Islamist and Islamised Memories in Moroccan Testimonial Prison Literature

Abstract

: The Moroccan ‘Years of Lead’ were a period of rampant state violence between the country’s independence in 1956 and the passing of King Hassan II in 1999. Although a robust scholarship has probed its multifaceted aspects, the impact of state violence on specific groups, such as Bahais, Jews, and Islamists, has yet to be included in discussions about the collective memory of post-independence Moroccan. Most importantly, however, in the midst of a relentless glocal war on terror, Moroccan Islamists continue to be marginalised or exclude themselves from the cultural and social memory of state violence. Drawing on al-Mufaḍḍal al-Maghūtī’s memoir Wa ya‘lū ṣawt al-ādhān min jaḥīm Tazmamart (2009) and Muṣṭafā al-Ḥasnāwī’s memoir Sujūn wa ashjān (2018), this article provides a conceptualisation of Islamist and Islamised memory of state violence. The distinction between Islamist and Islamised memory demonstrates their different, and even oppositional, stakes in terms of politicisation, religiosity, and partisanship. The article also shows how the publishing media resigni-fies memories and inscribes them in frameworks of meaning that may not even be relevant to the survivors’ experience or concerns.