Tiznit – Abouzid Al-Mokri Al-Idrissi, the parliamentary deputy of the Islamist political party of Justice and Development (PJD) in Morocco, was shouted down on Friday afternoon in the southern city of Tiznit as he attempted to deliver a lecture.
Many Amazigh Activists have gathered outside the lecture hall to protest his presence, chanting “Irhal! Irhal!” (“Leave! Leave!”), the intensity of the protests quickly forced Abouzid to leave the place under heavy escort by the organizers.
The cause of the demonstration date back in 2013 when Abouzid told a joke on Amazigh-Soussi people to hyperbolize the sweeping stereotype that they are all “stingy.”
“There are people in Morocco who are known for being acutely stingy, and they are from a specific ethnicity,” Abouzid said in a joke during a conference in Saudi Arabia.
While the joke sounded funny for some audience member -mainly Arabs-during his lecture, it sparked a widespread anger among the Amazigh people of Morocco, and then led to a wave of protests against him every time he is giving a lecture in the southern Amazigh-Soussi Area of Morocco.
