Moroccan YouTube Rapper El Haqed Arrested Again on Dubious Charges

In 2011, rapper El Haqed's "Baraka Min Elskate," or "Stop the Silence," became a rallying cry for Moroccan youth. The nation's youth are one of the most vulnerable populations in the kingdom, which since 1999 has been ruled by Mohammed VI. The rapper himself hails from a poor neighborhood in Casablanca, where many of the neighborhood’s inhabitants fall into inescapable cycles of poverty and drug use. In his song, El Haqed rapped about the country’s economic disparities and human rights abuses, inspiring youth to mobilize in favor of political change.

El Haqed was one of many who spearheaded the February 20th movement, an activist coalition calling for democratic reforms against Mohamed VI's regime. Later that year, in July, continued and persistent protests drove the Moroccan government to draft a new constitution to appease these protestors.

Morocco’s political and social realities have been far from rosy since the passage of that draft constitution, which critics claim is just dress-up, having little application to reality. El Haqed has continued to express his opposition to Moroccan political authority through his art, becoming something of a cultural sensation within the country.

Moroccan authorities have taken issue with his popularity, and, since 2011, El Haqed has found himself in and out of prison on varied charges, many of which his supporters suspect relate to his art. He raps with precision and urgency, leveling fiery critiques against the social injustices present in the wake of the Moroccan Spring.

Baraka Min Elskate, via YouTube.

Since he began rapping, El Haqed – "the enraged" – has been arrested three times. In September 2011, he was arrested due to his purported assault of a pro-regime protester, spending four months in prison. A year later, he was charged for insulting public officials in a song in which he raps against the image of a dog-headed police officer; he spent a yea