Posted on 04/18/2008 12:39:03 AM PDT by forkinsocket
Rabat - A Moroccan court Thursday banned an Amazigh party on the grounds that the law did not allow parties based on religion, language or ethnicity, judicial sources said Thursday. The court in Rabat confirmed the earlier decision of the Interior Ministry, which had refused to recognize the Democratic Amazigh Moroccan Party (PDAM), which had been established in July.
None of the other parties showed solidarity towards the PDAM, largely because the party had championed the full normalization of Morocco's relations with Israel.
The founder of the PDAM, Ahmed Dgharni, sparked a scandal in December by visiting Tel Aviv for a political conference.
The PDAM sought to represent Morocco's Imazighen (plural of Amazigh), also known as Berbers, regarded as the original inhabitants of North Africa before the arrival of Arabs and Islam.
Many estimates put the number of Imazighen at about 35 per cent of Morocco's population of more than 30 million, but most Moroccans have at least some Amazigh blood.
Morocco does not have Amazigh parties, though it has parties with many Amazigh members.
breaks in Islam?
Berbers generally don’t like Arabs & have no problems with Jews. I’ve noticed that lately Berbers have started to resent Islam more, seeing it as imposed on them by Arabs. There are also many Jewish Berbers.
Let’s hope they form a stronger pro-Berber party, across Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and get rid of the ROP. Ditto for Iran
The court in Rabat confirmed the earlier decision of the Interior Ministry, which had refused to recognize the Democratic Amazigh Moroccan Party (PDAM)... None of the other parties showed solidarity towards the PDAM, largely because the party had championed the full normalization of Morocco's relations with Israel... The PDAM sought to represent Morocco's Imazighen (plural of Amazigh), also known as Berbers, regarded as the original inhabitants of North Africa before the arrival of Arabs and Islam. Many estimates put the number of Imazighen at about 35 per cent of Morocco's population of more than 30 million, but most Moroccans have at least some Amazigh blood.
That does it, I’m going to become an Amazigh nationalist. I’m already off to a good start with 3-4 Tuareg albums in my music collection.
By the way, do you know who was the main opponent of the Arabs when they conquered Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, around 700 A.D.? A Jewish queen named Dihya al-Kahina. I suspect somebody in Morocco is nostalgic for those times.
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