Islamists in a State of Transition: A Case Study of Morocco’s Justice and Development Party

Volume 1|Issue 3| Winter 2013 |Articles

Abstract

The revolutions of the Arab Spring have incited key intellectual and political movements in the Arab world, deeply influencing the state of Arab affairs and prompting these movements, including that of Islamists, to re-invent themselves and revise their own ideologies and perceptions. Democracy, then, presents a key starting point for reexamination. It is in democracy that the demands raised by the revolutionary movement coalesce and take the form of tangible, political, rights-based demands, giving birth to democratic values and their translation into concrete political action. This new regional landscape presents the Islamists with an opportunity to move from an instrumental definition of democracy (one defined by the instruments of elections, political pluralism, and peaceful transitions of power) to a more fundamental, philosophical understanding of democracy (defined by concepts of liberty, secular law and equality based on citizenship). The author here presents the case of the Moroccan Justice and Development Party and exemplifies through this case study the willingness of Islamists to renew their beliefs and revise Islamic jurisprudence.

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Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the Regional Centre for the Educational and Training Professions, Tangier, Morocco.  With a PhD in History, his major publications include The Concept of the Islamic State: Crisis of Foundations and the Inevitability of Modernity, as well as many articles in peer-review academic journals.

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