Our faith must all the same be damned (it is the case to say it) shaken, so that our religious authorities, acting under the orders of the king, they insist on saying in their press release, prohibit yet another film, which ” undermines sacred values ” of the Kingdom. Well no, our sacred values, we know them, and they cannot be shaken, or at least not so easily, with a film, a drawing, a word… Even if the film is indeed provocative.
And if, by chance, they were, it is not by banning that we will solve the thing. And even less by coercion! Persuasion is so much better… And speaking of which, what are these sacred values? Easy, it’s the motto of the country, God, Fatherland, King. Very well, Moroccans are theists (whether Muslims, Jews or Christians), patriots and monarchists (no one questions or questions the legitimacy of our monarchy).
So where is the problem ? He is in zeal and among the zealots. But then, why didn’t these same individuals sternly rebuke Nasser Bourita when he didn’t roar at the Indians whose ruling party spokesperson lately offended the Prophet Mohammed? Can we consider this as an omission of our Ulema, and in this case, what would be the sanction? Knowing of course that Morocco reacted well by not getting angry with the thoughtless and absurd remarks of the Indian. But it must be said, to better understand, that India is our partner, unlike Shiite Iran, as is the scriptwriter of the film, the Ulema press release tells us…
And since it is important to protect our faith, how would our protectors protect us against the countless resolutely Islamophobic pages on the net, with insults and supporting images? The answer is clear: you should avoid going to these sites. But there is also a category of people who don’t mind, either because they have a “solid” faith, not “shakeable”, or because they put a distance between their spirituality and their temporality.
So, for the movie in question, “Lady of Heaven”, either you have to avoid watching it and that’s what millions of people around the world will do, who would be disturbed and disturbed by it. For the other category, it separates things. And in one as in the other case, the Council of Ulemas and the CCM have nothing to do. Oh, maybe the first, who would be in his spiritual role… but the second, who deals with cinema, therefore with a very secular activity, he would earn a lot and we with him to deal only with cinema, of culture and soft power. And in any case, the ban will lead so many people to want to watch the film… The Ulemas will have said “oops! by not understanding that in our digital world, nothing can be forbidden anymore, and that we only fight a film or other with a better film.
In the life of nations, one must know how to choose… the primacy of faith or the primacy of law. There would be no problem with the first dominating, but then it would have to be admitted that in today’s world it would not necessarily be an asset for rapid development (as NMD wants, for example…). If it is the second that takes precedence, the law, nothing would prevent him from inscribing safeguards for faith in the rule of law. For example, that a controversial film like “Lady of Heaven” should not be banned by the very indignant Council of Ulema alone, but by a college of people, including representatives of the Council of Ulema, who are even indignant.
Perhaps this is how the country will move forward… By law, its primacy and its universality.
There was, moreover, a time, in 2015 to be precise, when the ban on films (Exodus, Much loved) had thrown many well-meaning people into the digital street who then cheerfully attacked the PJD government and its theoretician /ideologue, the now untraceable Mustapha el Khalfi. It was easy. Today, nothing like that, we have a government led by resolute modernists, they say…resolute, yes, but not reckless.
What is the point of boasting, of bragging, of gargling this pretty phrase so often rehashed for months: “ Morocco is a Muslim country where Islamists came to government through the ballot box, and left it through the ballot box »? This indeed implies a maturity of the electorate, of society and also of the so-called “Islamists”. So why ban a film if everyone is mature, responsible and a citizen, and a supposedly modernist government bans it? What are we afraid of? Why is the “we” not explained? This would at least have the merit of clarity.
In this country, one day, it was given to the author of these lines to attend a festive, watered day, where some drank and others did not, while everyone was in a trance at the legendary sound, ghiwani, from ” Allah ya moulana », the pious, the non-practicing, the bigots and the others, everyone sipping what they wanted, without Ulemas or anything, but with infinite open-mindedness and tolerance. Intelligent too.
There it is, the beauty and the exception of this country… let’s not make it banal, by banning films that are just as banal!
Aziz Boucetta
(Ticket 712) – Prohibition of “Lady of heaven”, once upon a time… the Ulema