News

In last week’s issue of Tel Quel, Driss Bennani writes about Sheikh Yassine, the spiritual leader of Al-Adl wa Al-Ihsane (Justice and Charity), and the personality cult he’s been developing for some time. (If you don’t read French, you can run the text through this online translator; it’s won’t be too accurate, but it’ll give you an idea, and at least you’ll have a good laugh at some of the lines):

Un militant raconte : “j’ai vu le prophète Mohammed, et je lui ai demandé de me montrer le chemin de Dieu. Il m’a souri, puis a désigné de sa main une tente d’où sortait une lumière éblouissante. à l’intérieur, Abdessalam Yassine ramassait des branches d’arbre par terre. Le prophète s’est alors tourné vers moi et m’a dit, en désignant Sidi Abdessalam : demande à cet homme. Lui, il sait”. Dans les “visions” de ses disciples, Yassine est toujours accompagné du prophète ou de ses sahaba (compagnons). Il est clairement désigné comme étant “le lieutenant de Dieu sur terre” (tel quel). Au Maroc, mais pas seulement. Au Mali (et cette fois, ce n’est pas une “vision”), un alem soufi a brandi le portrait de Yassine et a demandé à ses disciples s’ils le connaissaient. Non, ils ne le connaissaient pas. Le maître soufi le leur a alors présenté en ces termes : “c’est le calife choisi par le prophète et il est au Maroc. Il faut que vous le connaissiez. C’est votre guide spirituel”. Au Maroc, un lieutenant du vieux cheikh a tenté d’être “plus rationnel”. Selon lui, le calife que les musulmans attendent est censé réunir “dix qualités” – évidemment, Yassine les a toutes.

Tout comme le prophète, sa famille est “bénie” : quand les disciples parlent de sa fille Nadia ou de sa mère Rqia, ils ajoutent à son nom l’expression “radia Allahou ânha” – une formule normalement réservée à la famille du prophète et à ses compagnons. D’ailleurs, Yassine aussi a des compagnons, encore une fois comme le prophète. Ce sont les membres du majliss al irchad (conseil de guidance) ou du majliss arrabbani (conseil divin – rien de moins). Eux aussi sont bénis parce que proches de Yassine. Le parallèle avec les sahaba est flagrant. Chaque déplacement du vieil homme est un véritable événement. L’année dernière (un enregistrement vidéo est disponible), Yassine a été reçu avec les honneurs dus à un chef d’Etat dans le hall de l’aéroport Mohammed V, alors qu’il revenait simplement… d’Agadir. Une vingtaine de lieutenants de la jamaâ se sont alignés à la sortie des voyageurs et lui ont tous embrassé la main ou l’épaule. Cherchez le parallèle… En permettant à ses disciples femmes de mentir à leurs parents et à leurs maris pour assister aux rencontres d’Al Adl, Yassine se paye le luxe de dépasser les interdits coraniques, en l’occcurrence ici celui du mensonge. Dans la jamaâ, Yassine est tout : le père, le guide spirituel, le leader politique… Sans lui, les autres responsables de la jamaâ ne sont rien. Quand il a vidé sans ménagement Mohamed Bachiri, pourtant co-fondateur de la jamaâ, personne n’a bronché. Le cheikh ne se trompe jamais.

So now we have militants who see in their dreams validation for divine leadership, who speak of their leader using language reserved for the Prophet himself, and who refer to his daughter as though she were Fatima. And to top it off, their leader “never makes mistakes.” Of course not, he’s a got a direct phone line to God. Hey, I have a dream too: How about we worry about problems, like, oh, I don’t know, unemployment and poverty?

But perhaps those of you who live in Washington, DC, might be able to get some answers from Nadia Yassine, the Sheikh’s daughter and de facto spokesperson for the group. Mrs. Yassine will appear in Georgetown University on April 20. Here is the event description:

The daughter of the founder of the Moroccan movement Al-Adl wa-l-Ihsan (Justice and Spirituality Association, or JSA), Nadia Yassine is the founder of the JSA Women’s Department. Her first book, Toutes voiles dehors [English translation, Full Sails Ahead], was published in 2003 by Le Fennec in Morocco and Altereditions in France. She was the first to proclaim that the Mudawwana (the Moroccan family code) was not sacrosanct and must be revised.

What? So now she’s taking credit for the reform of the Moudawana?? Do the people who invited her know that she led a march against the reforms in Casablanca in the spring of 2000? (By the way, ‘ihsan’ does not mean ‘spirituality.’ Sounds like a lame attempt to make her sound like a real Sufi.)

I had expected E.L. Doctorow to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The March, but the prize went to another, similarly titled book: March, by Geraldine Brooks.

Several people sent me this link to Fernanda Eberstadt’s profile of Marrakech-based Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo, which appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Nothing terribly new in the piece, and I suppose I would have enjoyed it were it not for comments like this:

[Goytisolo’s] political essays, denouncing the official neglect that led to last November’s rioting in Paris suburbs, the corruption and tyranny of Arab governments or what he sees as the pernicious influence of Christian evangelism on American foreign policy, appear in Europe’s most prestigious newspapers.

The neglect of minorities in France and the tyranny of Arab governments are stated as incontrovertible facts, but the influence of Christian evangelism gets to be qualified with a “what he sees as.” Ugh.

The Lit Blog Co-Op has made its spring 2006 ‘Read This!’ selection: Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s Television, translated by Jordan Stump. Tune in all week to find which other titles were nominated, and to read nominators’ posts.

When she was nine years old, Reyna Grande came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant. Years later, she graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a degree in creative writing and was a 2003 PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellow. Her debut novel Across A Hundred Mountains, tells the story of two undocumented immigrants from Mexico. Daniel Olivas reviews the book for the El Paso Times.

In the nonlinear narrative, chapters alternate between her two female protagonists, Juana Garcia and Adelina Vasquez. First, we have Juana, a young girl who lives in a small Mexican village in extreme poverty. When a flood leads to yet another death in her family — a death that Juana feels responsible for — Juana’s father believes that he must earn more money to house his family in safer quarters. He believes that there are abundant opportunities “en el otro lado,” based on a letter from a friend: “Apá’s friend wrote about riches unheard of, streets that never end, and buildings that nearly reach the sky. He wrote that there’s so much money to be made, and so much food to eat, that people there don’t know what hunger is.”

Read the rest here.