Hicham Nostik

Hicham Nostik (Arabic: هشام نوستيك, also known as Kafer Maghribi كافر مغربي) born in 1976 in Taza, Morocco, is a Moroccan writer, podcaster and YouTuber, living in Canada, most known for his outspoken stance against Islam and religion in general, expressed through his books, podcasts and comedy videos, in Moroccan Arabic and Standard Arabic.

Identity

The real name of Hicham Nostik is unknown.

In an interview with writer and intellectual Hamed Abdel-Samad on his program Box of Islam, he used makeup to keep his identity anonymous.

He later finished a master's degree in linguistics.

In politics, Nostik supports Constitutional monarchy as the best political system for Morocco in his opinion. He was also in favor of the Israel–Morocco normalization agreement.

He believes that many Moroccans have been alienated from their Amazigh origins and culture, and taken over by Arabism and Islamism. He considers Islam and the Arab nationalist ideology as the causes of this "acculturation" or loss of identity in Morocco. Nostik is himself of Rifian Amazigh descent, but does not speak Tarifit.

He also stated that he follows a philosophy he calls pragmatic nihilism, which is the topic of his most recent book. Translated to French by Hatim Jawhari in 2020, under the title . Discussion with my Inner-Muslim (original title: حوار مع المسلم اللي ساكن فيا, also known as Dialogue with the Muslim who lives inside me): published by Dar Al-Tawhidi publishing house, is a semi-autobiographical time-travel story where the author encounters himself in the past, before he left Islam, and discusses various topics with himself. In the Salon international du livre de Casablanca (Casablanca International Book Fair) in 2020, all 500 copies of the book at the fair were sold. Former Moroccan Minister of Tourism Lahcen Haddad Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Avichay Adraee Salafist Mohamed Fizazi Moroccan Christian TV host and writer Brother Rachid German-Egyptian intellectual Hamed Abdel-Samad Moroccan intellectual Ahmed Assid Moroccan intellectual Said Nachid Egyptian intellectual Sayyid Al-Qemany Liberal Muslim intellectual and former Islamist Abdelwahab Rafiki, also known as Abou Hafs Syrian human rights activist Rana Ahmad Iraqi intellectual Ahmed Al-Gubbanchi Jordanian molecular biologist Rana Dajani Moroccan intellectual Rachid Aylal

Comedy series One of the first comedy series written and produced by Nostik on his channel was Qabasat min hayat ar-rasul (قبسات من حياة الرسول, snippets from the life of the messenger), in Moroccan Darija, which consists of a series of videos usually 15 to 40 minutes long, each about a specific episode from the life of Muhammad, using voice actors to play different roles.

Another series was Qabasat min hayat al anbiyaa (قبسات من حياة الأنبياء, snippets from the life of the prophets), with the same idea, but applied to the lives of Islamic prophets, such as Jesus, Moses, Solomon and Noah.

On his channel Taboo Toon, he also wrote and produced the series Maedat al anbiyaa (مائدة الأنبياء, the table of the prophets) with original animation, which was aired on YouTube during Ramadan 2019.

He additionally produced music videos with atheistic themes, some of them subtitled or translated to other languages such as Arabic and English.

Due to several participants in his works receiving death threats, Nostik decided to delete most comedy works regarding Islam from his main channel.

He was the main subject of a research paper on atheism in Morocco, at Moulay Ismail University in Meknes, Morocco, stating that "Nostik speaks and writes in the Moroccan dialect to demystify Islam’s sacred Arabic texts through ‘subcultural modes of knowledge production’" (Kettioui 2020).

He was also subject of criticism, notably by Moroccan intellectual Driss Guenbouri who stated that "their [Nostik's and Hamed Abdel-Samad's] stance against Islam is not intellectual or rational, but rather pathological psychological".