Morocco: 13 youths convicted of anti-Muslim acts

Heavy metal youths, Egyptian jailed from month to year for acts deemed satanic, anti-Islamic in Casablanca.
CASABLANCA - Thirteen young Moroccans and an Egyptian were sentenced in Casablanca Thursday to prison terms ranging from a month to a year for "acts that could shake Muslims' faith" in a case linking heavy-metal music to satanism that has divided opinion in the north African nation.

The trial has triggered condemnation from the press and non-governmental organisations, who have accused the authorities of a baseless witch hunt.

The accused, aged 20 to 28 and mostly from middle-class backgrounds, were taken into custody on February 16 for disturbing public order and reportedly possessing items including T-shirts depicting the devil and death which were considered anti-Islamic.

The Egyptian, Mohamed Ali Kamel, who ran a Casablanca cafe, was also served an expulsion order which will go into effect once his year-long jail sentence is completed.

The heavy-metal fans were also charged in court with "possession of objects that breach good morals" and complicity in promoting prostitution - a reference to their meeting place, Kamel's cafe.

During the trial, the defendants had pleaded their innocence, reciting passages from the Koran in a bid to prove they were devout Muslims. 

Prosecution evidence against them included skeletons, skulls, cobras, vipers and "a collection of diabolical CDs", according to independent weekly newspaper Maroc-Hebdo, which said the youths had "a guru who practices mental manipulation on his followers".

There was media uproar when the case came to court last month, with the independent weekly Tel Quel denouncing the case as "absurd" and calling the attitude of the Moroccan police and judiciary system worrying.

"Apart from their musical tastes, nothing marks them out from their neighbors in the derb (neighborhood), who are no more, nor less Muslim than the average," Tel Quel said in an article headlined: "Scary Morocco".

"Today heavy metal fans are apostates. Whose turn will it be tomorrow?" it asked.

For its part, conservative Islamic daily Attajdid had written off the "campaign" against the youths as "doomed to fail".

"This campaign... is undermined by other campaigns that encourage all forms of delinquency, alcohol and licentiousness which are ignored by the authorities," it wrote last month.

One of the lawyers for the defense, Ahmed Mahfoud Billah, had called the accusations against his clients "imaginary" and had complained to the Maroc Hebdo weekly that just listening to music and wearing black T-shirts was considered a crime.

Another defense lawyer called the trial a "witch hunt aimed at pleasing Islamists". 

Gilgamesh tomb believed found

Gilgamesh was believed to be two-thirds god, one-third human

Archaeologists in Iraq believe they may have found the lost tomb of King Gilgamesh - the subject of the oldest book in history.

The Epic Of Gilgamesh - written by a Middle Eastern scholar 2,500 years before the birth of Christ - commemorated the life of the ruler of the city of Uruk, from which Iraq gets its name.

Now a German-led expedition has discovered what is thought to be the entire city of Uruk - including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the last resting place of its famous King.

"I don't want to say definitely it was the grave of King Gilgamesh, but it looks very similar to that described in the epic," Jorg Fassbinder, of the Bavarian department of Historical Monuments in Munich, told the BBC World Service's Science in Action programme.

In the "book" - actually a set of inscribed clay tablets - Gilgamesh was described as having been buried under the Euphrates, in a tomb apparently constructed when the waters of the ancient river parted following his death. 

"We found just outside the city an area, in the middle of the former Euphrates river, we detected the remains of a such a building which could be interpreted as a burial," Mr Fassbinder said.

 Who can compare with him in kingliness? Who can say, like Gilgamesh, I am king?

The Epic Of Gilgamesh 

He said the amazing discovery of the ancient city under the Iraqi desert had been made possible by modern technology.

"By differences in magnetisation in the soil, you can look into the ground," Mr Fassbinder added.

"The difference between mudbricks and sediments in the Euphrates river gives a very detailed structure."

This creates a "magnetogram", which is then digitally mapped, effectively giving a town plan of Uruk.

'Venice in the desert'

"The most surprising thing was that we found structures already described by Gilgamesh," Mr Fassbinder stated.

Iraq has long been the site of some of the most important historical finds

"We covered more than 100 hectares.

"We have found garden structures and field structures as described in the epic, and we found Babylonian houses."

But he said the most astonishing find was an incredibly sophisticated system of canals.

"Very clearly, we can see in the canals some structures showing that flooding destroyed some houses, which means it was a highly-developed system.

"[It was] like Venice in the desert."

Enlightened by compassion

As the eighth day of the fourth lunar month approaches - May 8 this year - lanterns are prepared at Buddhist temples to mark the traditional birth date of the founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, or Enlightened One, who lived in northern India in the 5th century B.C.

Jogye Temple`s colorful lanterns contain the written wishes of believers.

Meticulously preparing lotus lanterns or elaborate, sometimes whimsical, floats for the lantern parade, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike enter the stream of history and tradition. This stream itself illuminates the nuanced 1,700-year history of Buddhism in Korea.

The association of lanterns with the Buddha originated during the Buddha's lifetime, when his followers would bear lanterns to hear his sermons at night. "One such night," relates Hong Min-suk, the Jogye Order's organizer of the lantern parade and its director of public relations, "A strong wind extinguished all the lanterns but one, that borne by a poor old woman. The Buddha immediately acknowledged that she would be reborn a Buddha."

There are numerous legends to account for the traditional, non-Buddhist lantern festival in China, held during the first full moon of the year since the earliest dynasties. These events were contemporary with the Buddha's lifetime, but independent and unrelated to that religion, which would not enter China until the 1st century A.D. Like pre-Christian winter solstice rites in the West from which the tradition of "Christmas lights" derives, the lantern festivals in China were designed to attract the attention and mercy of the gods during winter's darkness. This tradition was first conflated with Buddhist ritual in China by Emperor Mingdi of the Eastern Han dynasty (25 A.D. - 220), the first emperor to promote Buddhism there.

Buddhism entered the Korean Peninsula from China in the 4th century A.D. The Goguryeo (37 B.C. - 668 A.D.) and Baekje (18 B.C. - 660 A.D.) kingdoms almost simultaneously adopted the ritual protocols of Chinese Buddhism, including the use of lanterns. At this time the religion-not yet matured as a speculative or meditative discipline-was practiced as a form of magical national protection, with the staging of mass rituals also practiced in China.

Based on the Sutra of Golden Light and the Benevolent King Sutra, they effectively identified the king, who played a central role in the rites, with the Universal Wheel-Turning King, that is the Buddha, as protector of the nation just as the Buddha is protector of the dharma, or universal law. In other words, Buddhism was more a political phenomenon than a spiritual one. The earliest recorded instance of the use of lanterns in a Buddhist rite in Korea (although they were certainly employed before this in Goguryeo and Baekje) was a Ceremony of the Eight Vows conducted in 551 A.D. in the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C. - 935 A.D.).

It wasn't until the late Unified Silla period that the more theoretical aspects of Buddhism, which inform it still today, were established in Korea. The most influential texts in these schools were the Lotus Sutra and the Avatamsaka Sutra, both of which emphasize the symbolism of light. In these texts, the Buddha bathes the entire universe, from the lowest hell to the highest heaven, and all six realms of existence with the light of his wisdom and compassion. The light in these texts also serves as a metaphor for the Mahayana concept of the universality of the Buddha.

There is also the story in the Lotus Sutra of the origin of the Medicine Buddha, who as an aspiring monk in a former life immolates himself - indeed, making of himself a living lantern - as an offering to the Buddha. Consequently the Lotus Sutra emphasizes that candles are the most fundamental of offerings, and one finds no shortage of them stacked in boxes behind the main altar, donated by the supporters of the temple. This form of donation, and the lanterns donated for the lantern festival (with streamers hanging from them signed by the donors) are clearly in this spirit of offering to the Buddha.

  The lantern festival as we know it today - that is, as a festival of the masses - has its origins in the late Goryeo period (918 - 1392). Early in the Goryeo, lantern assemblies were held every year on the fifteenth day of the first month in concurrence with the Chinese New Year lantern festival.

The use of lanterns was transformed and reinterpreted from king to king in the Goryeo, with many and various lantern processions and rites at temples and palaces recorded in the court-scribed history of the dynasty. Some of these rites were devoted to the Buddha, some to Manjusri (the bodhisattva of wisdom), and some to Maitreya (the future Buddha). Some rites are recorded with up to thirty thousand monks (and lanterns) in attendance.

To appreciate the size of such spectacular assemblies, bear in mind that roughly this same number of people and lanterns - some 30,000 - participate in the modern lantern parade in Seoul, which fills Jongno Avenue from sidewalk-to-sidewalk in a solid procession from Dongdaemun Stadium to Jogye Temple. Whereas the modern parade pays for itself, and in fact returns revenue to the local economy (by attracting visitors), the Goryeo rites were government-sponsored, paid for essentially by the overtaxed populace. This underscores the elaborate aesthetic tastes of Goryeo royalty, and the profligate ceremonialism of the period by which the dynasty ultimately collapsed, and because of which severe restrictions were imposed on Buddhism in the conservative, rational Joseon dynasty.

It wasn't until the reign of Gong-min (r. 1351-1374), one of the last Goryeo kings, that, through his promotion of it to the general public, the masses began to participate with enthusiasm in lantern processions. "Children would produce banners on bamboo poles entreating door-to-door for items with which to make lanterns," relates Hong.

Because of its corrupted ties to the aristocracy during the Goryeo, Buddhism fell out of favor with the Confucian court of the Joseon period, until the devastating Hideyoshi invasions of the late 16th century. This period saw transformations in the aims and the patronage of Buddhism, which remain to the present. Whereas Buddhism had been largely an imperial and aristocratic religion through the Goryeo, devoted to rites of national protection and the legitimization of kingship, during the Joseon the Confucian government undertook the ritualistic protection of the nation. However, Buddhism survived by addressing the national anxiety concerning wandering ghosts, which became especially acute after the Hideyoshi devastation.

The patrons of Buddhism became increasingly of the growing middle (merchant) class of the period. Not being "high-born" yangban, these nouveau riche of the period created their own internal economy of cultural capital by investing in Buddhist projects. And so it was that shopkeepers in the markets of Jongno in Seoul, from the late Joseon, maintained the tradition of making Buddhist lanterns. According to Hong, "They hung them from their shops, right here in this neighborhood, and ascended Mt. Nam to view the spectacle from on high."

Further, he explains, "The lantern parade down Jongno Avenue itself originated during the Japanese occupation [of 1910-1945], when the Japanese combined their Buddha's birthday flower parade with the Korean lantern festival tradition. After the occupation, the Jogye Order undertook organizing the lantern parade, and does so to the present."

In a small, crowded and busy office at Jogye Temple in Seoul where the annual event is being organized down to its minutest logistical details - with maps, charts, and banners and heaps of lanterns - Hong shares his interpretation of the symbolism of the event.

"Even the Buddha's final words used the imagery of a lantern," he explained. "He said, 'Regard your true self as a lantern. Trust in the Buddha-light inside of you.' The lantern and the lantern parade are an acknowledgement of this teaching."

Although the Buddha's birthday is on May 8 this year, the lantern parade will be held on Sunday, May 4.

By Lou Morrison Contributing writer (loumorrison3@yahoo.com)