Elections, terror and psychopaths

30/09/2007

The Maghreb's bloggers debated Ayman al-Zawahiri's recent call for jihad and Morocco's new prime minister.

[Getty Images] Tunisian blogger Cos-Maux-Polis voted Ayman Al-Zawahiri "Idiot of the Week".

The latest speech by al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri, aired September 20th, sparked various reactions and comments from the Maghreb blogosphere.

It was the "Joke of the Season", according to Tunisia's Big Trap Boy. "Doctor Psychopath showed his pretty face to the world again… threatening and calling for more attacks in the Maghreb region. He wants us to chase the French and Spanish from the Maghreb and then chase the Spanish out of their own country- why not?" wrote the blogger, continuing, "But then tell me, after we win this holy war… and in case 'the infidels' tell us: leave our cousins' land, or else we will attack you with a new weapon called the atomic bomb, and erase us from the map, from the ocean to the peninsula, what do we do, at that point? Hide under your holy turban or maybe under your daddy's robe?"

Tunisian blogger Cos-Maux-Polis voted Ayman Al-Zawahiri "Idiot of the Week". She wrote: "This idiot calls all Muslims to 'cleanse the Islamic Maghreb of the sons of France and Spain' to prepare for 'the restoration of Andalusia'… [But] the golden age of Andalusia he is calling for was in fact more tolerant and brilliant than the obscure Salafist Islam he professes. Poor Maghreb; trapped between the hammer of Islamist terror and the anvil of authoritarian regimes." Moroccan King Mohammed VI appointed Istiqlal Party leader Abbas El-Fassi the country's new Prime Minister on September 19th, replacing independent Driss Jettou, who has led the government since 2002.

Some bloggers applauded the decision. Larbi wrote that "the Moroccan king had the courtesy to appoint as Prime Minister the leader of the winning party in the legislatives," not selecting his own as he did after the 2002 elections. "This nice order is upset by the identity of the leader of the winning party, who is none other than Abbas El-Fassi. The new head of government… will not restore the value of the prime minister's position, given his amusing conception of political life," added Larbi.

Larbi, who two years ago called for the resignation of El-Fassi over the Al Najat scam, said the nomination has to be respected by all. "I need to be fair and not say one thing and then the opposite. When I voted, I vowed the elections would make sense and… now that is done, and even if it is Abbas, I will not renounce my vote… and in the spirit of democracy, this nomination has to be respected by all," Larbi concluded.

In a post entitled "Popular King Makes Unpopular Decision by Appointing Unpopular Man", Adil Ski called El-Fassi's appointment Morocco's "worst nightmare". According to the blogger, "Moroccans were hoping to see the current transportation minister, Ghellab, or Tourism minister, Adil Diouri, as the new PM given their achievements at their respective ministries, in addition to their relative young age and their short history of mingling in the largely mistrusted Moroccan political sphere."

Amina Talhimet wrote that "Democracy is not a game. Elections have significance, and the nomination of the prime minister is the most implacable demonstration… as hard as it may seem, the September 7th elections reveal a real change in our country. For the first time in the history of modern Morocco the nomination of the prime minister is in complete agreement with the ballots."