#moroccan imperialism

[occvltswim]

"A Frenchman assassinated in Morocco: Émile Mauchamp, dispensary doctor in Marrakesh, stoned by the natives", illustration published in Le Petit Journal, No. 855, 1907

[rotzaprachim]

soooo many of the deep scars drawn up this week not only over antisemitism but colonialism and the legacy of violent imperialism. anyway I’ll say it again but many aspects of anti Asian racism and antisemitism are not fully interchangeable but deeply linked, and there are a lot of lines of ideological reasoning our communities should not be getting in bed with rn. One of the most significant is the “hive mind” that makes every Asian or Jew responsible for what states do in their name, another is inherent distrust or inscrutability over having “weird rituals” or secretly Evil plans, another is dual loyalties. Please be aware that if you see people using this logic towards one group they’ll likely be comfortable using it with another

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Little Son of Sultan Is Captivated by the Yo-Yo,” Toronto Star. September 26, 1932. Page 2. ---- Toys charm small sons of sultans as greatly as they do other little folk of high or low degree, in all nations. While in Paris, France, with his father, the sultan of Morocco, little three-year-old Molay el Hassan, was fascinated by the new French toys and here he is, all interest centred on a toy called the yo-yo.

[autodidactprofessor]

The Battle of the Three Kings: The Clash of Ambition and Fate

The Battle of Alcácer Quibir, also known as the Battle of the Three Kings, took place on August 4, 1578, near the town of Ksar-el-Kebir in northern Morocco. This battle was one of the most dramatic and consequential military engagements of the 16th century, involving three monarchs—King Sebastian of Portugal, Sultan Abd al-Malik of Morocco, and the deposed Moroccan Sultan Abu Abdallah Mohammed…

[petermorwood]

I COULD MURDER A CURRY... Well, at least commit a certain amount of violence on one.

In other words, I wanted something curry-ish the other day without taking much trouble over it, so I threw this together from what was in the cupboard, fridge and freezer.

(There was rather less than I expected. That's been fixed.)

When I discovered we had no lamb or chicken it ended up as unintended vegetarian, and can as easily become vegan; just leave out the ghee. If my result is anything to go by, all variations will taste great.

NB #1, there's no salt; the preserved lemon has plenty.

NB #2, metric measurements are correct, Imperial are approximate, but this whole recipe was pretty vague from start to finish, so wing it.

That's what I did. For instance, preserved lemon is Moroccan not Indian, yet it worked just fine.

Lemon and lime lentil curry

Ingredients

1 tablespoon ghee or coconut oil (I used a 50-50 combination)

2 onions peeled and chopped fine

2 tablespoon hot curry powder

1 tablespoon mild curry powder (or 1 hot / 2 mild if preferred)

6 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped fine

2 400g / 14oz tins chopped tomatoes in juice

1 400g / 14oz tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed

250 g / 1 cup red lentils

250 g / 1 cup each of red, green, and yellow peppers, sliced and coarsely chopped (optional; we had them in the freezer)

2 heaped tablespoons lime pickle, chopped fine (hot or mild as preferred; Patak brand is good. I used home-made hot)

2 heaped tablespoons preserved lemon, chopped fine (again, I used home-made) *

1 tablespoon garam masala

* If you can't source preserved lemons, use the zest and juice of at least one fresh lemon (two might be better). If you've only got bottled lemon juice, add 125ml / 1/2 cup of it when the tomatoes go in.

Method

Heat your preferred cooking fat in a pan (a wok is even better), add the chopped onions, and cook until soft and translucent. If desired, cook until starting to brown (this may take up to 45 minutes).

Push the onions to one side, allow the fat to flow into the centre of the pan, add the dry spices, combine well with the fat and cook for about five minutes.

Add the garlic and cook for a further five minutes.

Add the kidney beans and lentils to this mixture, stir well, add the peppers, lime pickle and preserved lemon, and stir again.

Add the chopped tomatoes, and one tomato-tin full of water. (Also add the lemon juice (and zest), if that's what you're using instead of preserved lemons.)

Stir well, turn the heat right down, cover, and simmer for about 30 to 45 minutes. (This is where I'd have added 2 cubed chicken breasts, if I'd had them).

Check occasionally to ensure nothing is sticking, adding a little water if required. Taste during this process, and adjust the seasoning. (Which means, if you're using fresh lemon or bottled lemon juice, this is when to add some salt.)

When the lentils are done (I like them a little al dente), sprinkle on 1 tablespoon garam masala, stir it in then serve.

Accompany with Basmati rice, or chapatis (flour tortillas / wraps will do just fine), or naan bread, or any combination of these. I did a mix of 1/3 brown Basmati / 2/3 white Basmati.

@dduane pointed out that what with the carbs, protein, dietary fibre etc., this is also quite healthy. That's an unexpected bonus for something I just thought was no trouble to make, tasted good...

And didn't involve committing even a minor felony, though a slice of apple tort to follow would have been nice... :->

[fatehbaz]

Thinking about the Holocaust in Africa.

Here, European notions of anti-Blackness and antisemitism became intertwined.

There was a fusion between the dispossession and racism of European imperialism and colonization projects of the late nineteenth century, and the prison regimes imposed by European fascism in the early twentieth century.

Scholars Sarah Abrevaya Stein and Aomar Boum have recently written much about the importance of recognizing the trauma of labor and internment camps in North Africa during the second world war.

And I want to express my gratitude for their work. I want to share some of what they’ve written in a couple of recent articles.

In their words: “Nazism in Europe was underlaid by an intricate matrix of racist, eugenicist and nationalist ideas. But the war – and the Holocaust – appears even more complex if historians take into account the racist and violent color wheel that spun in North Africa.” [1]

France's prison camps in North Africa were filled with Algerians, local Jews, deported European Jews, Eastern European refugees, domestic political dissidents from France, people fleeing fascist Spain, Moroccan residents, Senegalese subjects of French rule, other West Africans displaced by French occupation, and more.

The anti-Blackness and antisemitism that had fueled Europe's colonial expansion was finding new expression in fascist Europe.

---

Seems France is a central antagonist in the story of evolving approaches to empire, racism, and resource extraction.

After their 1940 alliance with the Nazis, the Vichy French government maintained technical control of French colonies across Africa. Beginning in 1940, the French government “alone built nearly 70 such camps in the Sahara.” [1] This was in addition to another six labor camps which the French government built in West Africa (in Senegal, Guinea, and Mali).

---

By the beginning of the twentieth century, French-influenced or -controlled territory in North Africa was home to around 500,000 Jews, many of whom had been living in the region for centuries or millennia, speaking many languages, “reflecting their many different cultures and ethnicities: Arabic, French, Tamazight – a Berber language – and Haketia, a form of Judeo-Spanish spoken in northern Morocco.” [1] The Vichy French government officially stripped North African Jews of formal citizenship and seized their assets.

Then, deporting residents of Europe and political dissidents in “early 1941, the Vichy authorities transferred hundreds of Jewish and non-Jewish refugees, including women and children, to the Saharan labor camps.” [2] Under French rule “in Algeria [...], it was estimated that 2,000-3,000 Jews were interned in camps [...] resulting in a total prisoner population of 15,000-20,000.” [2]  France pursued an “unrealized dream of the nineteenth century” [2]: the completion of the Mediterranean-Niger railroad line in the Sahara, a transportation route across the vast desert to connect the prosperous West African port of Dakar with the Mediterranean coast of Algeria.

Meanwhile the “Vichy regime [...] continued racist policies begun by France’s Third Republic, which pushed young Black men from the empire into forced military service,” including forced recruitment from “Senegal, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Niger and Mauritania; [...] Benin, Gambia and Burkina Faso; and Muslim men from Morocco and Algeria. In these ways, the French carried on a wartime campaign of anti-Blackness and Islamophobia, pairing these forms of racialized hatred from the colonial era with antisemitism. Antisemitism had deep roots in French and colonial history, but it found new force in the era of fascism.” [1]

---

In late 1942, during the Nazi occupation of Tunisia, the SS “imprisoned some 5,000 Jewish men in roughly 40 forced labor and detention camps on the front lines and in cities like Tunis.” [2] The fascist Italian government had been experimenting with racist and anti-Black policy in their colonization of East Africa; these policies were expanded in Libya. Here, “Mussolini ordered the Jews of Cyrenaica moved” as “most of the 2,600 Jews deported [...] were sent to the camp of Giado” while “other Libyan Jews were deported to the camps of Buqbuq and Sidi Azaz.” [2]

---

Stein and Boum describe the diversity of prisoner experience: “In these camps, [...] the complex racist logic of Nazism and fascism took vivid form. Muslims arrested for anti-colonial activities were pressed into back-breaking labor” and “broke bread with other forced workers” including ‘Ukrainians, Americans, Germans, Russian Jews and others [...] arrested, deported and imprisoned by the Vichy regime after fleeing Franco’s Spain. There were political enemies of the Vichy and Nazi regime too, including socialists, communists, union members [...] overseen by [...] forcibly recruited [...] Moroccan and Black Senegalese men, who were often little more than prisoners themselves.” [1]

As Stein and Boum describe it: “Vichy North Africa became a unique site [...] where colonialism and fascism co-existed and overlapped.” [2]

They write: “Together, we have spent a decade gathering the voices of the diverse peoples who endured World War II in North Africa, across lines of race, class, language and region. Their letters, diaries, memoirs, poetry and oral histories are both defiant and broken. They express both faith and despair. All in all, they understood themselves to be trapped in a monstrous machine of fascism, occupation, violence and racism.” [1]

---

[1]: Sarah Abrevaya Stein and Aomar Boum. “80 years ago, Nazi Germany occupied Tunisia - but North Africans’ experiences of World War II often go unheard.” The Conversation. 15 November 2022.

[2]: Sarah Arbevaya Stein and Aomar Boum. “Labor and Internment Camps in North Africa.” Holocaust Encyclopedia online. Last edited 13 May 2019.

[sissa-arrows]

The African Union had a meeting in Tokyo (Tokyo International Conference on African Development). A couple articles online as well as a video emerged. The meeting was supposed to happen this week end. But one of the Moroccan representative ended up being banned and the majority of the delegation followed him out of solidarity (or maybe shame I ain’t in their heads). Today when the representatives came in to prepare tomorrow’s meeting, the Moroccan representative tried to physically attack the representative of Western Sahara and remove the thing on the desk with the name of the country. The representative of Algeria had to get involved to tackle the Moroccan and stop him… (using the close up video on which someone added the flags so you know who is who)

It’s crazy how indigenous people just have to breathe and exist for colonizers to feel offended and attack them. Like Moroccans are justifying it by saying the representative of Western Sahara put a tag with the name of his country on the table…

Moroccans who support colonialism are also pulling out a 2022 video in which Japan says that they don’t recognize Western Sahara as a state. They pretend that the video happened today and that it’s the proof that the representative of Western Sahara introduced himself in the meeting without being allowed to with Algeria’s help. For the record the presence of Western Sahara was known before the attack. While it’s happening in Tokyo it involves the UN which means that Japan’s personal opinion on Western Sahara in 2022 doesn’t matter.

About Japan not recognizing Western Sahara: Are we just erasing Japanese imperialism and colonialism in East Asia to pretend that their opinion on colonialism comes from a good place? Like a colonizer supporting an other colonizer how surprising I guess? France is also on Morocco’s side… Spain is on Morocco’s side… Israel is on Morocco’s side… the US are on Morocco’s side. Like if the colonizers are on your side in a case where you’re accused of colonialism don’t brag about it.

[flagellant]

tabletop characters be like "godhead of the secret police and assassin cult (lawful good peace activist", "imperialism as transgender repression simulator", "lovecraft nerd becomes a demonic prince of dance and song and his soul becomes a cosmic horror library with moroccan architecture", "shitty demigod gets turned into a holy lich and goes apeshit with power instantly", and "an entirely different type of holy lich tells his boss hes gonna go be a furry boytoy for the faction leader she told him to spy on"

[hippography]

MULES CARRY WOUNDED AND SUPPLIES ON FIFTH ARMY MOUNTAIN FRONT

Object description: The mules carry wounded soldiers on their return journey. In the mountainous areas on the Fifth Army front, mules carry supplies, ammunition and equipment. In some cases they carry medical sipplies forward and evacuate wounded. On the French sector, a Moroccan Medical Battalion is relying on mules to carry their precious supplies of medical equipment forward.

Related period: Second World War (production), Second World War (content)

Creator: No. 2 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit

Production date: 1944

Catalogue number: NA 13884

Imperial War Museum

[depressedgarbages-stuff]

All posts of the situation of 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸 I saw today (Wed, Apr 24.):

https://www.tumblr.com/radicalgraff/748203339992481792/graffiti-spotted-in-quebec-city?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/the-lady-maddy/746583699892666368?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/radicalgraff/747854223816966145/the-destruction-of-gaza-by-usa-weapons?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/radicalgraff/748204492863995904/if-you-dont-like-graffiti-look-away-like-you-do?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/depressedgarbages-stuff/748588586030497792/all-posts-of-the-situation-of-i?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/i-am-aprl/746168816210444288/this-is-the-last-memory-she-will-have-of-them-we?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/radicalgraff/748622707350011904/free-palestine-death-2-us-imperialism-seen-in?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/tamarrud/747842227970228224/the-fact-there-are-mass-graves-being-discovered-at?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/the-bastard-king/745992305559879680/so-even-if-you-think-it-isnt-enough-remember?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/good-old-gossip/747202677764669440/at-the-same-time-allegations-involving?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/thekeypa/748713116812066816/you-can-not-bomb-your-way-to-peace-and-peace-is?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/deadespeon/748713054089445376/i-want-to-do-a-donation-i-dont-know-how-much-i?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/fuzzythememe/748712806889717760/donate-to-help-ali-and-his-family-to-get-out-of?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/soon-palestine/748712321894006784/us-refuses-to-back-un-calls-for-probe-into?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/zarathelonewolf/748711797359575040/today-is-an-important-day-today-79-years-ago?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/soon-palestine/748712183432658944?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/thebusylilbee/748711317948497920/oh-my-fucking-god-im-listening-to-a-jewish-lawyer?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/furrysinthematrix/748711115101487104/moroccan-drug-dealers-refuse-to-sell-to-israeli?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/fuckyeah-bears/748711306410000384/is-it-really-any-wonder-that-people-who-support?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/slavacocaine/748711113378660352/this-is-why-they-really-want-to-ban-tiktok?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/slavacocaine/748711038961205248?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/ryuu-from-the-grave/748710814961270784/liar-liar-pants-on-fire-hope-hes-found-hanging?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/slavacocaine/748710214339035136/united-states-israel-would-call-this-kid-a?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/slavacocaine/748710141885579264?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/sevenoctober7/748709757321347072/the-us-is-turning-into-a-mini-israel-idf-usually?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/the-secret-garden1/748709618656722944/palestine-update-day-200-of-the-genocide-this?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/slavacocaine/748709629501046784/ex-israeli-pilot-our-army-is-a-terrorist?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/lunarr-stuff/748709101297696768/the-bulldozer-kept-coming-a-girl-stares-down?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/slavacocaine/748709536464093184/the-head-of-the-hamas-politburo-ismail-haniyeh?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/wearemerelyplayers/748709462800498688/hello-there-my-family-needs-to-leave-gaza-out-of?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/forthesakeofthefuture/748709005657014272/certain-people-tell-you-to-not-believe-terrorists?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/redvelvetwishtree/748708913758814208/hello-there-im-sorry-if-i-am-bothering-you-but-i?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/twst-charity/748708895247171584/some-updates-about-the-protests-and-subsequent?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/fullmetal-angelgrace/748708414729945088/cal-poly-humboldt-april-24th-2024?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/noctomania/748708545812463616/fuck-yes?source=share

[animalcrossingshowdown]

Furniture items and sets round 1 results:

Items:

Froggy chair 90.6% / Leo sculpture 9.4%

Mush lamp 83.9% / Cancer table 16.1%

Mom's homemade cake 77.9% / Skull rug 22.1%

Afternoon-tea set 76.4% / My Melody clock 23.6%

Star clock 75.2% / Anatomical model 24.8%

Lily record player 74.7% / Scattered papers 25.3%

Dried-flower garland 72.6% / Rose bed 27.4%

Virgo harp 70.2% / Rescue mannequin 29.8%

Wooden music box 70.1% / Bathtub with yuzu 29.9%

Snail clock 69.1% / Imperial dining table 30.9%

Spooky cookies 67.8% / ACNH Nintendo Switch 32.2%

Plain party-lights arch 67% / Cinnamoroll sofa 33%

Moon 67% / Hyacinth lamp 33%

Greenhouse box 66.4% / Soft-serve lamp 33.6%

Dreamy rabbit toy 66% / Elephant slide 34%

Crescent-moon chair 65.2% / Retro stereo 34.8%

Toy duck 65% / Lovely phone 35%

Dreamy wall rack 61.7% / Throwback skull radio 38.3%

Lucky cat 59.2% / Decayed tree 40.8%

Tiny library 59.2% / Kerokerokeroppi bridge 40.8%

Fortune-telling set 59.2% / Cucumber horse 40.8%

Resetti model 58.5% / Titan arum 41.5%

Wheat field 55.1% / Zodiac dragon figurine

Paper tiger 54.5% / Colorful juice 45.5%

Cherry-blossom pond stone 54.4% / Rocket lamp 45.6%

Hamster cage 53.5% / Monster statue 46.5%

Starry garland 53.3% / Bonsai shelf 46.7%

Balloon-dog lamp 52.2% / Eggplant cow 47.8%

Creepy skeleton 52.2% / Elaborate kimono stand 47.8%

Mom's plushie 52% / Pergola 48%

Peach chair 51.1% / Dessert case 48.9%

Rattan towel basket 50.9% / Cherry-blossom branches 49.1%

1 ) I can't believe you guys voted out lovely phone, the entire reason I'm adding functions to these posts, in round 1

2 ) I can't believe you guys voted out cherry-blossom branches, the item that was positioned as second most likely to win based on number of submissions, in round 1

Sets:

Spooky 89.1% / Throwback 10.9%

Motherly 84.9% / Kiddie 15.1%

Shell 83.1% / Chess 16.9%

Sloppy (classic) 83.1% / Sloppy (ACNH) 16.9%

Rococo 81.6% / Elegant 18.4%

Insect 81.4% / Mario 18.6%

Glowing moss 78.2% / Ruined 21.8%

Mermaid 77.6% / Harvest 22.4%

Cute 76.3% / Lovely 23.7%

Modern 71.9% / Construction 28.1%

Ironwood 71.5% / Hello Kitty 28.5%

Fish 71.5% / Plaza 28.5%

Sweets 70.6% / My Melody 29.4%

Alpine 70.2% / Nordic 29.8%

Stars 69.6% / Gorgeous 30.4%

Cherry blossoms 68.5% / Blue 31.5%

Rattan 67.1% / Astro 32.9%

Flower 66.7% / Diner 33.3%

Fruit (ACNH) 66.7% / Fruit (classic) 33.3%

Antique 65.6% / Classic 34.4%

Modern wood 62.7% / Green 37.3%

Log 62.6% / Cabin 37.4%

Princess 62.6% / Card 37.4%

House plants 61.5% / Kerokerokeroppi 38.5%

Ranch (ACNH) 60.7% / Ranch (classic) 39.3%

Dreamy 58.3% / Wedding 41.7%

Mush (classic) 55.1% / Mush (ACNH) 44.9%

Patchwork (classic) 54.6% / Patchwork (ACNH) 45.4%

Kiki & Lala 53.9% / Moroccan 46.1%

Regal 51.2% / Cinnamoroll 48.8%

Robo 51% / Cardboard 49%

Gracie 50.6% / Imperial 49.4%

As you can see I've colour coded the sets by game. NL is pink, NH is blue, and sets that didn't really change between games are purple.

For the redesign matches, it was an even split between NH and NL. out of 10 redesign matches, they each won 5.

It's easier for me if all the new polls post in a row with no gaps between, so round 2 will start in a few days to give the hourly tournament a chance to catch up! This should be the only round where I have to do that.

[rotzaprachim]

Israelis aren’t really that interchangeable with Western European settlers in turtle island imho. Doesn’t stop both from being settlers but most white people of German, Irish, polish, French, Swedish, Norwegian people in the us & Canada literally could pack up and go back. They could do so on their current passports. They have us & Canadian privilege and could leave. Note that this isn’t actually being called for by land back but it is something they are in a position to physically do.

Israelis are settlers who for the most part *cannot go back*, both due to mass antisemitism - many of the countries the ancestors of the majority of Israeli Jews are from literally ban anyone with an Israeli passport from returning - but also because of often neocolonial and Neo imperial warfare in the places Jews used to live. They can’t go back to Iraq or Afghanistan or Crimea or Yemen or Kurdistan. Israelis have a lot more in common with other populations of Eastern European and middle eastern/North African refugees who live as settlers on stolen land, such as Bosnian-American, Armenian-American, Moroccan-Quebecois and Lebanese-Australian people. I see a lot of discussion that draws lines between being a “refugee” and a “settler” but in reality many people are both those things at once and that’s how land dispossession WORKS. Comparing Israelis to white people on turtle island is a well intended metaphor (and one that shows how bananas a lot of the general hypocrisy actually is) but all it underlines is white goy privilege, not a simple answer to this situation.

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 16 February 1936, elections were held in Republican Spain and the left-wing Popular Front emerged victorious. But despite the Republic having been in place for five years, Morocco was still not freed from colonial domination. The Republic would eventually pay for this, when the nationalists made use of Moorish troops to defeat them in the civil war. Trinidadian communist George Padmore wrote at the time in response to left-wingers internationally decrying Moroccan soldiers often in racist terms: "It is not the politically backward Moors who should be blamed for being used by the forces of reaction against the Spanish workers and peasants, but the leaders of the Popular Front, who, in attempting to continue the policy of Spanish Imperialism, made it possible for Franco to exploit the natives in the service of Fascism… "Had the Popular Front Government, immediately it assumed office, issued decrees granting the colonial peoples economic and political reforms as a gesture towards self-government and appealed for their support against France, it would have been assured… For the Moors have no particular ideological interest in Fascism. They, like most colonial peoples, are not concerned with the conflicting political conflicts going on in Europe. To them all whites are alike – a feeling which can hardly be otherwise when Labour and Popular Front Governments oppress and exploit them in the same way as Tory and other reactionary Capitalists… Not until the European workers’ movements, especially in countries with great empires like Britain and France show more solidarity in deeds and not words will this distrust and suspicion be removed." Learn more about the civil war in our podcast episodes 39-40: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/06/17/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/ Pictured: Moroccan troops in Spain, 1936 https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2210997169085421/?type=3

[annachum]

What laughs I think Tinkerbell's other fairy friends are born from ( and that's just some of them )

. Silvermist : A Qing Imperial Chinese baby Princess

. Vidya : A Qajar Empire Persian baby princess

. Rosetta : A baby girl borne from wealthy Italian immigrants in New Orleans

. Iridessa : A baby girl borne from a Moroccan noble household

. Faun : An Irish baby from a middle class household

. Zarina : A Scottish baby from a Scottish pirate household

. Terence : A French baby from a middle class household

[gothhabiba]

Literacy is a contested term that both shapes and is shaped by our understandings of divisions among individuals, social groups and institutions. Many earlier approaches to literacy treated it as a neutral technology or skill: the simple ability to read and write. Indeed, there have been trends in both academia and development discourse to represent literacy as a problem of technology in which literacy learning is viewed as a straightforward and unproblematic process of an individual’s acquiring and applying decoding skills to matching a string of sounds to their graphic symbols and vice versa (Schieffelin and Charlier Doucet 1998; Wagner 1993). The technical skills needed to read and write are imagined as neutral and universally applicable regardless of the particularities of the cultural or social environment in which they are being deployed. This trend, commonly referred to as the “autonomous model” of literacy acquisition, has been repeatedly shown to inform literacy projects developed by international organizations (Street 1984; Street 1995).

Literacy has been widely assumed to cause cognitive differences between individuals and has been argued to be the basis of a “great divide” between cultures — so called “oral cultures” and “literate cultures” — and as such has frequently been used to mark the difference between the "civilized" and "uncivilized." [...] [Walter] Ong, in his article “Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought,” describes literacy as an “imperious” force that establishes itself as the cognitive foundation of human expression and thought (Ong 1986). He argues that “functional literate human beings… are beings whose thought processes do not grow out of simply natural powers but out of these powers as structured, directly or indirectly, by the technology of writing” (24). The view of literacy held by international organizations and development projects has emerged from these earlier positions. They tend to discuss literacy as a material that can be measured, bought or sold as part of a market economy and posit that a certain level of literacy is necessary in order for a nation’s economy to develop and compete in the global market.

Over the past two decades, numerous scholars have argued for a historical approach to understanding literacy that pays explicit attention to how literacy practices shape and are shaped by discourses of power, identity and subject formation. New Literacy Studies theorists, and most particularly Brian Street, are the most commonly cited critics of autonomous models of literacy. Street claims that all models about literacy, particularly those that posit literacy as a universal, individual skill, are embedded in particular power relations. In the context of the developing world moreover, these are power relations that often favor Western models of orality, literacy, rationality, and logical thought. Indeed, even the claim that literacy is a neutral technology reveals particular ideologies about language and its relationship to power (Blommaert 2005; Blommaert, et al. 2006; Collins and Blot 2003; Street 1995).

— Jennifer Lee Hall, Debating Darija: Language Ideology and the Written Representation of Moroccan Arabic in Morocco (PhD dissertation), 2015, pp. 36-8.

Blommaert, Jan 2005 Creativity within Constraints: Hetero-Graphy. In Discourse. Pp. 107-123 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Blommaert, Jan, Lies Creve, and Evita Willaert 2006 On Being Declared Illiterate: Language-Ideological Disqualification in Dutch Classes for Immigrants in Belgium. Language & Communication 26(1):34-54.

Collins, James, and Richard K Blot 2003 Literacy and Literacies: Texts Power and Identity. Volume 22. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ong, Walter J. 1986 Writing Is a Technology That Restructures Thought. In The Written Word: Literacy in Transition. G. Baumann, ed. Pp. 23-50. New York: Clerendon Press.

Schieffelin, Bambi B., and Rachelle Charlier Doucet 1998 The "Real" Haitian Creole: Ideology, Metalinguistics, and Orthographic Choice. In Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory. B.B. Schieffelin, K.A. Woolard, and P.V. Kroskrity, eds. Pp. 285-316. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Wagner, Daniel A. 1993 Literacy, Culture, and Development: Becoming Literate in Morocco. Cambridge [England]; New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.

[eretzyisrael]

by Eunice G. Pollack and Stephen H. Norwood

Many Arabs stressed that even before "Zionist ... pretensions" threatened the "happy relationship" between Muslims and Jews, it had been disrupted by the imposition of European colonial rule.[13] They informed their Western audiences that Jews had "enjoyed all the privileges and rights of citizenship" before colonialism introduced an "artificial separation" between Muslim and Jew. A Moroccan political leader insisted that for this reason the Jews had "welcomed" the overthrow of colonial rule and the return of "Arabization" and the establishment of the independent Muslim nation.[14]

Contrary to the Arabs' contentions, however, it was the colonial powers that had extended citizenship (e.g., Algeria in 1870), equality or near-equality (e.g., the French Protectorate in Morocco, 1912–1956) to the Jews, liberating them at last from their status as subjugated, humiliated dhimmis, and ending the oppressive jizya, the tribute always exacted by the Muslims. Thus Jews had strongly endorsed the colonial presence, generally embracing modern European education and culture.[15] It was under British occupation (1882–1922) that Jews in Egypt felt safest. Notably, under Islamic rule, it was only the Ottoman Empire that, in an effort to secure European support—and modern weapons—issued an Imperial Edict (1856) that, in theory, extended equal rights to all its subjects. In practice, however, Ottoman governors (pashas) confined themselves to collecting taxes, while local rulers and the populace—for example, the Mamluks in Egypt—continued to persecute, pillage, and impose additional "heavy levies" on the Jews. Thus most Jews not only supported European colonial rule, but feared the independence movements, with the threat of return to their earlier subordinate "social, political and economic" positions.[16]

Islamic Myths about Jews' Inherent Traits

Arab commentators readily dismissed over two centuries of travelers' accounts and investigative reports that belied their claims about the conditions and contentment of Jews under Islamic rule. They simply turned to another hoary myth in order to protect their current fable. The Arabs discarded all the testimony that contradicted their narrative, explaining that it had been derived largely from Jews, whom the Qur'an characterized as congenitally deceitful, never to be trusted.[17]

At times, political and religious leaders conceded that the Jews in Muslim lands had been relentlessly subjugated, relying on another large cache of myths, drawn or extrapolated from the Qur'an, to sanctify their abasement of those they now identified as "the dogs of humanity." Indeed, from the earliest years of Islam, Muslims had understood that "their deadliest enemies were the Jews."[19] They were the only people cursed in the Qur'an, whom Allah had promised "degradation in this world and a mighty chastisement in the next world." Muslim theologians recognized that the Jews were "like germs of a malignant disease where one germ is sufficient to eliminate an entire nation." But, they taught, "the Holy Qur'an ... constitutes the microscope through which we can see the pests and poisons that reside in their minds and hearts." Thanks to Qur'anic lessons on how to subdue the Jews, the Muslims were "the only people on earth to tolerate them" in their midst.[20]

Citing the Qur'an, prominent Muslim educators portrayed the Jews as driven throughout their history to bring "blind sedition ... and intrigue in any land or community where they happened to live." Some suggested that this was likely "why the Israelites ... were so detested by all surrounding tribes."[21] Others explained that "the Jews themselves have not changed" because, "according to ... their false Torah," they "are required to stir war with their neighbors once they have the opportunity to do so." Some added that the Jews often preferred to deploy "conspiracies, plots, intrigues [and] sedition" because they were inherently "cowards and could not openly face their enemy."[22]

Not acknowledging a contradiction, many spokesmen insisted that "the Jews have always been criminal aggressors." Jews claim that they are victims, "subjected [throughout] their long history" to "oppression and persecution" "for no other reason than their being followers of Moses." In truth, "the hatred felt by various peoples ... for Jews was not due to their belief, but their ... unchangeable behavior, always based on exploitation, ingratitude and evil-doing in return for kindness." That is, the "criminal aggressors" only deceptively identify as innocent victims.[23] Educators taught that the Jews are "avaricious, ruthless, cruel, hypocritical and revengeful. These traits govern their lives." They point out that the Qur'an warned that, if permitted, the Jews would "become great tyrants." They conclude: "No good is expected of them unless they live under the aegis of Islam as loyal and obedient subjects." Then the Muslims "will treat them ... tolerantly." "Islamic tolerance is," after all, in complete contrast to "Jewish intolerance and cruelty."[24]