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| 13-06-2006 |
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| Only a few days after the release of Amnesty’s report on human rights in the world including Morocco, our authorities felt an overwhelming nostalgia for their old and innate practices. No one can teach an old monkey new tricks! |
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| The public opinion witnessed over the past few days blatant violations of law by the Moroccan authorities against the Justice and Spirituality Movement all over the country: Rabat, Salé, Kenitra, Sidi Sliman, Tangier, Meknes, Taza, Layun, Agadir…to name but a few. |
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| The movement tried to organize open house events in many Moroccan cities in order to introduce our communitarian project to the public opinion, and try through this well intentioned initiative to clarify all misconceptions and misunderstandings surrounding our theory and practice. However, the Moroccan government viewed our efforts as a threat to the security and integrity of the nation and proceeded to a series of arrests, aborting the open house events forcibly. The raids were synchronized and systematic throughout the territory, which indicates that they were not isolated and improvised incidents, but ones consistent with a new nationwide orientation. Our members were arrested, their houses vandalized and their belongings looted. And the justification is, quoting the minister of interior Shakib Ben Moussa: “proliferation of activities”, apparently being active is against the law in our country. |
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| May 24, 2006: in Rabat members of the JSA were blockaded inside the building where the open days were supposed to be held then brutally assaulted by the police forces. 75 of them were arrested among which 25 women.The same thing happened a few miles away from the capital, in Tmara there were 50 arrests and a heavy toll of injuries.Also the same day in Kenitra the authorities surrounded a house of a JSA member till late at night with an impressive number of police cars and officers.In Tangier the situation wasn’t brighter; police forces broke into a JSA member house, arrested 20 people and plundered the house. Even small villages weren’t spared, 15 people were arrested in Souk Larbaa and in Sidi Sliman police compulsorily prevented people from attending the open house event. |
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| May 25, 2006: the authorities attacked the house of the prominent member of JSA’s guidance council Mr. Al Abbadi in Ouajda and arrested the 85 people gathering there. They kicked his family out of the house before pillaging and closing it. A lawsuit was filed by Mr Al Abbadi, and the tribunal is still looking into the matter. Police did also hire gangsters to help beat and terrorize our members along with the people who dared to sympathize with them.Another 35 members were arrested the same day in the city’s suburbs. |
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| May 27, 2006: authorities besieged and invaded many houses in Sttat, Agadir and Layun. 4 members were arrested. |
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| May 28, 2006: assault on a house in Taza and stealing of peaces of furniture and arrest of 15 people. In Mekness, 7 JSA officials were arrested and their houses assaulted and again plundered. |
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| June 1, 2006: The police forces surrounded houses in Tetouan and Fnidak, and arrested 125 JSM members who were later released with wounds of varying degrees. |
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| June 4, 2006: The authorities conducted a violent operation against families (of JSM members), which went out to enjoy a good time with their children on the beach. They attacked them and dispersed the gathering of innocent children who were terrorized under the pretext that entertainment activities are prohibited in beaches. |
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| June 6, 2006: The police forces surrounded a house in the city of Shawen, wherein an educational meeting was being held by some JSM members and arrested twenty of them. Later on, the members were summoned to police stations and were ordered to sign a document whereby they undertake not to hold meetings or host people in their houses, which they obviously refused.And in a dramatic escalation of hostilities, the authorities literally destroyed a two-store house where the open house event took place in Rabat. It was allegedly an unauthorized building. And shockingly enough, they also demolished two nearby mosques as a punitive measure, besides arresting 75 people and of course plundering the place. The same day also in the city of Shawen 5 JSA were unjustifiably arrested, and the authorities were about to kidnap a JSM member in a scenario reminiscent of Hollywood action thrillers had it not been for the intervention and protection of a number of other members who run to help. |
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| June 8, 2006: In the city of Agadir another usual congregation of our members was savagely dispersed leading to bad injuries and wounding of one of the movement’s officials. In Martil and Fnidek the toll was heavier, 8 people were seriously wounded, one of them is still in a coma. |
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| June 9, 2006: police forces arrested 250 members of the movement in the city of Bni Mellal, after surrounding and breaking into the house where a weekly spiritual meeting was being held.In Tetouan, authorities stroke again, breaking viciously into a house where the same meeting was being held and beating the participant up. They left behind 3 very serious injuries and arrested 15 people. In Rabat, 80 people were arrested for holding the same kind of reunion. Another house that usually hosts that meeting was surrounded by an extraordinary number of security forces of all kinds spread over several blocks around the house |
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| June 10, 2006: in Ait Melloul, authorities prevented one of the movement’s associations to hold a mock exam in favor of the students of Agadir Lakbeer high school, even though they had the permission to . |
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| June 11,2006: in Souk Larbaa, JSA members organized a charitable non-profit operation to circumcise children of disfavored people that the authorities boldly thwarted . |
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| June 12, 2006: in a disgraceful violation of civil rights, police attacked a JSA member’s house in Nador while he was at work and evicted his family without any legal warrant. The members who learned the news and gathered in front of the house to denounce the shameful aggression were all arrested, the 40 of them. |
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| Monday June 12, 2006: In Nador, the authorities assaulted for the second time the house of Jamal El Boutaybi. They expelled his wife and children and closed the house with no legal document whatsoever to back the decision. They arrested 40 other members who were in the house for a meeting but released them later that day. Jamal is still under custody to this moment and his family still banned from their house.
In Rabat, the same day, police forces assaulted a house again and arrested 25 people gathering to study and learn Hadiths.
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| Today June 13,2006: police arrested the prominent member of the movement’s guidance council Mr. Mohammed Al Abbadi. The arrest occurred when he attempted to enter his house now closed by authorities for days. He was arrested along with two other members: Abderrahman El Khidr and Basheer Abid. Note that he has filed a lawsuit in protest for unwarranted attack he and his family was subjected to, and surprisingly the tribunal decreed that the affair wasn’t of its prerogative. Whose prerogative is it then!?
At 04:00pm , police forces assailed another house in Salé and arrested 6 officials of the JSA.
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| These incidents were concurrent with persecutions of JSM members in their workplaces. The police forces carried out unjustified inspections in shops belonging to our members. They also tried on more than one occasion to prevent them from distributing communiqués denouncing the current hostilities that many human rights organizations did condemn |
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| Despite all the brutal aggressions, the movement’s steadfast commitment to its founding principles of non- violence prevails. Fathlah Arssalan The spokesman of the JSA among many other officials keep reiterating that no matter how fierce the attacks get, we are never going to resort to violence. We trust God’s promise to protect defend and elevate the oppressed on earth. |
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