The rise of racist and hateful rhetoric against the Amazigh cause, as well as the resurgence of insulting remarks and protests targeting the Amazigh identity, deeply rooted in the history of the Algerian people, are all sources of concern.
A statement as curious as it is irresponsible: invited on the Emirati channel Sky News Arabia, the self-proclaimed academic Mohamed Belghit sparked a heated controversy by asserting that the Amazigh identity was a creation of France and Israel and that there is no such thing as Amazighness.
What Mohamed Belghit said on this Emirati channel, namely grotesque accusations and explicit incitement against Amazighness and the Amazigh people in Algeria, constitutes a serious danger for the cohesion of the Algerian people, in all its cultural and linguistic diversity. Moreover, this contradicts the Algerian Constitution, which recognizes Amazigh as an official language, and tramples on the gains won by the Amazigh cause after many years of struggle.
Furthermore, this dangerous statement by this “academician” reopens the games of civil war between Algerians and jeopardizes their unity, unless the competent authorities intervene urgently to stop these racist speeches and these serious accusations.
Mohamed Belghith’s statements have shaken on social media and intellectual circles, who view them as a frontal attack on Algeria’s collective memory. Far beyond a mere academic opinion, many observers see it as a serious denial of the identity of millions of Algerians and an attempt at cultural marginalization with dangerous implications. These proposals, deemed dangerous and provocative, quickly sparked a wave of indignation, with many Internet users denouncing an attempt at historical falsification.
In the absence of a calm public debate on the Amazigh question, the Algerian citizen is left to the manipulation of the media, politicians and Islamists who have only one goal, which is to falsify the history and origins of an entire people and divert it from the truth to get their ideas across at any cost, notably with ideological currents, openly anti-Amazigh, which has even formed, which calls itself “Badissia-Novembria”.
By sounding the alarm against these dangerous statements and inciting speeches, the Algerian people must firmly oppose all forms of racist and discriminatory discourse against the Amazighs and Amazighness. They are likely unaware that they are part of a culturally alienated people. Pseudo-intellectuals blindly and limitlessly obey their own negation; they hypocritically defend the rights of distant peoples! They openly declare themselves in favor of the death of the national identity: Amazighness! They forget the important contribution of the Amazigh people, which fuels all forms of reaction that our vivacious survival requires for several millennia.
The unity of the peoples of North Africa is essential to defend the Amazigh cause, considered the common cause of all the region’s inhabitants, and to oppose the discordant voices that fuel racial divisions and civil wars, in violation of constitutions, national laws, and international charters. To confront these falsified and racist statements against the Amazigh people, activists and structures of the Amazigh movement in all North African countries and the diaspora must intensify their struggle and advocacy, protect their gains despite the challenges, and oppose all those who incite hatred against the Amazigh and Amazighness.
The Amazigh people are a freedom-loving people. They honestly provide the necessary means for the development of good social relations, support every valid hypothesis, avoid scabrous subjects, reject lies and behaviors imbued with excessive pleasures to skillfully achieve their ends, reject marginalization, curse xenophobia, and severely criticize political discourse tinged with bile. The Amazigh people defend their homeland, want their country to move forward on the path that will allow it to build itself in reality, and understand that Amazigh art and culture are neither a luxury, nor debauchery, nor even immorality, but an essential aspiration that irrigates the spirit and repels the emptiness of time and spirit.
