The head of the Amazigh World Assembly complains to Akhrbash about the racism of the public media against the Amazighs and Amazigh women
To protest against the racism that the Moroccan public media perpetuates against the Berbers and Amazigh women
From Mr. Rashid Rakha, President of the Amazigh World Assembly
To Mrs. Latifa Akherbash, President of the High Commission for Audiovisual Communication (HACA) of the Kingdom of Morocco.
Subject: Protest against the discrimination and exclusion practiced by our public national channels against Amazigh and the Amazigh channel and against the Moroccan-African national team
As I previously reported to France 24 a few days ago, I would like to inform you that our national channels (sports, Channel 1, Channel 2, Medi 1...etc.) do not stop discriminating against citizens of Morocco and Africa, by describing journalists, broadcasters and sports analysts in public pole channels, For the Moroccan national football team in the “Arab” team, knowing that it is very clear that the Kingdom of Morocco has never been Arab, like the rest of North African countries, and it will not be.
Our sports journalists continue to insist on describing the Moroccan national team as the (Arab) team, although everyone is aware and knows very well that the two real Arab teams from the continent of Asia, namely Qatar and Saudi Arabia, were eliminated in the first rounds, and Morocco is added to Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana and Tunisia as African teams and represents Our African continent. On this basis, our national team reached the golden square of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (in the hope of winning the cup), and it represents all the local Moroccans and residents abroad, and all North Africa, that is, the Amazighs, and all Africans as a representative of the African continent.
What our journalists should highlight is the moral support and sympathy that our team received from friendly Arab countries in Asia, including Palestinians, Muslims around the world and Israeli Jews. We welcome everyone who supported the team. In addition, before the match against France, Morocco also has the support of the Christian peoples, including the English, the Belgians, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Italians, the Americans... because, quite simply, our team is African.
If the Kingdom of Morocco has distinguished itself with these sporting feats and football performances this time, it is thanks to its Amazigh, Amazigh-speaking or Darija-speaking players, especially those who hail from the Greater Rif region, Kyassine Bounou (Taounate), Mounir Mohamedi (Melilla), Nasser Mazraoui (Tetouan), Romain Sayess (Nador), Soufiane Amrabat (Nador), Salim Amlah (Nador), Bilal El Khanous (Tangiers), Hakim Ziyech (Berkane), Elias El Shaer (Tangiers), Zaroroui (Oujda), Ashraf Hakimi (Wad Zem) ) … Even the coach Walid Regraki (Fneideq) and the president of the Moroccan Football League, Fawzi Lakjaa (Berkan), and he has the merit of encouraging the players of the national team to speak the Amazigh language with journalists due to the great difficulty they face in speaking in classical or colloquial Arabic!
Here, we strongly protest against the discrimination faced by the journalists of our only Amazigh channel, TV8-TAMAZIGHT, after being excluded from covering these historical moments on the field and allowing our athletes to express themselves freely, peacefully and with their feelings, reaching audiences in the Amazigh regions of their countries of origin.
As you know, Madam President, especially after you were elected and appointed Chairperson of the African Communications Regulatory Authorities Network (ACRAN) on September 23rd, given your skills in this broad field, that one of the basic principles of journalism is to tell the truth, fight fake news, and provide credible information. But when our journalists consider North Africans to be Arabs living in the “Arab Maghreb,” let me admit that they lack the historical truth and ignore the scientific truth, which is included in the Moroccan constitution of July 1, 2011.
Unfortunately, our Moroccan journalists (electronic and paper press such as Hespress, Al-Akhbar by Rachid Nini, Al-Sabah...) worked to expand this great lie supported by Arab historians by attributing to the Berbers the origins of the Arabian Peninsula, who crossed the Red Sea from Yemen to colonize North Africa, while a study showed A very modern genetic anthropology Contrary to these claims, a large part of the Saudis and Yemenis are from North Africa (1), as is the case with the Iberians, southern Italy and the Mediterranean islands (2), and the origins of the Pharaonic civilization in Egypt (3), and these are the results of the latest archaeological discoveries For the origin of the population, Arabs, Iranians, Greeks, and the rest of the European, American and Australian peoples in the Amazigh lands, at the site of “Adrar Ighoud” (in Arabic Jabal Ighoud) where the oldest ancestor of Homo sapiens was found, and his age is 315,000 years, and this proves until now, the ancestor of all mankind indisputable (4), a discovery to which we aspire to be recognizedAs a world heritage by UNESCO, and we previously called for this recognition of Mrs. Audrey Azoulay, during the seventeenth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which was held from November 28 to December 3 in Rabat, and which our second channel dared to broadcast (5) !despite its racism against Amazigh
In the end, I can only ask you, ladies, to do your best so that the officials of our national radio and television channels use correct and realistic terminology, away from ideological tendencies that would promote “Arab nationalism” at the expense of scientific objectivity and historical truth, and therefore try to advise our journalists to avoid Calling the “Arab team” or “the Arab Maghreb” or “the Arab nation” or even the “Arab Spring”, which severely harms the identity and pride of millions of indigenous citizens in the southern Mediterranean, and millions of citizens belonging to North Africa and residents of the European and American countries, who They all went out in their cities of residence as well as in North African cities such as Tripoli, Nouakchott, Oran, and Tunis... to celebrate the victory of the “Atlas Lions.” There is no objection to replacing the “Arab Maghreb” with the “Great Maghreb” according to the preamble to our current constitution, or simply by the geographical name “North Africa.” As for the “Arab Spring,” it is possibleCalling it the “Democratic Spring of the People,” which began with the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution on December 17, 2010, followed by the Libyan revolution on February 17, then February 20 in Morocco, February 25 in Egypt in 2011, and February 22, 2019 in Algeria, all of which are revolutions on land. Amazigh, which is called Tamazga or North African.
Accept, Mrs. Akherbash, my highest expressions of appreciation and respect
Rashid Rakha
President of the Amazigh World Assembly
Source: websites