The strategy of hijacking the debate to stifle the Amazigh cause

Anyone following the discourse of political and ideological movements with nationalist or religious leanings will notice that they never address the core issues raised and defended by the Amazigh movement.

When the Amazigh movement brings up the question of linguistic and cultural justice in Morocco—demanding the integration of the Amazigh language into education, media, administration, and the judiciary—nationalists and political Islamists are quick to react. They depict Amazigh activists as ethnocentric, supporters of Zionism, or heirs to colonialism. They accuse them of being hostile to Arabs, Palestine, Islam, and the Arabic language, claiming they work hand in hand with Israel to divide the nation.

Consequently, the debate between the elites of the Amazigh movement and the ideological preachers of nationalism and Islamism becomes absurd and deadlocked. Their disagreement is not based on intellectual foundations or a variety of visions for addressing the Amazigh question. Instead, it is a calculated disagreement designed to kill the debate and, along with it, the subject itself.

These proponents of nationalism and political Islam hijack the discussion. They abandon fundamental rights—the right to education in one’s mother tongue, its use in the justice system and media, or the right to cultural development—to rush onto the terrain of betrayal, accusation, insult, and apostasy. They conjure the specters of demonization, Zionism, ethnocentrism, racism, and hatred toward Palestine, Arabs, Islam, and the Arabic language.

In short, they stifle the substantive debate by carrying out the symbolic assassination of those who lead it. This is their strategy.

By Abdeslam Khalafi

Arabic version | French version