Morocco an oasis of calm until now

The Kingdom of Morocco has until now been an oasis of calm along the violent fault line between Islam and the West.

Morocco is part of the Maghreb, which in Arabic literally means the West, and covers the countries of north-western Africa including Algeria and Tunisia. As the most westerly Maghreb country, Morocco is arguably the most western-leaning and least radical of Muslim countries.

Unlike Algeria its next door neighbour and other nearby countries its 30 million strong population has remained largely free of radical violent Islam.

It is one of the Arab Muslim countries most intimately linked to the West - geographically, culturally, politically, and economically.

Morocco is bidding for membership of the EU, with which it conducts most of its trade. It also has the backing of the US.

Algeria has endured a long and extremely bloody fight between the secular government and Islamic insurgents while for many years Libya was strongly opposed to the West although more recently the latter has been keen to improve relations.

Another North African country, Egypt has also seen Islamic terror action most notably in 1997 when more than 60 foreign visitors were shot dead in the resort town of Luxor.

Islamic militants have targeted tourists since beginning a campaign in 1992 to topple the government of President Hosni Mubarak and set up a strict Islamic state in Egypt.

In comparison Moroccan Islamism has been almost pacifist, rejecting violence as a tool to make society more Islamic.

Nonetheless, the involvement of Moroccans and French-Moroccan Muslims in al Qaida’s far-flung network gives cause for concern.

And violence from radical Islam inside Morocco, while rare, has still been deadly.

One small, violent group operated into the 1980s but an attack on a Marrakech hotel in 1994, which left several people dead, brought to light an international ring of violent Islamists.

During the summer of 2002, an alleged “salafi-jihadi” group was arrested and charged with a number of crimes.

Morocco, like the UK, is a constitutional monarchy – it has a royal family which wields much influence however, the King appoints the prime minister, who in turn chooses his government.

Scholars of international relations say Morocco and its monarchy is not as vulnerable to Islamic revolution as other Muslim nations.

Its monarchy invokes Islam to legitimise its existence, as do the royal families in Saudi Arabia and Jordan – claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad and according to the Moroccan constitution the king is “commander of the faithful.”

Its strategic location with both Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines has seen numerous colonial invasions, and a legacy of this past, the Spanish enclaves in Morocco, are still disputed.

Morocco was a French protectorate from 1912 to 1956.

The current ruler, King Mohammed VI was enthroned on July 23, 1999, hours after the death of his father King Hassan II.

The new King has been seen as a moderniser who would press on towards reducing the power of the monarchy and increasing political pluralism.

He promised to tackle poverty and corruption, create jobs and address Morocco’s human rights record.

Early indications suggested that the new king was set on making changes; he chose not to live in a royal palace and sold off many of the royal limousines.

Mohammed VI enjoys the support of many of the country’s reformers and young people but is opposed by many Islamic conservatives.

Some critics have questioned his ability to uphold human rights and free speech.

Currently Morocco’s largest Islamist organisation is officially outlawed but reluctantly tolerated.

The Jami‘at al-‘Adl wal-Ihsan, Justice and Charity Group, JCG, regularly tests the limits of regime tolerance and has proved its ability to mobilise large numbers of followers.

With Morocco in the midst of a halting, controlled and yet unmistakable process of liberalisation, the Islamist current and, and particularly the JCG, has become an established force.

One manifestation of the increased strength of the Islamist trend is the outcome of Morocco’s most recent parliamentary elections.

While the JCG boycotted the vote, the legal Islamist Party of Justice and Development tripled its number of seats in parliament, receiving 13% of the ballots.

The Moroccan authorities’ approach to the Islamist movement over the last three decades has been broadly similar to its strategy regarding all political groupings: combining the use of carrot and stick to entice, co-opt, repress and suppress.

The authorities have been savvy and largely successful in containing Islamist.

But like many Islamic states, it has poverty and a young population, conditions that provide fertile breeding grounds for more militant Islamists.

Morocco has managed to avoid the revolutions and internal violence of other Islamic nations but growing Islamism in Morocco – a Muslim land separated from Europe only by narrow straits – will be watched closely by the West.