Monday, Aug. 16, 1954

New Rebellion

In the great mosque at Fez, religious capital of French Morocco, the bearded priests of the Prophet met one day last week to give nationalism a religious blessing. To France's Resident General in Rabat, the political capital, they sent this solemn message: "A sacred religious obligation is imposed upon us to counsel the right, to reprove the wrong . . . We judge it opportune to demand in the name of Islam and of the Moroccan people the return of their legal sovereign, Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef, to the throne." Then, in secrecy, the priests reached another decision. Suicide is a deadly sin in Moslem theology, but the conclave decided to sanction the use of cyanide capsules by any Moroccan patriot who might be captured by the French.

Bloodshed was one result. After a generation of unfulfilled French promises to move towards home rule, Morocco crackled with sporadic murders and riots. Its 5,000,000 Arabs (60% of the total population) demanded that the French restore their 43-year-old Sultan, Ben Youssef, Commander of the Faithful, whom the French deposed a year ago this month and exiled to Madagascar with a retinue of concubines. The rebels were led by an outlawed party of once moderate nationalists : the underground Istiqlal.

Colonial Police State. Sultan Ben Youssef's crime had been to lend his royal support to the nationalist movement. His mortal enemy was cunning old El Glaoui, the Pasha of Marrakech and leader of Morocco's 3,000,000 Berbers, a mountain people who hate the Arabs. The French backed El Glaoui, and replaced Ben Youssef with a stooge loyal to both France and the Berbers: Sidi Mohammed ben Moulay Arafa, who is aged, weak and unpopular.

Twice, Arab extremists have tried to assassinate Ben Arafa; he no longer stirs from his palace in Rabat. The French, in turn, have outlawed the moderate Istiqlal, jailed 5,000 of its members (whom they could catch more easily than the terrorists), and have come close to turning Morocco into a colonial police state. From these events came the violence that shook Morocco last week.

Wave of Violence. Reported TIME Correspondent Frank White from Casablanca:

Morocco's new wave of violence began one morning at 9:30. A crowd of Arabs gathered in the market place at Fez, bearing crudely painted portraits of the deposed Sultan and shouting: "Long live Ben Youssef!" When the police used tear gas, the Arabs showered them with stones. The police opened fire: five Moroccans fell dead and 25 were wounded.

The next outburst came in the oil town of Petit jean (pop. 70,000). The rumor (entirely false) had got about that Ben Youssef had escaped from Madagascar and was on his way home. A mob collected, and in half-patriotic, half-religious frenzy, turned on Jewish shopkeepers, killing six and burning their bodies.

Hunting Season. Day by day the tension increases. At Port Lyautey, Arabs stabbed a Frenchwoman, strangled her daughter, castrated two French soldiers on patrol. In Casablanca, where 150,000 Europeans and 650,000 Arabs live in an atmosphere of cabarets, slums and quays, hqlmeted French troops march up and down between the machine-gun posts set up in the Place de France. The Arabs are virtually blockaded in the labyrinthine native quarter, but their guns and knives are still active, especially at night. "It's like being a rabbit when the hunting season starts," said one nervous Frenchman. "One can find it entirely amusing."

Terrorism breeds terrorism. One bunch of French settlers, veterans of World War II, have formed a society of assassins known as "The White Hand." Last week they blew to pieces four leading Moroccans, known to be Istiqlal sympathizers. Three battalions of France's Garde Repub-licaine were hurried to Morocco last week.

But so far, French toughness has only worsened matters. Where six months ago the nationalists might have settled for home rule and some kind of compromise on Ben Youssef, e.g., putting his son on the throne, today their attitude has hardened. This week all Arab shops closed down tight; nationalist and religious leaders gave their blessing to a two-week countrywide strike, whose sole purpose is to intensify the demand for Ben Youssef's return. "Nothing else will do!" is now the Arab cry.

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