Islamist party's defeat in Morocco: a few observations
By Olivier Guitta
THe PJD (Justice and Development Party), the main Islamist party in Morocco got 46 seats during the September 7 Moroccan legislative elections. This is a surprise considering that polls were predicting a landslide victory for the PJD and its leaders were conservatively expecting to win anywhere from 70 to 80 seats.
Also very interestingly, US officials were very much betting on the PJD winning and had already started meeting regularly with their leaders.
I have written extensively about this alliance between some in the US and the Islamists.
In particular regarding the outrageous Fulbright scholarship given to the editor in Chief of the PJD's unofficial paper At Tajdid, Mustapha Khalfi.
What can we expect?
Islamism is far from dead.
The other more radical Islamist party Al ADl Waalihsanne headed by Sheikh Yassine had called for a boycott of the elections.( By the way the participation rate was an all-time low 37%)
Radicalization of Moroccan society is still going strong, Wahhabism is still being preached in the mosques of the kingdom and a new generation of suicide bombers is ready to act.
Unfortunately one can expect additional suicide attacks in Morocco in the near future.
For those of you interested, my fellow CT Blogger Zeyno Baran will host a panel I will be on at Hudson in Washington DC on September 18 on Islamists in Morocco and Turkey.
By the way, The Croissant also has numerous stories on Morocco, including this one on the GICM.
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