Seeking an ‘other’ desperately: the dialectical opposition of political Islam in Morocco

Abstract

This article uses the 'opposition' parameter to analyse the political discourse and practice of the main Islamist political actors in Morocco: the 'officialist' political Islam represented by the Harakat al-Tawhid wa-l-Islah (Unicity and Reform Movement, MUR) through its political alter ego, the Hizb al-'Adala wa-l-Tanmiyya (Justice and Development Party, PJD) in which it is included, tries to reach the power in order to reform the political system in moral terms from the inside, by establishing a dialectical opposition based on Islamic concepts against the rest of the primary elites (opposition-instrumentalisation). The outsider Jama'at al-'Adl wa-l-Ihsan (Community of Justice and Spirituality, CJS) keeps a firm opposition role against the Moroccan regime, denying both moral and political legitimacy to the 'Alawi monarchy and trying to change the social and political system from outside of the party system (resistancedémarcation). This study offers some perspectives on the place of the dialectics of opposition in political discourse and their respective position regarding power. It also offers insight into the ideological challenges political Islam should face in the short term.

Las élites políticas de la oposición institucional en Marruecos: una polifonía de voces sobre la monarquía

“…Así, incluso a la cabeza del nuevo gobierno marroquí, el discurso político del PJD claramente muestra que la monarquía no es su "otro dialéctico", de lo contrario nunca habrían llegado al gobierno. Por lo tanto, no hay ninguna lucha por la legitimidad religiosa entre ellos (Macías, 2015: 338 y 339) como si plantean, desde la oposición no institucional, los islamistas radicales (y no violentos) de al-Adl wa-l-Ihsane 39 (Casani, 2017y 2018y Macías 2006y 2015.…”