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The Dutch from Morocco can’t give berber names to their children according to moroccan authorities. Thus, the Islamic identity is being emphasized.

This week, the moroccan government sent a list of forbidden names to all the embassies and consulates of Kingdom of the Netherlands

Most of Moroccans in the Netherlands are Berbers. Now, they are forced to give a Moroccan Muslim name to their newborns.In this way, Morocco wants to preserve the Moroccan identity of its subjects, as well as that of the Dutch Moroccans.

"We prohibit berber names because they don’t comply with our identity and because they open the way to the dissemination of insignificant names" has declared Idris Badji, a senior officer of Moroccan Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Currently, dutch municipalities also use a list of "allowed names". The Dutch Moroccans must choose a name in this list when they register the birth of their child.

Dutch Moroccans are very dissatisfied after the annoucement of this new measure. Moussa Aynan, a PvdA local council member, considers the decision as a provocation of Rabat. " Morocco is implementing a blind islamization of the country, of people who don’t live there any more longer and , what’s more, of Europeans who weren’t born there. By prohibiting explicitly berber names which are secular, Morocco clearly shows what kind of identity he wants: an identity exclusively arab. And Berbers are not Arabs". Aynan was himself faced to this problem when he wanted to give a non-Arab name to his children.

For the Berbers, the decision is a clear proof that Morocco wants to get rid of berber language and culture. A policy which, according to critics, is already at work for years to completely arabize Morocco. Berber activists in Morocco have strongly reacted. In a declaration to the arab media Al-Arabiya, the berber activist Ali Khadaoui said "it is a shame for Morocco" and Rabeia al Zuheiri, a human right activist, speaks about " a broad form of discrimination, to marginalization of berber regions at the banning of berber names".

Samira Bouchibti, a member of the Parliament, agrees with the sense. "We must get rid of this list of names and such interference. I want myself to able to determine how I want to call my children. That’s discrimination ".

During a meeting of PvdA, Wouters Bos, leader of the Dutch Labour Party, said that the double passeports belong to the Netherlands. Bouchibti answers: "Whatever Wouter Bos says, he doesn’t have a dual nationality against his will and then doesn’t know what it means in practice".

Traduit du français par la redaction