Morocco's Islamists: The Way Forward?

In Morocco today, you may be glimpsing the future of the Middle East--or, at least the medium-term future. For decades, Moroccan politics has been dominated by puppets of the monarchy and more recently by leftist and nationalist critics of the regime. But, having made an impressive showing in the 2002 legislative elections, the Islamist Party of Justice and Development could well become the single largest group in the next parliament after Friday's ballot results are tallied. Some think the PJD might even be invited to sit in the next government. Read Moroccan writer Aboubakr Jamai's excellent piece on the PJD in last week's TIME.

Arab regimes have been dancing around the question of Islamist parties since the formation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1920s. In general, they were beaten down by the monarchal and nominally republican systems that have dominated the region since independence. Islamists have tried to take advantage of the political bankruptcy that has increasingly confronted the Arab world since the '67 Arab defeat. Most Islamist parties have suffered severely for their efforts. Some turned to radicalism, which only led down a dark cul de sac. The trend we are increasingly seeing, however, is one in which Islamists seek to take part in the democratic game and play by the rules of that game. Groups like the PJD, and the MB in Egypt, are characterized by nothing if not their patient long-term view of their historical mission.

Not everybody in Morocco likes the Islamists. The country may be split down the middle on social issues like the role of women. Increasingly, however, King Mohammed VI is accommodating the PJD rather than trying to crush it. For its part, the PJD is shying away from the controversial aspects of its ideology--promoting sharia law, for example--and concentrating on good-governance issues. The PJD is hostile to Western and particularly American foreign policy. When I last visited one of its offices, it was bedecked with posters celebrating the Palestinian Hamas group, which Washington designates a terrorist group. In 2004, I attended a PJD conference called to condemn the American attack on Falluja earlier that year. Yet, judging from Jamai's piece on the PJD, the State Department is apparently comfortable having discussions with the PJD.

This may be the model of pragmatism we will see in the future-- Islamist parties like the PJD focusing primarily on governance rather than ideology, and opponents and critics dealing with them on those terms. Many eyes in the Arab world, including in Morocco, are on the fortunes of Turkey's Islamist ruling group, which also happens to be called the Justice and Development party. The headlines go to Al Qaeda and the jihadi bombers in Iraq and everywhere else. Perhaps the more significant trend in political Islam is the one illustrated by the rise of Morocco's PJD.

--By Scott MacLeod/Cairo