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Ali Jarekji / Reuters, file
Morocco's King Mohammed reviews Bedouin honour guards upon his arrival at the Royal Palace in Amman Oct.18.
RABAT, Morocco -- Moroccan police on Sunday broke up the first street protest against spending by King Mohammed, witnesses said.
They said police with truncheons ended a rally outside parliament by a few dozen Moroccans, kicking and beating protesters including Abdelhamid Amine, the head of the Moroccan Human Rights Association. The police said the demonstration was not licensed.
The activists were angry over the size of the monarchy's expenditure in the national budget as the country faces economic difficulties.
"Shame on you, you have squandered the budget," protesters chanted, addressing themselves to the government. Others carried shopping bags with holes punched through them to indicate lower spending power among average Moroccans.
Morocco votes in test of king's reform drive
Public finances are in dire straits in the North African country of 33 million people because of the financial crisis in the European Union, Morocco's main economic partner.
Increased social spending last year that helped to contain Arab Spring protests has also put a squeeze on the budget.
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"We wanted to protest over the parliamentary debate on the 2013 budget and royal expenditures, which are actually rising while the country goes through a financial crisis," Amine said later. "But it seems that their method of discussion is beating people up."
Last year the king reacted swiftly with some constitutional reforms after Morocco saw large-scale protests following uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
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But King Mohammed retains wide powers. Under the new constitution the king, who bases much of his legitimacy on his Islamic credentials as "Commander of the Faithful" and as a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad, keeps control of military, security and religious affairs, while parliament legislates and the government runs the country.
Anger over rising prices, unemployment and wealth distribution remains in a country where around a quarter of the population live in poverty.
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Leave a Comment:
Chop his head off. That works.
Hey idiot Moroccans! What are you waiting for? Kick that fat parasite king of yours out of his ivory castle. As you Moroccans suffer with poverty and poor medical care, this scum is stealing all your money and living off the backs of good Moroccan people who are honest, while the entire Moroccan Government is corrupt to the core. Like Spain's!
And this is surprising how? All of these puppet dictators take the foreign aid and line their pockets with it and if the peasants protest, then it's off with their heads. No news here folks!
As a very distant relative of the King and descendant of The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) these protestors had what was coming to them.
What in the hell are you talking about? A peaceful protest met with violent resistance is "what was coming to them"?
I don't care if you're the King's gay lover, Michigander, or if you can trace lineage to the Prophet Muhammad's anal cavity, you have NO RIGHT to pass judgment on these protestors.
And was the Prophet himself (peace be upon him) completely impervious to and dismissive of rational discussion in the pursuit of justice? Does this (mortal) king's lineage render him immune to criticism?
Since when was Peter Griffin King of Morocco?
That is funny, especially with the nut-chin.
Moroccans and all Muslims need to undertsand their religious culture necessitates a hierarchy where royalty separates themselves from the populous scum. AKA, you are Muslim, you had your one chance at modern revision of your idiotic culture and it's repression/oppression in the '50's. You blew it.
Worse than that, you were still exploited. The only hope is for your type to be diluted by others. Or you will ultimately consumes yourselves. Your choice.
Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. Soon Iran and finally Saudi Arabia when the oil becomes an also-ran. Yes, you are systematically punishing yourselves for a failed culture based on a warring religion, after all that Mohammed tried to create. His loving, peaceful, socialistic views where the people are protected was perverted by the governments and tyrants who couldn't wait for his death.
Mohammed was a great leader. Muslims dishonor his love by torturing their people, via greed and power.
All of you should remove the rich from their power. much as we should as well. We are the same. But of slightly different religions.
Wost than a rich in the power, someone that grew up in hunger and sees that powerful position as a way to achieve all his perverse goals.. which is how all of Tier-World countries are run
I totally agree with you, and I think that all the evil that has been hurting humanity until now is merely the product of the religious institutions.. Not the religions (those are more about spirituality and peace), but institutions that started after.. Those institution only have a political (material) goal and use of the religion as a way to control people.. All religions are concerned
In the case of Morocco, the institution the King represents is the one that maintain stability in the country (it has historically as well bought respect to the kingdom all over western Africa).. many other institutions are raising everyday in the country, but they all have a leader of their own only waiting for chaos.. i don't say the Moroccan kingdom is perfect, it's way behind perfection but it's on the way.. We're lucky we're run by a moderate muslim institution that is evolving in time.. It may be one of the few muslim institutions on the way to get closer to the moderate christian institution that run many western countries
It is an Islamic Country and the King is related to Muhammad here on earth so no one can defile his image. Sound stupid, but if people want to live like this and believe this bullsh%$ then too bad for them. There is no cure for stupid!
Every Monarchy in the world needs to have a basis to make it legitimate.. Britain as one of the biggest powers in the wold is one example.. Monaco, luxembourg, all these are monarchies where I lived as well and where I noted a similar proocol to the one in Morocco.. The only difference is that Morocco is a poorer country, but what's the reason of having a monarchy if the guy will just be the same as the common Moroccan... The role of the monarchy is more to put the country upfront, to raise its voice among stronger countries.. We are just commenting here, but you'll note that when any monarch drops a visit to foreign countries... In Morocco the King has still a lot of power but we are in the process of moving forward and leaving his role as a symbol, more than anything else.. we're moving towards a system that is very similar to the one in UK
Religion here is what gives the King its legitimacy.. If tomorrow we stop being a muslim country, the king loses his sole duty.. It's like how the queen of britain is the leader of the church of england.. We all know how the grandparents those leaders have historically played with the religion in their favour, and today the systems that they have created are the ones maintaining the stability in the country.. Morocco is a poor country, we're 20 times poorer than Algeria, 10 times poorer than Egypt or Lybia and we're still doing better than those countries cause at least the Big guy in charge in Morocco has been raised and prepared to lead his people, and to be fair he has done a good job when in those other countries it's more like a guy that got a gun in his hand and wants to fulfill all those fantasies that he could never achieve before.
Our monarchy is 1200 old and is in constant evolution.. we're maybe still where the UK was 100 years ago, but we're still moving forward.. Does the common Moroccan want to see our King leave, of course not.. What we want is to see the country evolve with him.. It may sound bull@!$%#, cause you were born in a Republic, I think all what I say will make more sense to a British or a Luxemburger than it would make to anyone else
Well I hope that this is not the start of a popular uprising noted in some other well known Arab/ African countries. The US has just completed selling 24 brand spanking new block 52 F-16 fighter jets to the Moroccan air force, with the first ones already delivered ( that is where part of the budget went to I guess). I hope this does not turn negatively in the future. What I mean is either a regime change which is anti-west or possibly being used domestically against protesters.
they were not few protesters, as i have seen we were more than a hundred of person. but what happened, is that the police start beating people just before they gathered and in the mean time some of us sat down on the ground and they were the only one who are seen and photographed by the media, others were just running behind the building trying to reach the Parliament but in vain because of the brutality of the police
Please stop the bull@!$%#.. You know as I know that the police never starts.. The police has to maintain the stability and retain every attempt to violence.. And you guys wanted to be seen
If what you were calling for was of any meaning to the population, was organised, tousands would join, and Police would just attend to ensure security... but that was just a group of facebookers meetup..
The apologists for Islam are out in force!