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| North Africa |
| Moroccon Islamists |
| 2002-11-30 |
| The extent of the electoral âgreen tideâ that is welling up should not be overestimatedâif only because the largest of these Moroccan Islamist movements, Justice and Charity, advocates a boycott of the elections. Yet some observers foresee a new forward thrust of the fundamentalists, like the one that marked the entry of the âbearded onesâ into Parliament in 1997 and 1999. Either by violence or through the ballot box, Islamism has therefore become ascendant in the kingdom and is a worrisome trend. Born at the start of the 1990s with the return of some 40 fighters from the jihad in Afghanistan, Salafi Jihadi (Salafist Combat), a little-known underground movement, is the only one that has clearly opted for armed struggle. For two months now, this group of some 400 active militants intent on martyrdom has been decimated by arrests. Salafi Jihadi recruits its followers in poor neighborhoods and shantytowns, with a predilection for itinerant merchants, and its figures of reference are the blind sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman (the founder of the Egyptian Jamaa Islamiya); Sayid Qutb; Ibn Taimia; the London preacher Abu Qatada; and, of course, Osama bin Laden. I've never heard of these guys before.. Organized in clusters of cells of three or four members each and determined to restore the caliphate [a united Islamic state] by force, Salafi Jihadi is led by some dozen emirs, all independent of one another. Anything that serves the cause is licit. Mohammed Fezzazi in Tangiers, Omar Hadouchi in Tétouan, and especially Zacaria Miloudi in Casablanca thus perpetrate a veritable Islamist reign of terror where they operate. Miloudi, who was recently arrested, organized punitive expeditions after the evening prayer in Sidi Moumen in Casablanca, against police, drug dealers, or consumers of alcohol. Very fluid, this group has very few ties with foreign countries, and the attempts to coordinate its actions with their Algerian âbrothersâ of Hassan Hattabâs Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat appear to have been unsuccessful. So they're just wannabes With its estimated 30,000 members, its multiple charitable, educational, and recreational associations, Al-Adl wal-Ihsan (Justice and Charity) is without any doubt the most important Islamist movement in Morocco. The group owes much of its importance to the charisma of its founder, 76-year-old Sheik Abdessalam Yassine, a former regional inspector in the Ministry of National Education. Moroccos version of Qazi Yassine is in fact engaging in a radical criticism of the monarchy but carefully refraining from advocating any use of violence. For him, the toppling of Morocco into the caliphate will occur automatically and as a self-evident outcome when his movement numbers at least 4 million members. As the head of this counter-society that is Justice and Charity, Yassine is increasingly becoming the object of an out-and-out personality cultâa peculiarity that the militants of the Salafi Jihadi see as âirreligious.â They want their Emirs to run the Klaifah At his home in Salé, the sheik makes short appearances before the faithful who have come in pilgrimage, sometimes from as far away as the United States or Chile. The few road trips he has made inside Morocco since his release have sometimes given rise to scenes of mass hysteria. Yassine, the new Khomeini? Things have certainly not yet gone that far, but the sheik, who has artfully integrated the Moroccan traditions of Sufism (the cult of the leader, retreats, asceticism, psychological preparationâŠ) displays an impressive capacity to mobilize. As the undisputed leader, Yassine enjoys the right to veto all decisions of the seven-member General Orientation and Leadership Council that heads Justice and Charity. If he dies, his successor should, in principle, be the oldest member of this âpolitburo.â Al-Adl wal-Ihsan, which was for a long time amateurish, has professionalized its structures. The movement has set up watch committees to flush out police informants and to improve the transmission of the latest watchwords. Even some policemen have been âturnedâ to work for the sheik. Finally, the practice of jogging and martial arts is recommended for the movementâs followers, who are supposed to be âsound of bodyââŠand ready for the Great Evening. Or the great revolution The Party for Justice and Develop-ment (PJD) are the Mensheviks (or the social democrats) within the Moroccan Islamist nebula. Fourteen of their elected representatives serve in Parliament, and sometimes they cause a commotion there. But they advocate taking power through elections, and they do not call into question the monarchy or any of the existing institutions. At first glance, the PJD looks like an ordinary and conservative party, which could be considered to be to the right of [the nationalist political party] Istiqlal. It is militant for the Palestinian cause, opposed to the integration of women, and against micro-credit (which they see as encouraging usury). It is religious, certainly, but not too much; it enjoys a sound organization where managerial staff, attorneys, and physicians work together. For a long time it supported the government of Abderrahmane Youssoufi before distancing itself in October 2000, and it even has a woman, Bassima Hakkaoui, among its leaders. But in fact, those who have studied the history of the PJD, as well as the readers of Attajdid, the partyâs unofficial daily paper, know that all the above is an empty shell, a mask that conceals a reality that is much more Islamist: the Movement for Unification and Reform, the MUR. The main craftsman of this infiltration is the director of a private school in Rabat and a PJD representative in Parliament: Abdelilah Benkirane, age 48. This former member of Istiqlalâs youth movement is quite familiar with militant fundamentalism, because he learned his lessons there. During the 1970s, Benkirane frequented the Moroccan Islamic Youth Movement (MJIM) of Abdelkrim Moutii. Taking refuge since then in Libya and then in Norway, Moutii disappeared from the Moroccan scene. Benkirane stayed. The result was a break with violence and a slow evolution toward working within legal structures. In 1981, Benkirane left the MJIM and, together with men like the attorney Mustafa Ramid or the psychiatrist Saadeddine el-Othmani, both currently PJD representatives in Parliament, founded the Jamaa Islamiya. Some say it was for purely tactical reasons, while others, including the Salafists and Justice and Charity, claim that it was because he had wandered from the path of God, but his followers assert that he did so for sincere reasons. Now Benkirane advocates recognition of the monarchy and participation in political institutions. In 1988, the Jamaa became the Movement for Reform and Renewal, and then, after merging with the League for an Islamic Future of Ahmed Raissouni, it took the name of Movement for Unification and Reform. Little by little, what remained of the leadership of the original PJD was put on the sidelines by MURâs Islamistsâexcept for the symbolic figure of Khatib. All of the elected representatives of the party and 13 of the 18 members of its General Secretariat are active MUR members. The PJD, having been âIslamicizedâ in this way, will therefore be the only party to represent the Islamic fundamentalist movement in the September legislative elections. Will it get the votes of the other religious movements? This is far from certain, even though the differences that separate them have more to do with form and strategy than with substance. In the area of day-to-day mobilization, this party, which is rather elitist, suffers from the competition of the intrusive Sheik Yassine. As for the Salafists, they profess disdain and scorn for him. It remains to be seen whether the police, in their investigation of the Al-Qaeda network, were surprised to discover that the second Moroccan wife chosen by the Saudi Zouhair Tabiti, the head of the group, was a militant of the quite presentable MUR. And so, from the alleys of Sidi Moumen to the halls of Parliament, the Islamists make up a large family. And the only thing they agree on is that they should rule and the others should follow them |
| Posted by:Paul |
| #1 Nothing says loving like "politburo"...PURGE! |
| Posted by: Brian 2002-11-30 23:59:47 |