Horses of God

Horses of God (2010) is a novel by Moroccan author Mahi Binebine. The events of the book center on a series of real-life suicide bombings that took place in Casablanca, Morocco on May 16, 2003, killing 45 people including 12 suicide bombers, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in the country's history. The narrative focuses on a fictionalized version of one of the attackers, seeking to capture what life is like in the slums of Sidi Moumen, the impoverished suburb where the real-life suicide bombers lived. According to Publishers Weekly, "Binebine portrays these young men as supremely human, victims of powers much larger than themselves, and like any Kafkaesque anti-hero, cogs in an incomprehensible and monstrous machine."

The book is narrated from beyond the grave by Yachine, a young man of Muslim descent living in a shantytown in Sidi Moumen on the outskirts of Casablanca. The narrative begins in 1994. Yachine is an adolescent who lives in extreme poverty with his violent older brother, Hamid. Yachine's best friends are Nabil, the son of Tamou, a prostitute and aspiring singer; Fouad, a heavy marijuana smoker whose parents mistreat him, blaming him for his favored brother's death; and Khalil. The kids make a small amount of money by extracting copper wire from tires discarded at the city dump. Hamid, meanwhile, operates as a mule for a local drug dealer. One night, at Khalil's father's wedding, the four boys abscond with a bottle of wine and become inebriated. Later in the evening, Hamid rapes a very drunk Nabil in front of the rest of the boys, encouraging them to watch.

Five years later, the boys still live in poverty in Sidi Moumen, which has expanded dramatically. Meanwhile, Morocco is in a state of cultural and political flux following the death of King Hassan II who had ruled the country since 1961. Upon his ascent to the throne, Hassan's son Mohammed VI promises to be a much less authoritarian ruler, vowing to improve Morocco's record on human rights abuses and to grant women more power. Many of his proposed reforms draw the ire of Islamic fundamentalists. Meanwhile, Hamid is now a successful drug dealer who pays off Pitbull, a corrupt police officer to stay in business. Hamid also makes Yachine promise not to get involved with drug dealing. Along with Nabil, Fouad, and Khalil, Yachine spends most of his days rummaging for things to sell at the city's medina marketplace and smoking marijuana. Yachine has also fallen in love with Fouad's sister, Ghislaine.



Angry at Pitbull after a disagreement over payments, Hamid throws a rock at the police officer's car. Hamid is promptly arrested and sentenced to prison for two years. Without his older brother to protect him, Yachine is muscled out of his spot selling junk in the marketplace. Nabil, whose mother, Tamou has been run out of town by religious fundamentalists, helps Yachine get a job with him at an engine repair shop owned by Ba'Moussa.

Two years later, the September 11 attacks occur in New York and Washington, D.C. A day later, Hamid is released from prison a changed man. He has renounced the drug trade and embraced an extreme form of Islamic fundamentalism. One day, Ba'Moussa tries to rape Nabil. Attempting to stop him, Yachine accidentally kills Ba'Moussa. With the help of Hamid and his radical Islamic friends, Yachine and Nabil hide the body. At Hamid's instruction, Yachine and Nabil lay low in a hidden Islamic compound where they meet Abou Zoubeir, a charismatic leader who recruits young men to carry out terrorist attacks in the name of Islam.

Within a year, Yachine, Nabil, and Fouad have all been radicalized as Islamic zealots. They are invited by Zoubeir to join the innermost circle of the terrorist cell, which upsets Hamid. By this time, Yachine has begun to use his given birth name, Tarek. After Tarek and others are beaten in a police raid, an unidentified religious leader arrives at the cell's headquarters to preach the importance of martyrdom, telling the youths, "Fly, horses of God, and the gates of paradise will open for you." The leader selects Tarek, Nabil, Fouad, and Hamid to carry out a suicide bombing attack. While Hamid is happy to be chosen, he is deeply jealous that Tarek is chosen as well.



In May of 2003, shortly before the attack, the group visits the wealthy part of Casablanca where most of them have never been. The boys are amazed by the displays of affluence and lush forests, a dramatic departure from the environment of their desert shantytown. On the day of the attack, the boys wander the city until nightfall. As they approach the Casa de Espana restaurant, Fouad flees in a panic. Tarek and Nabil stab and kill the guard outside the restaurant. Inside, Tarek, Hamid, and Nabil set off their bombs, killing themselves and 20 others, most of whom are Muslim.

Horses of God is an intense examination of how young men are recruited to become suicide bombers, told through the lens of a real-life event.