- +6
Yasmine Farouk, Nathan J. Brown, Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen, …
{
"authors": [
"Anouar Boukhars"
],
"type": "other",
"centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
"centers": [
"Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
],
"collections": [
"Arab Awakening"
],
"englishNewsletterAll": "menaTransitions",
"nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
"primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"programAffiliation": "MEP",
"programs": [
"Middle East"
],
"projects": [],
"regions": [
"North Africa",
"Morocco"
],
"topics": [
"Political Reform"
]
}Source: Getty
Morocco’s Islamists: Bucking the Trend?
Morocco’s peculiar political realities and the ruling Islamist party’s patient and non-threatening formula for political change have so far allowed the Islamist experiment to limp along.
Source: FRIDE
Like their Islamist counterparts in Egypt and Tunisia, Morocco’s party of Justice and Development (PJD) rode the 2011 wave of popular protests to become the largest party in parliament (winning 107 of a total of 395 seats). That result forced an unenthusiastic King Mohammed VI to appoint the PJD’s leader, Abdelillah Benkirane, to head a new government in November 2011. By the summer of 2013 however, Islamists’ political fortunes everywhere were hitting a low ebb. From the Muslim Brotherhood's dramatic fall in Egypt to the fracturing of its affiliate in Jordan, along with the resignation of Islamist parties from governments in Libya (Justice and Construction Party) and Tunisia (Ennahda movement) in early 2014 (for very different reasons), Islamists seem to have lost the political initiative of the ‘Arab spring’. Only Benkirane is still hanging on to his job, having survived months of political deadlock after the withdrawal of the pro-palace Istiqlal party from the governing coalition in early July 2013...
This policy brief was originally published in FRIDE. Read the full text on the FRIDE website.
About the Author
Former Nonresident Fellow, Middle East Program
Boukhars was a nonresident fellow in Carnegie’s Middle East Program. He is a professor of countering violent extremism and counter-terrorism at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University.
- Islamic Institutions in Arab States: Mapping the Dynamics of Control, Co-option, and ContentionResearch
- Islamic Authority and Arab States in a Time of PandemicArticle
- +3
Frederic Wehrey, Nathan J. Brown, Bader Al-Saif, …
Recent Work
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
More Work from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- How a U.S.-Russia Standoff Ended a Decades-Old UN Mission in Western SaharaCommentary
MINURSO’s renewal by the Security Council became highly politicized. Its expiration brings concerns about renewed violence and the future of demining efforts.
Sarah Yerkes
- Red Sea Mirage: Why Russia Is Still Waiting on a Military Base in SudanCommentary
Russia’s coveted Red Sea naval base has fallen victim to its erratic foreign policy.
Sergey Konyashin
- The Twilight of Oil in an Age of Uncertainty: From a Vicious to a Virtuous CyclePaper
The global hydrocarbon order is changing. Economic diversification and developing productive economies have become essential for Middle Eastern and North African states, requiring them to address social and political challenges and rethink domestic, regional, and global settlements.
- +1
Nur Arafeh, Ishac Diwan, Hamza Meddeb, …
- Vučić’s Downfall in Serbia Is Fatal to Russia’s Influence in the BalkansCommentary
The new Serbian leadership may have promised to keep on cooperating with Russia, but soon they will have to make a choice between fighting corruption and sealing lucrative deals with Moscow. The two are mutually exclusive, even if the new leaders in Belgrade haven’t yet realized it.
Maksim Samorukov
- How Did Serbia Remove Vučić Without a Single Smashed Window?Commentary
Serbia’s electoral earthquake is an extremely rare example of an entire political system being defeated by street protesters who played by the rules.
Alexander Baunov