By: domingo barbolla camarero  (Page 5/8)

Moroccans with a more relaxed faith

Taib, 24 years old; Mahjoub, 28; Kados, 30; Arby, 28; and Abdendi, 36, form, along with others, the group of young people who follow Allah’s will in a more relaxed form. Some are university students, others are not but they hold certain academic culture. All have been in Spain for several years and some in other countries. They are religious but..., they are not infatuated with their God. They are “almost” westernized; but most don’t eat pork. They are flexible regarding their faith and spend their lives arguing “other values” more than those which are strictly religious. In spite of their flexibility, or perhaps for that reason, they constitute a group of disillusioned Moroccan immigrants of the First World system. When you do not have a religious anchorage, the disillusionment is worse, which puts them at risk of radicalizing their positions as they do not receive benefits from the new culture. Arby has a scheme of returning to Morocco and marrying a “radical” woman, that is to say, those that assume the faith in a total form; he probably wont, but he thinks about doing it, we believe its his answer to the lack of expectations here.

Brahim and Bouzki bet on Islamic radicalism. Giles Keppel (1994, p. 30) says: “Without a job, possibilities of prospering, and without ideologies that allow to dream in a different world, religions, and not only Islam, constitute an attractive supply of social integration and individual hope.” Peculiarly, we believe that this group of people, with a nomadic faith, is that which eventually comes to compose Islamic radical groups. Men as Madani or Mohammed do not need more extremism or violence in their lives, but those who are discontent with both systems do.

Moroccans who complain about their faith

If all the previous people can be described as religious men who assume the cultural values of their surroundings, and religion is a marrow aspect of the Moroccan society, then it is practically a theocratic government that directs the intentions of Morocco. The previous, as we say, are part of the many that make up the religious fan of the nation. Moktar and Yahya are “different” from the system. They are the only ones we have heard complain about the faith of their ancestors. To them, Islam is a Chinese tale; it is worse than that, it is the base of the system that strangles its nation. They come from Jerama, a mining city; the city of disease and death of many, and the city of wealth for a few. Moktar and Yahya denounce this robbery of the State, the religious State. Their religion is to fight for their own. They do not believe in anything more than the liberation of the nation. Their faith is the democracy of the land, the government of those who do not govern. They, the poor men, are the good ones. The rich ones –those who hold the power of the State – are bad. Religion is the fight for liberation, the fight of the poor – their fight. They intellectualize their atheism and turn it into a fight as an exit to their pain; they untiringly work for the rights of Moroccan immigrants. Instead of not drinking alcohol, they speak at bars of how to obtain better homes and better wages. Instead of fasting, they visit each other to become stronger, instead of praying, they work to obtain equality for all. As Alan Wats (1995, p. 19) indicated