Махи Бинбин - Marrakech Noir

Expanded freedom, new vitality, and initiatives for change. Qamar ad-Dine does not pay attention to the tales of his father’s friends. He doesn’t see any change at all. Who cares what they think about life under Hassan II? He was a young kid back then. And now he feels he has grown up and that he doesn’t want to regress. He doesn’t have any time to waste on such conversations.

Qamar ad-Dine longs for another life, the life he sees in movies and on TV. Life as lived by God’s chosen people in the north. Qamar ad-Dine wants to escape from here. Emigration is a sacred right. He doesn’t want to stay in a place that chokes him with creatures he doesn’t like. He doesn’t understand why he doesn’t have the right to eject this entire boring world from his days and nights, from his life, from his future, and move on.

“Of course I’m Christian. Why do you want to know?” Amelia asks.

“Just an innocent question. Can we talk outside?”

She leaves Flora staring at the screen alone. She apologizes to her in a Nigerian dialect; Qamar ad-Dine only picks up the name Yakabo, which was repeated three times. Outside he invites her to Milano, a café across the street. He discovers she smokes. As soon as Asma the server puts a cup of coffee in front of her, she takes out a pack of cigarettes: Marquise. She lights one and hands the pack to Qamar ad-Dine.

“Thanks, but I don’t smoke. I’ll be quick. I want to learn about Christianity from you. I mean: I want to know more. I read online about the Holy Trinity and Unitarianism. About Christ’s humanity. About the differences between the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholicism and also between Lutheranism and Anglicanism. I also read the Sermon on the Mount ten times and I learned part of it in Arabic, French, and English,” Qamar rambles. “Want proof? Here’s a quote: You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also... and whoever wants to... whoever wants to... Wait, I forget. Here’s another quote: You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. There is also, Ask and it will be given to you. I memorized them. Listen—”

“No! You listen, Qamar—” she interrupts.

“Abd al-Massih, the Servant of Christ... My new name is Abd al-Massih... You’re the first person I’ve confessed this to. You must keep it between us.”

“Listen, Abd al-Massih, there seems to be some confusion here. When I told you I was Christian, I was talking about the family religion. Believe me, I am not as Christian as you imagine. I don’t go to church, I don’t read the Bible, and I don’t know the Sermon on the Mount. I’m Christian and that’s all. Take it as it is. Let’s get back to the cybercafé, please. Flora is waiting for me.”

Qamar ad-Dine is disappointed. His discovery of Christianity is new. He had started with porn sites. And because this son of a bitch who runs the cybercafé was whipping him with his obtrusive looks, Qamar ad-Dine changed gears toward emigration sites. Then he switched to random groups on the Net. Then one day he found himself on the other side following Jesus Christ: I will follow you wherever you go, and Jesus said to him, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

You’re right, teacher, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

Qamar ad-Dine was shocked to receive Amelia’s cold answer. He is in dire need of someone to support him in these sensitive times of his Internet searches for the truth. Amelia is his angel, his mother in the cybercafé. His mother. His sister. No difference. He finds in her smile the good-heartedness of the saints. But she has disappointed him and that hurts him a lot. Imagine: she doesn’t read the holy book and does not know the Sermon on the Mount!

As for Amelia, she was quite shocked as well. Flora and Yakabo had pointed out to her that Qamar ad-Dine is fond of her. Or at least he is very interested in her. Since then she has been watching him too. She finds him handsome and she likes his teasing, joyfulness, and politeness; his good English; his polite way of speaking. Why not? A sweet young man who deserves her attention. Amelia was ready for anything with Qamar ad-Dine. From fervid passion to passing adventure. When he invited her to the café, she joined him without hesitation, happy and enthusiastic. But the silly man had dragged her into a heavy conversation about the Holy Trinity and the Sermon on the Mount. Amelia knows about Qamar ad-Dine’s obsession with emigration, but she could not have imagined his craziness would lead him to choose Christianity as an excuse to leave the country.

Besides, her family has been Christian for generations, from grandfathers to fathers and grandmothers to mothers. If following Christ made it possible to emigrate to Europe, she would have done it from Lagos, honored and revered, and would not have had to do it the hard way through the Sahara before she and her companions found themselves stuck in Morocco.

They have succeeded neither in crossing to Spain nor in going back home to face family and friends with their failures after spending their money on a strenuous, long, and senseless journey.

Qamar ad-Dine seems to enjoy playing the role of everybody’s friend in the cybercafé. Moving from computer to computer like an e-butterfly: one time with Salim, helping him complete a school report; another time with Fadoua and Samira, translating an e-mail in English they had just received on Hotmail as Marrakech Star. Sometimes he replaces Rahal when he goes out. Other times he whispers with Yakabo after discovering that the Nigerian is more religious than his two friends.

The opposite of Abd al-Massih was Abu Qatadah.

He doesn’t speak to anyone. He enters the cybercafé with his right foot, reciting al-Mu’awwidhatayn, the verses of the Koran about refuge. Of course, greeting Muslims is imperative. But Abu Qatadah finds it hard to say assalamu alaikum whenever he enters the cybercafé and finds the two half-naked girls Fadoua and Samira there, and between them that procurer unjustly and falsely named Qamar ad-Dine, the moon of faith.

“What Qamar ad-Dine? Qamar of shit, indeed. Qamar of grief, not Qamar ad-Dine. God curse his birth.”

As for the Africans, Abu Qatadah is keen on staying away from them.

It is true that there is no preference for Arabs over non-Arabs. Neither is there preference for white people over black people. Preference is only through righteousness. Yet to Abu Qatadah, the faces of the Africans do not convey any prudence or righteousness. Not because they are black, God forbid! Bilal, the prophet’s muezzin, was a black man of Ethiopian origin who had been endowed by Islam with a respected status to a point where the Prophet Muhammad called him a man of paradise and said about him: The muezzins will have the longest necks of the people on the Day of Resurrection. Abu Qatadah noticed Yakabo’s neck is long and thin like that of a giraffe. But his dark face is a long way from emanating the light of Islam, and the same is true for the two ugly girls who barely leave his side. They look like a pair of goats. Curse all three of them!

His name is actually Mahjoub Didi. He’s an employee at RADEEMA, the electricity and water authority, and married with two children. What disturbs him more is a burdensome colleague singing to him, “ Didi didi didi didi didi.” His rudeness caused his friends to avoid humming Cheb Khaled’s famous song in front of him, but they still joke about it in his absence. As for the nickname Abu Qatadah, it was coined by one of the brothers, God bless him, in a fragrant dhikr ceremony. Since then, his name in divine gatherings and on luminous websites has been Abu Qatadah, as a good omen of the sublime sahabi (a companion of the prophet) Abu Qatadah al-Ansari al-Khazraji, may God be pleased with him.