t turn Tamazgha into Arabia! And you cannot try to rename it and claim it for the Arabs either. It is not Arabic territory and never will be.

We are NOT Arabs, we don’t want to be Arabs, we are happy just the way we are! And if you are a Moroccan and still claim you are a pure Arab race, then you are as delusional as you are a racist and a bigot. Arabs and Amazigh intermarried for 1200 years, so with the exception of a couple Sahraoui tribes, everyone has Amazigh blood in them whether they like it or not, and whether they know it or not, PERIOD! In denying this, you are disowning your own culture and identity, which makes you a product of systematic and propagandized imperialism.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Amazigh World News’ editorial views.

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