Outrageous videotape tarnishes Algerian singer Maatoub Lounes's memory

Some elements of the “self determination movement” in Kabylie region led by the song writer Ferhat Mehenni have posted on the internet a video tape to commemorate the death of the late artist “Maatoub Lounes” on which the added the slogan” Glory to our prophet Maatoub Lounes”.

The nearly six- minute tape is a video clip of one of the late artist’s songs opens with glorifying words towards Maatoub Lounes giving him the position of a prophet. At the end of the program, the designer of the clip dubbed some verses of the Koran to an image representing the flag of the separatists in addition to special effects showing David’s star penetrating the sky over the artist’s home town “Thaouririt Moussa” to die in his house.

In the video tape the cameraman focused on the artist’s home transformed to a museum showing thousands of photos and personal belongings then moved to the warehouse where lies his car which still bears the stigma of the terrorists act perpetrated against Maatoub Lounes in June 25th, 1997.

The video comes to confirm various complaints from inhabitants who signaled the existence of separatists who tried to monopolize the historical and cultural background of the region, in order to shed doubt on the most vulnerable and uproot them from their principles.

But this time around these separatists wanted to give another dimension to one of the most outstanding figures in the region making a parallel between him and the prophet in a move to mislead the public opinion and question the religious faith of the inhabitants of this historical region.

Through the special effects, the charlatans wanted to identify the artist with Jewish origins and strip him of his Muslim identity.