Rabat - The T.V. was tuned to a Koran channel. I asked politely if it would be possible to watch the news on any channel to check on what had happened earlier in the morning. I didn't know that anything special had happened but anticipated there was always something tragic happening in some part of the Arab and Muslim world or involving an Arab or a Muslim. Operating his remote control device to change satellites and channels, the barber inquired whether I was interested in what had happened in Cairo. As he readjusted the sound, a London based Saudi channel popped on the screen showing images of a blast. Commentators were busy accusing what they referred to as the criminal brothers and their acolytes ISIS of a savage act of violence perpetrated by a guy on a motorcycle. The crater was several yards gaping and so deep it had reached the water table an eyewitness was saying. A customer, a young man, came in and sat next to me. He watched for a short while and an interesting discussion was launched.
According to him, everything bad happening to Arabs and Muslims, including ISIS, Al Qaida, Bachar Al Assad, Al Sissi, was the making of Israel, the USA and the West. He spoke of how candidates to terrorism are recruited on criteria such as the length of the beard and the hair and criminal pedigree. He seemed also quite positive about the honoraria they received for their enlisting. He spoke of US $ 3500 to $ 4000 a month plus full board and lodging and free access to jihadist women. "A young jobless person would do anything for anyone for such compensation," he confirmed.
His opinion was set and there was no way trying to convince him to listen, let alone to. Insider qualifying it. "All news channels and newspapers, regardless of where they are headquartered, where they are getting their money and of the language they speak are liars and sold to Zionists. You simply cannot rely on them to be well informed. You're left to yourself and to your intelligence to fare your way in the jungle of the media but not everyone has the capacity to discriminate between authentic and fake, good and wrong, accurate and fabricated news ..."
"They have corrupted Islam and they give of it a bloody image to the world. They have decimated or reduced to silence those who know what it really is and who could have made a difference talking about it. Only corrupt and ignorant people are allowed to entertain both Muslims and non Muslims about it. The reading and interpretation of the Koran and the Hadith have become the reserve of either incompetent individuals or scholars promoting anti Islamic agendas and in the payroll of International Zionism, colonialism and imperialism." On this theme, too, the guy held on his position as steadfastly as could be. He wouldn't give anyone the opportunity to place a word.
"Morocco is an exception and that is why we have so many jealous enemies and we must be very cautious. Our political system is the most stable, the most democratic and the one that provides for its population better than any other Arab or Islamic system. We must be grateful to God and thankful to him that we have the King we have. If only all our politicians, civil servants, judges and fiscal authorities were competent, fair and not as corrupt, we would be better off than Switzerland. If only our richest were more generous and less greedy and if only they paid their taxes, we would have no poverty. We have no oil, no gas and we lack nothing. There is no food shortage and hospitals, schools and universities are free of charge. Our streets are safer than any others in the region but none of these channels talk about this. They are all against us. They talk only about pedophiles, harassment of women is the streets, garbage that is not well collected, bad driving habits on the freeways, dropping educational levels, poor services in the hospitals, floods, bad effects of the drought as if we were responsible for natural disasters. ..."
At this point, the barber had finished his job shaving my friend's head and trimming his beard. I turned down my turn and preferred to leave my hair uncut for a few more months, said good bye and left.
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