#2 Moroccan Islamists
With its estimated 30,000 members, its multiple charitable, educational, and recreational associations, Al-Adl wal-Ihsan (Justice and Charity) is without any doubt the most important Islamist movement in Morocco. The group owes much of its importance to the charisma of its founder, 76-year-old Sheik Abdessalam Yassine, a former regional inspector in the Ministry of National Education.
Yassine is in fact engaging in a radical criticism of the monarchy but carefully refraining from advocating any use of violence. For him, the toppling of Morocco into the caliphate will occur automatically and as a self-evident outcome when his movement numbers at least 4 million members. As the head of this counter-society that is Justice and Charity, Yassine is increasingly becoming the object of an out-and-out personality cultâa peculiarity that the militants of the Salafi Jihadi see as âirreligious.â At his home in Salé, the sheik makes short appearances before the faithful who have come in pilgrimage, sometimes from as far away as the United States or Chile. The few road trips he has made inside Morocco since his release have sometimes given rise to scenes of mass hysteria. Yassine, the new Khomeini? Things have certainly not yet gone that far, but the sheik, who has artfully integrated the Moroccan traditions of Sufism (the cult of the leader, retreats, asceticism, psychological preparation) displays an impressive capacity to mobilize.
Al-Adl wal-Ihsan, which was for a long time amateurish, has professionalized its structures. The movement has set up watch committees to flush out police informants and to improve the transmission of the latest watchwords. Even some policemen have been âturnedâ to work for the sheik. Finally, the practice of jogging and martial arts is recommended for the movementâs followers, who are supposed to be âsound of bodyâ |