African, Arab Or Amazigh? Morocco's Identity Crisis | General Sports

In an hour-long tirade, one dissident Moroccan YouTuber blasted those who sought to politicize the game and turn it into a global culture war.

Brother Rachid also reminded his 385,000 subscribers that half of the Moroccan team, including their coach, were in fact born and bred in Europe, the children of Moroccan migrants who learned the game and became professional footballers in Europe.

"If you were to do a DNA analysis of the Moroccan team, you would find that most of them are Amazigh. Most of them don't speak Arabic. And if they did it will be 'broken Arabic' because they grew up in the West,” he said.

The role of Islam and freedom of speech are sensitive in Morocco, where the royal dynasty regards itself as the Prophet Muhammad's descendants, and the king retains the title of The Commander of the Faithful - an historic term for early Muslim rulers. Yet the YouTuber was not afraid to tackle thorny issues:

"Morocco is different from the Middle East, because it is fundamentally a Berber society, the Arabs came as outsiders in the 7th Century. Today in Morocco there are Arabs, Berbers, Muslims, Jews, atheists, non-religionists and Baha'is, there are Shias and Sunnis."

Considering this Moroccan success "a victory for Arabism and Islam is an attack on the various components of the Moroccan society", he went on to say.

In response to the pan-Arabists or Islamists seeking to hijack the Moroccan triumph for their own use, posts on social media proliferated to claim back the team as Morocco's. Some posted pictures of the team emblazoned with Amazigh symbols.

Other critics highlighted the absurdity of turning a game of football into a religious or ethnic war, arguing that it is inconceivable that a win by France, Brazil or Argentina could be considered a triumph of Christianity.

They pointed out that would be impossible, given the ethnic and religious mix of some of the national football teams in Europe for example.

The controversy over the true identity of the Moroccan team is the latest manifestation of a "culture war" that has raged for decades across North Africa and the Middle East.

National identity has been central to the two ideologies - Islamism and pan-Arabism - that shaped political discourse in the region for decades.

While they made sense during the struggle for national liberation, prioritizing social cohesion over individual freedom, they seem to have outlived their usefulness and become irrelevant in an increasingly globalized world - as the row over a football match clearly demonstrates.