Youth and the Politics of Religion in Morocco

The author gives an account of the young men and women who join the religiously oriented political groupings Al Adl and the PJD in contemporary Morocco. He stresses that these organizations are not hierarchically organized and do not simply direct their members' activities. Rather, they encourage a good deal of freedom of choice among their members. Indeed, the competition for members leads each movement to foster such choice. The result is an analysis from the perspective of those aged from their teens to their early thirties who have cast their lot with either of these two rather different organizations—one declared illegal by the regime and denying the monarchy's claim to religious oversight, the other receiving substantial support from the regime and so involved in party politics that it has held the Prime Minister's office for the past seven years. While essentially a study of a single country and the relation of its youth to several Islamic political organizations the author's analysis may be relevant to the study of Islamist parties elsewhere in the Arab world.