Moroccan Madness

In fact, that Moroccan Islamist Party (a.k.a. the Islamic Justice and Development Party, a.k.a. PJD) did prevail, winning 107 of 395 parliamentary seats, and Abdelilah Benkirane, the party leader, is now set to become that country’s prime minister.

The new leader was, on declaring victory, full of good cheer and merry, comforting predictions: “We are not trying to set up a religious regime or a Caliphate, as some suggest,” Benkirane promised French reporters. “This is absurd. We are in the year 2011.”

But are the new victors really so up to date? Such impassioned supporters of 2011 liberalism? The PJD has for a long time claimed to be inspired by Turkey’s version of the same party—and Turkey’s version, created a decade ago, has not heartened those who embrace the age-old Turkish passion for secularism (a Muslim anomaly that Prime Minister Recep Erdogan refers to, significantly, as “authoritarian secularism.”)

Among their most publicized efforts: the Turkish Islamists have tried to lift the ban on headscarves at universities and toughened the criteria for cafes that wish to sell alcohol.

For more: Moroccan Madness | World Affairs Journal