would supporters of Pussy Riot care about Al Haqed, Oday Khatib, Weld El 15?

Last August I posted a complaint about the vast discrepancy in Western media coverage and popular and celebrity solidarity between the case of Pussy Riot and that of Al Haqed. I've been ranting about the cases below on Facebook. A friend said I should consider asking the legions of Pussy Riot supporters and admirers to pay attention to these cases rather than mocking them for not doing so. So that's what I'm doing: Please, lovers of Pussy Riot (and I include myself in that camp), note these cases and publicize them, if you love music and the freedom of expression.

1. The Moroccan rapper Al Haqed (Mouad Belghouat) was released from prison on March 29, after serving a year's sentence for insulting a public official in his video, "Dogs of the State."



Predictably, not much publicity in the Western media. At least this from Huffington Post.

2. Sandy Tolan has been blogging about the 22 year-old Palestinian singer Oday Khatib,  who has been arrested and charged with throwing stones, which could send him to prison for up to 10 years. According to Tolan the evidence is ambiguous. Read about the case here. (The trial keeps getting postponed: the scheduled date is now April 17.) Nicola Perugini also reported on Oday for the LRB Blog.

Check out Oday's singing, backed by Ramzi Aburedwan.



3. Amira Masrour reported on tunisia live that Tunisian actress Sabrine Klibi and cameraman Mohamed Hedi Belgueyed were sentenced on March 21 to six months in prison for defaming police officers and contributing to civil disobedience, through their role in the video "Cops Are Dogs" (Boulicia Kleb) by rapper Weld El 15 (Ala Yaakoubi). Weld El 15, who is on the run, was sentenced to two years in absentia. HipHopDX reports that Tunisian rapper Emino, who was thanked in the credits section at the end of the music video, also received a two year sentence. He's on the run too. 

 

According to, Weld El 15, Masrour reports, the song was inspired by his prison experiences after the 2011 revolution and the treatment he received at the hands of the police. “‘Cops are Dogs’ is a song based on metaphors with which I wanted to send a message to policemen,” Yaakoubi said. “I wanted them to respect people so that people respect them.”

 

How about some solidarity from Ice Cube, a member of NWA? NWA's classic song "Fuck the Police" was massively condemned, and even prompted a letter of complaint to NWA's label, Priority, from the FBI director of public affairs. Cops throughout the country refused to provide security at many of NWA's concerts.

Or from Ice-T, whose group Body Count released the song "Cop Killer" in 1992. The song inspired so much outrage, ranging from President George Bush the First to various law enforcement agencies, that Ice-T felt compelled to recall the Body Count album and re-release it without "Cop Killer."

Both the Ice-T and the NWA cop songs are way, way more incendiary than Weld El 15's.

Where's the solidarity, folks?

Pussy Riot vs. Al Haqed

I'm really glad that there has been such an outpouring of support for the three members of Pussy Riot who were convicted yesterday of charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, and sentenced to two years imprisonment each. Everyone is all over this, Amnesty International, the major news media, and US pop musicians are falling all over themselves to express their solidarity. Most notably, of course, Madonna. The fabulous J.D. Samson (Le Tigre, MEN, Peaches and the Herms) was on Democracy Now! yesterday to make the pitch for Pussy Riot, stressing that they are a feminist band.

 But why has Moroccan rapper Al Haqed ('sullen/rancorous/enraged one'; born name, Mouad Belghouat) not garnered 1/100th of the attention that Pussy Riot has received? Al Haqed was sentenced in May to a one-year prison sentence for insulting the Morrocan police. Meanwhile, as Mark Levine has noted, the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Pitbull, Khaled, Mariah Carey, Scorpions, LMFAO, and Evanescence all played the Mayazine Festival in Rabat, Morocco in May. Not one said a word in support of Al Haqed. Joan Baez (!) and Bjork played the Sacred Music Festival in Fez in June. Didn't mention his name.

In July Al Haqed launched a 48-hour hunger strike to protest his conditions of detention. I didn't hear any messages of solidarity from our progressive musicians.

This is not to say Al Haqed's case has not received any coverage. Human Rights Watch has raised his case. Human Rights Watch has covered it, Torie Rose DeGhett has covered the story for The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and so on. And of course most importantly, Mark Levine. But where are the Madonnas in support of Al Haqed?

Here are a few possible reasons that the likes of Madonna haven't shown up to express solidarity with Al Haqed and outrage at the Moroccan monarch.

1. Morocco's King Muhammad VI is a strategic ally of the West.

2. Muhammad VI has successfully presented himself to the West as a "moderate." We love "moderates." They don't criticize us. They don't criticize Israel.

3. The Moroccan regime has successfully sold itself as a "moderate" government in contrast to those radical Islamist trends.

4. The Moroccan state has very effectively used its massive Festival industry and its tourism industry to sell its moderate image. The Mayazine and the Sacred Music festivals (plus the Gnawa Festival at Essaouira) are key elements in the selling of this image. Levine calls it "art-washing." Aomar Boum recently published an excellent piece on the regime's use of festivals in Middle East Report. Waleed Hazboun in his book Beaches, Ruins, Resorts: The Politics of Tourism in the Arab World shows how Tunisia was able to use tourism in the same way (see my review here.)

5. As Gene Lyons remarked on Facebook, people really seem to get a charge out just saying "Pussy Riot."

6. There is no charge to saying "Al Haqed."

7. Putin isn't our strategic ally.

8. Putin isn't going along with our Syria policy or our Iran policy.

9. Pussy Riot is a feminist band. Al Haqed is an Arab Muslim guy. And he is angry.

10. We can't understand what Al Haqed is saying. Of course, we can't understand Pussy Riot's Russian either, but it's been widely translated. And people like JD Samson can read their lyrics on Democracy Now! (Of course, if anyone tried a little bit, they could have found a translation of one of Al Haqed's songs at Revolutionary Arab Rap.)

11. The "Arab Spring" is so over. So 2011.

12. "Arab rap" is so over. Been there. Done that.

13. We love monarchs.

14. The pot is so good in Morocco.

15. Morocco is so cool, man. Didn't Paul Bowles and Brion Gysin and William Burrough say so? Don't harsh on my mellow.

End of rant. You add your own reasons. I leave you with the offending video from Al Haqed. "Klab al-dawla." The dogs of the state. Why doesn't Madonna like this vid?