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Moroccan Amazigh activist and author Ahmad Assid came out in support of secularism in a recent TV interview, saying that "all non-secular Muslim countries have despotic oppressive regimes." Assid, speaking in an interview that aired the Moroccan Zoom7 TV channel and was posted on the Internet on July 29, 2015, called for Morocco to leave the Arab League, saying that it was an "impotent organization."
Following are excerpts:
Interviewer: Is there a contradiction between moral values and religion?
Ahmad Assid: There is a discrepancy. Moral values…
Interviewer: A discrepancy in what sense?
Ahmad Assid: Moral values go far beyond religion. Morality is a huge realm, which includes religion, and not vice versa.
Interviewer: Perhaps it is the other way around…
Ahmad Assid: No, it isn't. let me give you a crystal-clear example, which no reasonable person can deny. If moral values equal religion, then non-religious people are immoral. Let us examine advanced countries, such as Switzerland or Norway. A huge number of people there do not believe in any religion, but they are the epitome of moral values. When you go somewhere, you see people standing in a queue, and you show respect by joining them and awaiting your turn. In the Muslim world, on the other hand, you see anarchy. Nobody shows any respect to anyone.
Interviewer: Perhaps this has to do with the law.
Ahmad Assid: No. It has to do with moral values. You stand in line not because of the law. There is no law telling you that you must stand in line.
[…]
As early as 1994, I anticipated what is now happening in Syria and Iraq. I said that a day would come when the Islamists would form armed groups, and would destroy many countries, because they do not believe in democracy or in the modern state. They must destroy everything in order to build their state. But their state, with all due respect, can never return, because we shall not go backwards.
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The freedom of the masses lies with secularism, whether or not they are aware of this. The proof is that all the secular states worldwide are prosperous, stable, and advanced states, with real citizenship. Conversely, all the states that use religion are backward states, governed by anarchy, with garbage everywhere, countries in which people – whether religious or non-religious – do not feel safe. Show me one Muslim country that is prosperous and strong…
Interviewer: Turkey.
Ahmad Assid: Turkey is a secular country. Great. You have proven my theory. I support Turkey. Consider me a Turk. The Islamic party reached power in Turkey because of secularism.
[…]
Show me a single non-secular Muslim country that has the might, the stability, or the economy of Turkey. There are none to be found. All these countries have despotic, oppressive regimes, which despise their citizens and give rise to god-like rulers, who have total control over the people. Is this what religion is about? Is this what Islam is about? Does Islam necessarily have to be a despotic system? Why have the Muslims failed in building democratic political systems? Why is it that the Muslims say that they represent rightness, but when they reach power, they implement nothing of what they talk about? On the contrary, they establish a despotic regime.
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The mistakes [of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt] turned everybody against them. They could have made simple mistakes, but still have maintained the country's unity, but one thing they cared about was to take over the entire country, and to do it as quickly as possible in order to implement their scheme. The number one mistake of the Muslim Brotherhood – and it was a lethal one – was that when they were drafting the constitution, and when everybody started withdrawing from the committee – four Coptic churches withdrew from this committee, and so did the leftists and the liberals… Who was left to draft the constitution? The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis.
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Their understanding of democracy was a mistaken one. They believed that whoever wins the majority can do to whatever he wants. This is not what democracy is about. The winner cannot do whatever he likes in Britain, in France, or in the U.S. either.
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Interviewer: Will you demand, sometimes in the future, that Morocco leave the Arab League?
Ahmad Assid: That is an old demand of the Amazigh movement. The Amazigh movement has always demanded that Morocco leave the Arab League, which is an important organization that plays no role whatsoever. It has failed in everything it has done in the past twenty years. This league is based on the assumption that these are Arab countries. Well, we are not Arabs. Nothing obliges us to be Arabs. Our constitution acknowledges the pluralism of our identity, whereas the Arab League considers the region to be Arab, populated by Arabs. This does not apply to us.
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