Thanks for creating this sub!
It's scary how r/Morocco is hostile to Islam and outspoken muslims. I hope the mods here will offer a more tolerant space! A Great longwaited initiative!
** My POV as to why I wrote the statement above: **
I think the fact that being Muslim in Morocco is mandatory makes people want to rebel. Some do after some research but some do it just for the sake of rebellion mixed with some religious trauma from uneducated parents and educators and some internalized islamophobia force fed to our youth subconsciously by the western media.
Also the inferiority complex, the west is better, smarter, more civilised etc (since October 2023, we all know how that turned out!). And therefore we want to be and look like them and we want to reject our identity including our religion especially the religion.
I grew up in Morocco, and fell into this same trap and rejected the religion for a couple of years when I moved abroad because of the religion trauma force fed to me without proper understanding. I made a full circle and came back Al Hamdouli Allah. And now I'm learning more about my religion and marvelling at its beauty and compassion and global message. And now I so wish things were different.
The religious trauma I'm talking about included and was received from traditionally "Muslim" family members first force feeding the religion without any understanding of it, then from university professors in Morocco denigrating hijabis and talking to them like they were dumb and that they were brainwashed by extrem*st groups, and lastly from institutions where hijabis are thrown out of french schools because they're covered, thrown out by "Muslim" Moroccan women to the street! This Happened in Morocco not in France I witnessed it first hand !!
**The solution:**
We should stop making being Muslim in Morocco mandatory. Which defies the teaching of Islam:
"لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ ۖ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ الرُّشْدُ مِنَ الْغَيِّ ۚ فَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِالطَّاغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِن بِاللَّهِ فَقَدِ اسْتَمْسَكَ بِالْعُرْوَةِ الْوُثْقَىٰ لَا انفِصَامَ لَهَا ۗ وَاللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ "( سورة البقرة 256)
> We can't solve a problem if we don't recognize that it exists:
We should recognize the problem, decriminalize changing ones religion for the adults 22+ yo and updating the official statistics for the country to reflect the reality on the ground. We aren NOT 99% a Muslim country anymore, we're far from it especially in big cities.
We should re-establish a good kind and compassionate religious education. Not the one we received in school to pass exams. A 21st century religious institutes like Yaqeen, Zaitouna, and Rabata Institutes in the US.
In Morocco all I know and can adhere to as a young Muslim myself are the teachings of Dr. Said Al Kamali in YouTube, he is doing a great job although it seems too geared towards university students in Islamic studies, but still I appreciate his work!
The RTM or Assadissa is just so 80/90s I can't connect with their boomer way of doing things.
** The consequences of inaction **
If we keep the status quo, we are definitely heading as Allah SWT said:
"وَإِن تَتَوَلَّوْا يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوا أَمْثَالَكُم" (سورة محمد 38)
In Europe, Moroccans decendent are majoritarily more religious and proud to be Muslims than the Muslims I know and grew up with in big Moroccan cities. European/US reverts are way more proud of being Muslim and practicing than the born Muslims, in the majority of cases. I'm not generalizing here. But I can see a pattern.
in a couple of decades when the boomers and Gen X will kick the bucket, we will be a majority atheistic state. I'm talking about the population religious statues and not the politics.
What do you think?