To honor the memory of this outstanding nationalist activist, community leaders, sheikhs and followers of the zaouia Darkaouiya coming from different regions of the Kingdom, especially the southern provinces, met, after their first meeting last year in Laâyoune-, strengthening unwavering family and fidelity links to the Sufi teachings of the zaouia Darkaouiya of Bassir Sidi Brahim.

Because of its holding in the home of the spiritual teaching which where was raised Bassir Mohamed, born in 1942 (at Sidi Brahim zaouiya), this meeting has high symbolic value, since it provides the perfect illustration of Sufi teaching in the consecration of identity values of the Moroccan nation, inspired by the Holy Book and the Prophet sounna, and forged in the struggle by people and the throne for the preservation of national identity and of unity.

The spiritual and activist course of Mohamed Bassir puts light on the role of the zaouia Darkaouiya as a true school of spirituality and patriotism. That is what the various speakers tried to explain through the exemplary lives of the martyr Mohamed Bassir, educated by his father Sheikh Sidi Brahim, in the path of rectitude and the renunciation of self, before engaging in the national cause after brilliant primary studies at Takaddoum district in Rabat and the University Ben Youssef in Marrakech, then finishing academic studies in Arab East (Egypt, Syria, Lebanon).

Being wholeheartedly engaged to liberate his co-Saharan fellows from the Spanish colonial rule and, after his return to Morocco in 1966, he carried out activist actions on the territory of the Sahara, its primary cause, rekindling the flame of nationalism in hearts, which paved the way for the historic uprising of Zamla (17 June 1970).

The uprising ended in the bloodbath perpetrated by the Spanish colonizers. Apprehended with an elite of Moroccan Sahrawi militants and detained in Laayoune, Mohamed Bassir would no longer give sign of life since August 1970. The most probable  hypothesis was his cold liquidation by order of the colonial authorities.

The testimony of academics, but also relatives and cousins of the martyr, at the Azilal meeting, initiated by the tarika Darkaouiya in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts at the University Sultan Moulay Slimane at Beni Mellal, shed more light on the heroic epic of the great patriot, demystifying the false allegations and blatant distortion of historical facts by supporters of separatism.

In their futile quest for historical legitimacy, those people are trying to present an image of Mohammed Bassir at odds with reality, making of him an activist for separatism and sedition, speakers stressed.

The testimony of Mr. Mustapha El Ktiri, former High Commissioner for resistance fighters and former members of the Liberation Army, was eloquent in this respect, in describing the path of militant Mohamed Bassir.

It is corroborated by the testimony of Guelaoui Ould Sidati, former "Polisario" official  who referred to archives of Spanish colonization to dismantle the claims of the separatists, and certify the reasons for the Zamla uprising, which responded to a surge of mobilization for the reunification of the motherland, and the completion of the territorial integrity of the Kingdom.

Mr. Abdelhadi Bassir, cousin of the martyr Mohammed Bassir, also provided a poignant testimony about the rooting of patriotic feelings in the Bassir family in earlier  periods even to the foundation of the zaouia Darkaouiya Sidi Brahim by his father in 1920, stressing that the soufi education provided by this home of knowledge, in the path of the Holy Quran and sounna, can not make advocates of sedition and fitna.

On the contrary, zaouia, he said, is a model of conciliation, spreading the values of solidarity, mutual support and fellowship between the members of the ummah.

Organized in the rural commune of Beni Ayyat, the meeting will continue Thursday through communications on "Sidi Mohamed Bassir the son of Atlas, the Sahrawi Mujaheed Sufi unifier."

Sessions of dikr, panegyrics of the Prophet Mohammed and the Holy Koran chant mark this special meeting with academic and spiritual dimensions, along with photo exhibition on the zaouia Darkaouiya.

Source: MAP
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