An Islamist at Johns Hopkins and then US Congress

By Olivier Guitta

I just wrote an article for Front Page Magazine about a Moroccan Islamist currently studying at John Hopkins on his way to training at the US Congress and the Canadian Parliament.
Here is an excerpt:

A 32-YEAR-OLD MOROCCAN INTELLECTUAL has been selected by John Hopkins University to study political science for one year at the university's prestigious School of Advanced International Studies, after which he will receive further training at the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament. Mustafa El Khalfi was chosen from a pool of hundreds of candidates from more than 20 countries and, interestingly enough, he is the first Moroccan so honored since Hopkins began this program in 1953. (He is also a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.)

El Khalfi's background is colorful. At the age of 15 he joined the Islamist party Jama Islamiya. He was a brilliant student, earning an undergraduate degree in physics and a masters in political science. In 2003 he attended a program in Oxford similar to the one he is now part of at Hopkins. Before being chosen by the Hopkins program, he was the editor-in-chief of the main Islamist Moroccan publication At-Tajdid � which means �renewal.� At-Tajdid is the paper of the largest Moroccan Islamist party, the PJD (Parti de la Justice et du Developement) and has a certain measure of notoriety. For instance, At-Tajdid was among the first papers in the world to explain last year's horrific tsunami by pointing out that the affected Asian countries were corrupt and that the tsunami was a consequence not following the true course of Islam. Later in the piece, At-Tajdid implied that the same punishment might be in the works Morocco because of the lack of respect Islam was shown by Moroccan society. When later pressed about this line of analysis, El Khalfi answered, �Regarding the tsunami, only God knows the truth.�

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