Probably
nobody has had such an up-close-and-personal perspective on Islamist
intolerance and terror as Zineb El Rhazoui. With that insight and experience
came over 7,000 death threats on Twitter. She survived Morocco’s post-Arab Spring
crack-down and the attack on Charlie
Hebdo, but now she lives under constant guard, much like Salman Rushdie in
the months after Iranian clerics issued their fatwa against him. Yet, El
Rhazoui continues to speak out at rallies, in media appearances, and throughout
Vincent Coen & Guillaume Vandenberghe’s one-hour documentary, Nothing is Forgiven (trailer here), which screens
during the 2018 Margaret Mead Film Festival.
Culturally
and aesthetically, El Rhazoui identified with her generally leftwing colleagues
at Charlie Hebdo, but she also shared
their iconoclastic tendencies. Having experienced censorship first-hand in
Morocco, she took the ideals of freedom of thought and expression quite
seriously, even before 2015 assassinations.
In
response, the Muslim-raised El Rhazoui has become a vocal critic of Islamist
fascism, as well as terms like “islamophobia” that she (convincingly) argues have
been popularized to silence detractors of terrorism, such as herself. However,
this is an exhausting and often lonely existence for El Rhazoui. For months,
her police protection moved her to a different hotel room each night. At least
she is now somewhat settled in a long-term safe house.
Nothing is
Forgiven is
a highly-charged, hot-button film, but it presents a quietly intimate and thoughtful
portrait of its subject. It is crystal clear El Rhazoui is not doing any of
this for the attention (that she could really do without), but because somebody
needs to say the things she says. Frankly, many Upper Westsiders will probably find
her outspoken candor uncomfortable, especially when she challenges the cliché that
the Charlie Hebdo or November 2015 terrorists do not properly understand “true”
Islam. Pointedly, she asks what is true Islam? “Iranian Islam? Saudi Islam?”
