Glimpses of our contemporary history... ideological Arabization in Morocco
Signs of ideological Arabization began in Morocco since the thirties of the last century, that is, after the French occupation eliminated the armed resistance of the Amazigh tribes. The urban elite in Fez and others took advantage of this opportunity for political action, exploiting the afternoon of May 1930 in a smart and malicious way to launch their political project. This political action began with a tactic based on two things: first, appeasing the French occupation by first congratulating it in 1934 by eliminating what this elite called “tribal rebellion,” and demanding political reforms; Secondly, it began to Arabize Morocco, relying on the opposition of the Dahir, which it maliciously called the “Berber Dahir,” to demonize the Amazigh to make it easier for it to Arabize them This latest campaign was welcomed and widely supported by the Levant (Shakib Arslan’s visit to Tangier).
But ideological and cultural Arabization did not begin to take off at full speed to gain time and to exploit the National Movement’s dominance over the wheels of the modern Moroccan state until after independence, when the hardliners of Arabization would reveal their strategy: the National Movement with its conservative side, represented here by Allal Al-Fassi, and its leftist side, represented here by Muhammad Abed Al-Jabri.
Let us take the conservative side. Allal Al-Fassi wrote an article in which he lamented that his ancestors (attributing them to the Arabs coming from the East) preferred spoils and money during their invasion of Morocco to spreading Arabic. If they had spread it - as he wished - the Berbers would be Arabized and the Amazigh language would become extinct, which is a serious problem for Arabism and an obstacle as a tool in front of it. Arabization. This was stated in what Allal Al-Fassi wrote in an article entitled “The Effectiveness of the Arabic Language,” published in Al-Lissan Al-Arabi magazine, No. 3, June 1965:
“The issue of Arabic in Morocco is a chronic issue, and truth be told, it is not born today, nor does it arise solely from the impact of colonialism in our homeland, but in its origins it stems from the failure of our Arab ancestors to complete the mission of Arabization in Morocco...and when the era of independence came, the loyal people of the country felt the necessity of strengthening The national entity, and the strengthening of free self-existence, and the first thing they thought about was the issue of language, which emerged in the form of the need for Moroccanism and Arabization,” p. 8.
He continued in the same article: “I direct the blame, above all, to our Arab ancestors who carried the message of Islam and Arabic to this country. Instead of devoting themselves to work to complete their sacred historical mission, they occupied themselves with striving for the spoils and the reins of government, and they left problems in our country.” We cannot ignore its source if we are searching for the disease and seeking the cure,” p. 9.
The problem of the Amazigh language was not raised in Morocco until after independence, when the national movement, both its conservative and leftist sides, employed all available means to Arabize Morocco and to eradicate it from its original identity and culture, that is, to eradicate the Amazigh language, exploiting and employing all the state’s means, official and unofficial, by directing it to achieve this goal. Some governments and Arab national states in Egypt and the Middle East support it in this.
But can any force uproot a people from its roots, identity and culture? Yes, you can if the people's identity immunity is weak.
What if the National Movement’s political (the only party similar to the nationalist parties in the East) and cultural (ideological Arabization) projects succeeded, God forbid?
The answer is in what we see today in the countries that implemented these projects (Syria, Iraq, Libya...).
Source: websites