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14 March 2005

Morocco’s dilemma: democracy or terror?

The kingdom’s autocratic political system may be driving more young Moroccans into Jihad

by Ali Amar
Editor


Hjalmar Tjan

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When suicide bombers shattered the calm of the Casablanca night on 16 May 2003, they did more than take 45 lives; they endangered Morocco's future as a democracy.

Morocco had long been considered a haven of tolerance and peace. Any troubles were attributed to foreign agitators.

But Moroccans bombed Casablanca. All grew up in poverty and followed the ideology of radical Islam. None had ever left Morocco. 15 of the 22 people jailed for the Madrid bombing are Moroccan. In a special feature on the 3/11 attacks, Time magazine called Moroccans the “new face of terror”.

A member of Hofstad, an extremist group composed largely of young ethnic Moroccans, is accused of the November murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. This year, Dutch police arrested 13 Moroccan terror suspects. Similar sweeps in France and Belgium led to the incarceration of at least a dozen members of a suspected Moroccan terrorist cell.

In Europe, 80 per cent of those arrested since 2003 on terrorism charges are Moroccan. The days of not worrying about Morocco are over.

Faced with this reality, the Moroccan government seems to have made the decision to restrict liberty in the name of security, perhaps in imitation of the United States after 9/11. Following the New York attacks, the Moroccan Parliament approved a broad anti-terrorism bill that was criticized by human rights groups.

“We adjusted our own security apparatus according to this new situation where our country is the target of international terrorism,” Moroccan prime minister Driss Jettou said to Time this week.

But these moves are a mistake. To fight terrorism, Morocco needs more democracy, not less.

The evolution of democracy in Morocco has been hesitant, sometimes even illusory. For example, the legislative elections in September 2002 were more transparent than in the past. But investigations in the independent press have raised serious questions about their fairness.

Moroccans are also burdened by a constitution that does not meet the first criterion of a democratic constitution: the separation of powers.

The monarchy has all the power, so much so that the Parliament plays a marginal role in political life. The true power is in the hands of the people close to King Mohammed VI.

The powerlessness of elected institutions has resulted in the rejection of the political system by a large part of the Moroccan people, a rejection Islamic fundamentalists have exploited to recruit militants.

The Moroccan intelligentsia says democracy must be delayed in order to save it from being destroyed by the fundamentalists. The problem with this reasoning is that Arab regimes have shown themselves to be more despotic than enlightened.

Paradoxically, this political intelligentsia considers itself democratic while supporting an anti-democratic system. The concentration of powers in the monarchy is considered a defence against fundamentalism.

There is hope for a genuine democracy in Morocco, because the country has a thriving civil society. Associations for women's rights and for human rights are doing extraordinary work.

For instance, members of the Moroccan Human Rights Association and the most popular Islamist movement in Morocco, the Justice and Charity Party, debate democracy and the status of women — a discussion only covered by the independent press.

As in Turkey, the most important Islamist groups have moderated their political and social stances as they take part in public debate, including running for office. Islamists won the mayoralty of Meknes, for instance, as a way of showing that they can manage a major city.

Unfortunately, the government's increasing restrictions on the news media are stifling the movement towards democracy. The press and human rights organisations continue to report cases of torture by the police.

If the attacks of 9/11 forced the West to seek a new equilibrium between security and liberty, one can imagine the difficulties faced by a country like Morocco. The only option, though, is to continue on towards democratisation. Only democracy can cure extremism.

King Mohammed VI, who was in Madrid last week to attend the remembrance ceremonies, spoke out strongly against the terrorists, calling them “villains” who have tarnished the Muslim faith. But the kingdom's autocratic political system may be driving more young Moroccans into the hands of clerics who preach the concept of jihad. For Morocco there is one choice: openness or chaos.

a.amar@city.ac.uk

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