The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Morocco

Unlike many parts of the Middle East and North Africa, Morocco entered the modern era with a well-established tradition of Islamic monarchy represented by the ‘Alawi dynasty, which came to power in 1669. This indigenous monarchical tradition played a major role in the development of modern Moroccan political thought and behavior. Although French colonial analyses focused on the rupture between the dilapidated “medieval” political structures of the sultanate and the effective “modern” system they introduced during the protectorate (1912–56), it would be more correct to say that, while the Moroccan sultanate was in a state of collapse by the early 20th century, the 19th century witnessed a dynamic reinterpretation of many indigenous political concepts and the spontaneous formation of a resilient protonational community, which was reshaped in colonial and postcolonial times.

Central to this development was the contract that existed between the ‘Alawi sultans and their predominantly tribal subjects. The sultans demanded loyalty and revenues from their subjects in return for ensuring their welfare by means of the sultans’ descent from the Prophet and their commitment to waging jihad. When the sultans failed to protect and provide, their subjects reserved the right to wage jihad against them, which, as armed tribesmen, they were well able to do. In the 19th century, recurrent popular jihads against the sultans for their inability to defend Morocco from European penetration played a powerful role in inculcating the principle of political reciprocity. The fact that the perceived threat to Morocco came from non-Muslims enhanced the religious dimension of these movements.

The imposition of the French and Spanish protectorates in 1912 further discredited the sultan and fostered the development of alternative political perspectives of European and Middle Eastern origin: secular nationalism, socialism, Salafism, Pan-Islamism, and Pan-Arabism. In the colonial context, Moroccans were naturally preoccupied with national liberation, but they sought it within a Pan-Islamic and Pan-Arab framework that combined recognition of Morocco’s distinctive “national” history with participation in the fraternity of “Arab” states. Personal contacts existed between Moroccan nationalists and the famous Pan-Islamist Shakib Arslan in the 1930s. ‘Allal al-Fasi, Morocco’s most famous national leader and a Salafi scholar, expressed in his memoirs the deep satisfaction he felt when the president of the League of Arab States declared that the Maghrib and Mashriq (i.e., North Africa and the Middle East) were the two indispensable wings of the same Arab bird.

While the Arabs of the Mashriq had to choose between religion and ethnicity, the conflation of Arab and Islamic identity posed no contradictions for Arabs in solidly Sunni Morocco. However, other ethnolinguistic groups—namely, the three main Berber communities—had to be subsumed within the new hegemonic Arabo-Islamic identity. The status of Morocco’s culturally and economically important Jewish community was also ambiguous despite reassurances from nationalists, many of whom hoped for a secular republic. However, the sultan, Muhammad V, managed to activate his latent power and authority as a symbol of the Islamic Moroccan community and orchestrate a hybrid political system in which the Commander of the Faithful became a constitutional monarch who ruled rather than reigned.

In the half century since independence, Moroccan political thought internalized many global concepts of European origin. Some Moroccans have called for a more representative government, legal parity for men and women, and greater recognition of the Berber cultural contribution to shaping Moroccan identity. What is distinctive is the extent to which political discourse is shaped by Islam despite the existence of numerous secular political groups. In the early 21st century, monarchical legitimism still derived its power from the dynasty’s status as descendents of the Prophet. The most successful rival political discourse was that of Islamism, which, as elsewhere, provided an authentic framework for articulating calls for social justice, a more equitable distribution of wealth, and a redress of the concerns of the frustrated urban middle and lower classes. Although Islamism has not attracted the same following in Morocco as in some other countries due to the monarchy’s rival Islamic credentials, it is nonetheless a potent force.