Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Challenges
In Morocco, Marvine Howe, a former correspondent for The New York Times, presents an incisive and comprehensive review of the Moroccan kingdom and its people, past and present. She provides a vivid and frank portrait of late King Hassan, whom she knew personally and credits with laying the foundations of a modern, pro-Western state and analyzes the pressures his successor, King Mohammed VI has come under to transform the autocratic monarchy into a full-fledged democracy. Howe addresses emerging issues and problems--equal rights for women, elimination of corruption and correction of glaring economic and social disparities--and asks the fundamental question: can this ancient Muslim kingdom embrace western democracy in an era of deepening divisions between the Islamic world and the West?
Book Reviews of Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Challenges
Read this review on its original site Morocco Time by clicking this link.
I’ve just finished Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Challenges, by Marvine Howe. It’s the sort of book that I know I’ll have to read at least one or two more times, just to absorb all the information – and I don’t normally need to do that. So, for all of you out there who have been bombarded with questions from family members and friends (sometimes even strangers), along the lines of “If Morocco is so modern, why do so many terrorists come from there?” – this book is for you. Yes, the preceding question is kind of silly, but there’s been many times when I wondered myself how Morocco had gotten to where it is today, and what turns and twists it took along its religious and political path.
A brief snippet -
“The Arab kingdoms are linked by more than common adversaries. The petroleum giant has provided Morocco with badly needed oil, financing, investments, and jobs, while Morocco has reciprocated by sending techical cadres and security specialists to Saudi Arabia and offering the Saudis welcoming vacation sites. It was the Moroccan and Saudi monarchs who founded the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Rabat in 1969 in an effort to gain support for the Palestinan cause. The Saudis were said to have contributed billions of dollars in loans and grants for Morocco’s war in the Sahara. During the Lebanese civil war in the mid-1970s, pleasure-seeking Saudi princes and businessmen invaded Morocco, buying hotels, villas, and palaces. Many of them stayed on to invest in real estate and the tourism industry. Out of concern over the growing influence of the Left in universities in the early 1980s, King Hassan made Islamic studies obligatory and imported Saudi teachers and their rigid Wahabi brand of Islam.”
Whether you agree or disagree with Ms. Howe’s statements, you can hardly deny that she must have had serious chutzpah to succeed in forming relationships with some of Morocco’s most powerful – King Hassan II, King Mohammed VI, Prince Moulay Hicham (“the rebel”), Meryam Demnati, Fatima Mernissi, Mehdi ben Barka, Nadia Yassine, Amina Benkhadra, and the list goes on. Not only that, but she started forming her connections in the 1950′s, after coming to Morocco as an au pair for a French military family…I know how difficult it was for me as an American woman, just this year – can you imagine back then?
This is a great book – go get it from Amazon or your local library!
I’ve just finished Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Challenges, by Marvine Howe. It’s the sort of book that I know I’ll have to read at least one or two more times, just to absorb all the information – and I don’t normally need to do that. So, for all of you out there who have been bombarded with questions from family members and friends (sometimes even strangers), along the lines of “If Morocco is so modern, why do so many terrorists come from there?” – this book is for you. Yes, the preceding question is kind of silly, but there’s been many times when I wondered myself how Morocco had gotten to where it is today, and what turns and twists it took along its religious and political path.
A brief snippet -
“The Arab kingdoms are linked by more than common adversaries. The petroleum giant has provided Morocco with badly needed oil, financing, investments, and jobs, while Morocco has reciprocated by sending techical cadres and security specialists to Saudi Arabia and offering the Saudis welcoming vacation sites. It was the Moroccan and Saudi monarchs who founded the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Rabat in 1969 in an effort to gain support for the Palestinan cause. The Saudis were said to have contributed billions of dollars in loans and grants for Morocco’s war in the Sahara. During the Lebanese civil war in the mid-1970s, pleasure-seeking Saudi princes and businessmen invaded Morocco, buying hotels, villas, and palaces. Many of them stayed on to invest in real estate and the tourism industry. Out of concern over the growing influence of the Left in universities in the early 1980s, King Hassan made Islamic studies obligatory and imported Saudi teachers and their rigid Wahabi brand of Islam.”
Whether you agree or disagree with Ms. Howe’s statements, you can hardly deny that she must have had serious chutzpah to succeed in forming relationships with some of Morocco’s most powerful – King Hassan II, King Mohammed VI, Prince Moulay Hicham (“the rebel”), Meryam Demnati, Fatima Mernissi, Mehdi ben Barka, Nadia Yassine, Amina Benkhadra, and the list goes on. Not only that, but she started forming her connections in the 1950′s, after coming to Morocco as an au pair for a French military family…I know how difficult it was for me as an American woman, just this year – can you imagine back then?
This is a great book – go get it from Amazon or your local library!
Another Review for Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Challenges
To tell the truth, this is a book that goes beyond the beaten paths – not only those of the classic history of Morocco with its dynasties, its kasbahs, its folklore, Andalusian cuisine, mint tea and marble fountains – but also its recent past during which a powerful monarch, who incarnated religion and tradition as well as reform and modernity, who faced traditions stronger than his own, military and civilian forces on his right and even “progressive” forces who barred the way to reforms that were not of their making.
This book is different because it gives voice to young Moroccans who describe their daily lives and to women who reaffirm their own demands and their solidarity with women everywhere.
This book is remarkable in that it presents the growth of the Islamist phenomenon (surely one of the first English-language publications to do so), which had been an underlying factor in the past and now has targeted – in a timid fashion still – the actual head of the pyramid of power in Morocco, that is the two institutions: the monarchy and religion of which the young king is the supreme depositary.
Nor does this work fail to examine that painful chapter for all Moroccans which is known as les années de plomb –the years of lead – a period of “tortures and disappearances.’’ At the same time, it notes the establishment of the Commission for Equity and Reconciliation, the only example of its kind in the Arab-Muslim world for such cases, and which has not altogether failed its enormous task of reconciling the country with itself and the people with the regime.
Since the recovery of its sovereignty, Morocco has been the subject of various diametrically opposed studies. There are those that heap infamy on the regime based on somewhat archaic traditions and in keeping with the “progressive” tenor of the times, disparaging everything that comes from the hands of this ancient monarchy. Then there are those, which out of atavism or personal interest are forever praising the benevolence and the wise governance of the reigning monarch. Now this book arrives to restore as much as possible the balance and adopt the golden mean, which is truer to the country’s reality. But it must be stressed that without a good measure of sensitivity at the outset, it would have been difficult for the author to achieve such an understanding of her subject.
For the American reader, one must add that the United States has shown a keen interest in the fate of Morocco ever since the American fleet faced problems in the Strait of Gibraltar, which like the Dardanelle’s, is a vital maritime passageway. And one can be sure that this geo-strategic aspect is also an important factor in the interest that will be generated by this book.
Having lived a longtime in Morocco and in Turkey and becoming a specialist of these two countries that exercise a certain control over their respective straits, the author, however, has not been tempted to make a comparative study of the legacies of the two Caliphates, of the East and the West. Nevertheless, she arrives at a common situation. In the past, these countries underwent similar offensives from the ancient Christian West, and to this day, they serve as a permanent geographic contact, a link and a base of operations for a West, which, while wiser, is still imbued with goals of economic and cultural expansion and more than ever intoxicated by its dreams of hegemony over the southern Mediterranean and Africa in the one case; toward East Africa and Asia in the other. If it were only to reach this perspective, while not explicit, the new book of Marvine Howe on Morocco is well worth looking at.
Rabat, Dec. 26, 2005
Signed: Aissa Benchekroun,
Retired ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco
This book is different because it gives voice to young Moroccans who describe their daily lives and to women who reaffirm their own demands and their solidarity with women everywhere.
This book is remarkable in that it presents the growth of the Islamist phenomenon (surely one of the first English-language publications to do so), which had been an underlying factor in the past and now has targeted – in a timid fashion still – the actual head of the pyramid of power in Morocco, that is the two institutions: the monarchy and religion of which the young king is the supreme depositary.
Nor does this work fail to examine that painful chapter for all Moroccans which is known as les années de plomb –the years of lead – a period of “tortures and disappearances.’’ At the same time, it notes the establishment of the Commission for Equity and Reconciliation, the only example of its kind in the Arab-Muslim world for such cases, and which has not altogether failed its enormous task of reconciling the country with itself and the people with the regime.
Since the recovery of its sovereignty, Morocco has been the subject of various diametrically opposed studies. There are those that heap infamy on the regime based on somewhat archaic traditions and in keeping with the “progressive” tenor of the times, disparaging everything that comes from the hands of this ancient monarchy. Then there are those, which out of atavism or personal interest are forever praising the benevolence and the wise governance of the reigning monarch. Now this book arrives to restore as much as possible the balance and adopt the golden mean, which is truer to the country’s reality. But it must be stressed that without a good measure of sensitivity at the outset, it would have been difficult for the author to achieve such an understanding of her subject.
For the American reader, one must add that the United States has shown a keen interest in the fate of Morocco ever since the American fleet faced problems in the Strait of Gibraltar, which like the Dardanelle’s, is a vital maritime passageway. And one can be sure that this geo-strategic aspect is also an important factor in the interest that will be generated by this book.
Having lived a longtime in Morocco and in Turkey and becoming a specialist of these two countries that exercise a certain control over their respective straits, the author, however, has not been tempted to make a comparative study of the legacies of the two Caliphates, of the East and the West. Nevertheless, she arrives at a common situation. In the past, these countries underwent similar offensives from the ancient Christian West, and to this day, they serve as a permanent geographic contact, a link and a base of operations for a West, which, while wiser, is still imbued with goals of economic and cultural expansion and more than ever intoxicated by its dreams of hegemony over the southern Mediterranean and Africa in the one case; toward East Africa and Asia in the other. If it were only to reach this perspective, while not explicit, the new book of Marvine Howe on Morocco is well worth looking at.
Rabat, Dec. 26, 2005
Signed: Aissa Benchekroun,
Retired ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco
Review of Morocco by Times Literary Supplement (London)
By BARNABY ROGERSON
This book is an attempt to explain the internal politics of contemporary Morocco and most especially how this democratic Muslim kingdom -saluted by all the leaders of the Western World as a role model of tolerance, freedom and peace -could produce citizens who would be responsible for the Casablanca suicide bombings of May 2003 and the Madrid train bombings of June 2004.
It is the work of a journalist, not a historian, enlivened by a series of interviews and character portraits.
Marvine Howe first came to Morocco in 1950 as an au pair for a French family in Fez. Before her first year inMorocco was up she had begun to file reports on the stirring incidents of this period. She subsequently established herself as a journalist and broadcaster with access to many of the leading figures of the Moroccan struggle for independence, balanced by an understanding of the political spectrum within the French colonial society. She maintained this position as a trusted commentator for the American media until the early 1960s when the animosity between the two leading figures of Moroccan post-independence political life, King Hassan II and the nationalist politician Mehdi Ben Barka, made her presence unwelcome. She knew both men well. Her personal insights into the political manoeuvres of the 1950s and 60s alone make this book a valuable and fascinating testimony.
Howe clearly delighted in the company of King Hassan II when he was a relaxed, inquiring and accessible crown prince; indeed her first book on Morocco was entitled The Prince and I. She is also an honest enough observer (of herself as well as others) to admit that she felt slighted by Hassan when, on becoming King, he ended their friendship. She is not alone in considering Ben Barka the most remarkable, clever and animated Moroccan of his generation. The national hero, King Muhammad V, employed Ben Barka as a mathematics tutor to his son and then as a minister in the first national government. Her description of the events surrounding Ben Barka's abduction in Paris and his torture, defilement and murder at the hands of General Oufkir (the Moroccan Minister of the Interior who had flown to France in order to participate personally) is at the centre of her narrative.
Using an impressive range of sources, testimony and intriguing anecdote, Howe creates a palpable sense of regret that the heady days of national unity immediately after independence have been warped from what could have been their true pattern. Instead of Morocco converting itself into a constitutional monarchy under "the dream ticket" of Muhammad V and Ben Barka, we have the tale of the wicked prince, of the creation of the Makhzen system -an inter-linked web of corruption, royal hegemony, nationalistic adventures and security service tyranny -that has nearly stifled Morocco over the past forty-five years. The result, according to Howe, is a mismanaged economy, hampered by endemic corruption, which fails to attract enough foreign investment to create sustained economic growth. A series of inept governments have allowed the slum suburbs of Casablanca to fill up with the ill-educated and the dispossessed, a recruiting ground for the foot soldiers of a future Islamist movement. That this movement has not already been born is largely due to the true heroes of modern Morocco, an assortment of writers, journalists, aid workers, doctors, teachers, feminists, Berber revivalists and philanthropists, who have filled the gap left by government with over 30,000 non-governmental organizations and associations such as the Moroccan Organization of Human Rights, the anti-corruption movement Transparency International, the Committee for the Families of the Disappeared, the street children's charity Bayti or the twelve micro-finance associations that have already lent over $500 million to 450,000 poor people. In this survey, Howe creates a fascinating portrait of Morocco's diversity and enterprise, not the least of which is the observation that it is possible there to be both a university- educated professional woman and a veil- wearing Islamist.
Howe challenges the young king Muhammad VI to place his trust in Morocco's emerging social democracy and to disband the Makhzen system created by his father.
Her book is a war cry for humane liberal principles, for social involvement, for a vigorously engaged society. Not for a moment does one doubt Howe's veracity or her deep affection for Morocco. If, though, she has a flaw, it is her failure to place the challenges of the country against the deep-rooted geographical absolutism of North Africa; a land where the best- laid plans are destroyed by the unpredictable climate, where a summer rainstorm can prove as destructive as drought. She also fails to assess the Moroccan experience against that of her Maghrebi neighbours. For it is salutary to realize that despite the very different political structures of Tunisia, Algeria and Libya and their very different economies (two of which are based on abundant oil revenues), all suffer from the same underlying concerns: "the power" that sits in the shadow beside the supposed instruments of the state, massive unemployment, a lack of water rather than of land, a disempowered youth, the endless debate between the linguistic influences of Europe and Arabia, the underlying rivalry between the cities of the coast and of the rural hinterland and the diminished status of the indigenous peoples of the Sahara. These near-insurmountable problems will belittle the achievements of any state, be it Islamist, socialist, a revolutionary state of the masses, the old Makhzen regime, or a constitutional monarchy. As to the bombers of Casablanca and Madrid, their concerns are neither domestic nor social. The source of their anger lies on a distant horizon. They die as martyrs in the fight against Israel, the US and its client allies; not for better drains, employment opportunities and access to the world marketplace.
This book is an attempt to explain the internal politics of contemporary Morocco and most especially how this democratic Muslim kingdom -saluted by all the leaders of the Western World as a role model of tolerance, freedom and peace -could produce citizens who would be responsible for the Casablanca suicide bombings of May 2003 and the Madrid train bombings of June 2004.
It is the work of a journalist, not a historian, enlivened by a series of interviews and character portraits.
Marvine Howe first came to Morocco in 1950 as an au pair for a French family in Fez. Before her first year inMorocco was up she had begun to file reports on the stirring incidents of this period. She subsequently established herself as a journalist and broadcaster with access to many of the leading figures of the Moroccan struggle for independence, balanced by an understanding of the political spectrum within the French colonial society. She maintained this position as a trusted commentator for the American media until the early 1960s when the animosity between the two leading figures of Moroccan post-independence political life, King Hassan II and the nationalist politician Mehdi Ben Barka, made her presence unwelcome. She knew both men well. Her personal insights into the political manoeuvres of the 1950s and 60s alone make this book a valuable and fascinating testimony.
Howe clearly delighted in the company of King Hassan II when he was a relaxed, inquiring and accessible crown prince; indeed her first book on Morocco was entitled The Prince and I. She is also an honest enough observer (of herself as well as others) to admit that she felt slighted by Hassan when, on becoming King, he ended their friendship. She is not alone in considering Ben Barka the most remarkable, clever and animated Moroccan of his generation. The national hero, King Muhammad V, employed Ben Barka as a mathematics tutor to his son and then as a minister in the first national government. Her description of the events surrounding Ben Barka's abduction in Paris and his torture, defilement and murder at the hands of General Oufkir (the Moroccan Minister of the Interior who had flown to France in order to participate personally) is at the centre of her narrative.
Using an impressive range of sources, testimony and intriguing anecdote, Howe creates a palpable sense of regret that the heady days of national unity immediately after independence have been warped from what could have been their true pattern. Instead of Morocco converting itself into a constitutional monarchy under "the dream ticket" of Muhammad V and Ben Barka, we have the tale of the wicked prince, of the creation of the Makhzen system -an inter-linked web of corruption, royal hegemony, nationalistic adventures and security service tyranny -that has nearly stifled Morocco over the past forty-five years. The result, according to Howe, is a mismanaged economy, hampered by endemic corruption, which fails to attract enough foreign investment to create sustained economic growth. A series of inept governments have allowed the slum suburbs of Casablanca to fill up with the ill-educated and the dispossessed, a recruiting ground for the foot soldiers of a future Islamist movement. That this movement has not already been born is largely due to the true heroes of modern Morocco, an assortment of writers, journalists, aid workers, doctors, teachers, feminists, Berber revivalists and philanthropists, who have filled the gap left by government with over 30,000 non-governmental organizations and associations such as the Moroccan Organization of Human Rights, the anti-corruption movement Transparency International, the Committee for the Families of the Disappeared, the street children's charity Bayti or the twelve micro-finance associations that have already lent over $500 million to 450,000 poor people. In this survey, Howe creates a fascinating portrait of Morocco's diversity and enterprise, not the least of which is the observation that it is possible there to be both a university- educated professional woman and a veil- wearing Islamist.
Howe challenges the young king Muhammad VI to place his trust in Morocco's emerging social democracy and to disband the Makhzen system created by his father.
Her book is a war cry for humane liberal principles, for social involvement, for a vigorously engaged society. Not for a moment does one doubt Howe's veracity or her deep affection for Morocco. If, though, she has a flaw, it is her failure to place the challenges of the country against the deep-rooted geographical absolutism of North Africa; a land where the best- laid plans are destroyed by the unpredictable climate, where a summer rainstorm can prove as destructive as drought. She also fails to assess the Moroccan experience against that of her Maghrebi neighbours. For it is salutary to realize that despite the very different political structures of Tunisia, Algeria and Libya and their very different economies (two of which are based on abundant oil revenues), all suffer from the same underlying concerns: "the power" that sits in the shadow beside the supposed instruments of the state, massive unemployment, a lack of water rather than of land, a disempowered youth, the endless debate between the linguistic influences of Europe and Arabia, the underlying rivalry between the cities of the coast and of the rural hinterland and the diminished status of the indigenous peoples of the Sahara. These near-insurmountable problems will belittle the achievements of any state, be it Islamist, socialist, a revolutionary state of the masses, the old Makhzen regime, or a constitutional monarchy. As to the bombers of Casablanca and Madrid, their concerns are neither domestic nor social. The source of their anger lies on a distant horizon. They die as martyrs in the fight against Israel, the US and its client allies; not for better drains, employment opportunities and access to the world marketplace.
Article from the World Policy Journal Spring 2000:
Morocco's Democratic Experience
Morocco's Democratic Experience
Marvine Howe
It was a low-key homecoming last November for the family of Morocco's best-known opposition leader, Mehdi Ben Barka, kidnapped by royal henchmen and presumably killed 35 years ago. Representatives of the new king, Mohammed VI, and the government were at the airport to greet Ben Barka'swife, daughter, three sons, and their families in what was described as a private visit. But there was no mobilization of political militants, and television cameras were excluded from the scene. There seemed to be an unspoken accord not to rock the boat of Morocco's delicately balanced political opening under the young monarch.
Before the gathering of some 200 of Ben Barka's political companions, disciples, family and old friends at a relative's villa, 50-year-old Bachir paid an emotional homage to his father "who sacrificed his life and fought for the construction of a democratic and progressive society." Bachir Ben Barka told friends that he was determined to learn "the truth" about what had happened to his father, whose body has never been found.
Other political exiles have regained Morocco in recent months, but none so powerfully symbolize the momentous changes taking place in this ancient North African kingdom as the Ben Barka family. A leader of the nationalist struggle for independence from France, Mehdi Ben Barka was twice condemned to death for alleged conspiracy against the monarchy. Although the late King Hassan II subsequently pardoned Ben Barka, his disappearance in Paris was linked by the press to the Moroccan secret services and ultimately the Royal Palace. Ben Barka's family was understandably reluctant to return to this constitutional monarchy, which still bore the trappings of a police state.
When France granted independence to its protectorate in 1956, Morocco was a largely feudal kingdom of 12 million inhabitants, with a handful of university graduates, and a well-developed infrastructure of ports, airports, railways, highways, and diverse industries. King Hassan II, who succeeded to the throne on the death of his widely loved father, Mohammed V, in 1961,ruled the country with a firm and arbitrary hand for 38 years. Admired as a statesman, Hassan II's main legacy was in having made Morocco a pro-Western bastion of stability in a volatile area and a leader in Middle East peace efforts, as well as having laid the foundations for a modern constitutional monarchy. At the time of his death on July 23, 1999, there were thousands of Moroccan engineers, doctors, and other professionals, many of whom were women, and a dynamic civil society.
Historians will point out, however, that Moroccan peace and progress have come at a high cost to human rights. Fearful of the rise of Arab socialism in the 1960s, King Hassan's security forces carried out waves of repression against leftist trade unionists, politicians, and students. But the threat to the monarch actually came from army dissidents, and he miraculously escaped two coup attempts in the 1970s. There followed purges in the armed forces and the creation of a dominant Interior Ministry with a powerful security apparatus. As Commander of the Faithful, Hassan II encouraged Islamic associations in the early 1970s as a counterweight to the left. The king succeeded in forging national unity with his "Green March" of 300,000 citizens, followed by troops, to dramatize Morocco's claims to the Sahara in 1975. Soon there was new unrest as people chafed at widespread corruption, abuses by security forces, unemployment, and the growing gap between rich and poor. Pressured by the rise of the Islamists in the early 1990s, the king cautiously began to liberalize his regime but could not relinquish his absolute power.
But now an exciting era of reform has opened in this Muslim country, strategically situated at the gateway to the Mediterranean. Actually, the Moroccan Spring was initiated two years ago by King Hassan, who named as prime minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi, leader of the Socialist opposition. A former companion of Ben Barka, Youssoufi is a human rights lawyer with impeccable moral credentials. His coalition government has done much to consolidate the rule of law and protect human rights, and prepare the groundwork for major economic and social reform. Since Hassan II's death last July and his succession by Crown Prince Mohammed, the pace of change has accelerated dramatically. The 36-year-old King Mohammed VI has taken a number of measures that show he has the will and courage to break with the past.
Marvine Howe
It was a low-key homecoming last November for the family of Morocco's best-known opposition leader, Mehdi Ben Barka, kidnapped by royal henchmen and presumably killed 35 years ago. Representatives of the new king, Mohammed VI, and the government were at the airport to greet Ben Barka'swife, daughter, three sons, and their families in what was described as a private visit. But there was no mobilization of political militants, and television cameras were excluded from the scene. There seemed to be an unspoken accord not to rock the boat of Morocco's delicately balanced political opening under the young monarch.
Before the gathering of some 200 of Ben Barka's political companions, disciples, family and old friends at a relative's villa, 50-year-old Bachir paid an emotional homage to his father "who sacrificed his life and fought for the construction of a democratic and progressive society." Bachir Ben Barka told friends that he was determined to learn "the truth" about what had happened to his father, whose body has never been found.
Other political exiles have regained Morocco in recent months, but none so powerfully symbolize the momentous changes taking place in this ancient North African kingdom as the Ben Barka family. A leader of the nationalist struggle for independence from France, Mehdi Ben Barka was twice condemned to death for alleged conspiracy against the monarchy. Although the late King Hassan II subsequently pardoned Ben Barka, his disappearance in Paris was linked by the press to the Moroccan secret services and ultimately the Royal Palace. Ben Barka's family was understandably reluctant to return to this constitutional monarchy, which still bore the trappings of a police state.
When France granted independence to its protectorate in 1956, Morocco was a largely feudal kingdom of 12 million inhabitants, with a handful of university graduates, and a well-developed infrastructure of ports, airports, railways, highways, and diverse industries. King Hassan II, who succeeded to the throne on the death of his widely loved father, Mohammed V, in 1961,ruled the country with a firm and arbitrary hand for 38 years. Admired as a statesman, Hassan II's main legacy was in having made Morocco a pro-Western bastion of stability in a volatile area and a leader in Middle East peace efforts, as well as having laid the foundations for a modern constitutional monarchy. At the time of his death on July 23, 1999, there were thousands of Moroccan engineers, doctors, and other professionals, many of whom were women, and a dynamic civil society.
Historians will point out, however, that Moroccan peace and progress have come at a high cost to human rights. Fearful of the rise of Arab socialism in the 1960s, King Hassan's security forces carried out waves of repression against leftist trade unionists, politicians, and students. But the threat to the monarch actually came from army dissidents, and he miraculously escaped two coup attempts in the 1970s. There followed purges in the armed forces and the creation of a dominant Interior Ministry with a powerful security apparatus. As Commander of the Faithful, Hassan II encouraged Islamic associations in the early 1970s as a counterweight to the left. The king succeeded in forging national unity with his "Green March" of 300,000 citizens, followed by troops, to dramatize Morocco's claims to the Sahara in 1975. Soon there was new unrest as people chafed at widespread corruption, abuses by security forces, unemployment, and the growing gap between rich and poor. Pressured by the rise of the Islamists in the early 1990s, the king cautiously began to liberalize his regime but could not relinquish his absolute power.
But now an exciting era of reform has opened in this Muslim country, strategically situated at the gateway to the Mediterranean. Actually, the Moroccan Spring was initiated two years ago by King Hassan, who named as prime minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi, leader of the Socialist opposition. A former companion of Ben Barka, Youssoufi is a human rights lawyer with impeccable moral credentials. His coalition government has done much to consolidate the rule of law and protect human rights, and prepare the groundwork for major economic and social reform. Since Hassan II's death last July and his succession by Crown Prince Mohammed, the pace of change has accelerated dramatically. The 36-year-old King Mohammed VI has taken a number of measures that show he has the will and courage to break with the past.