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Islam, Democracy and Economic Reform in Morocco: Escaping the Shadows of Terrorism

His Excellency

Aziz Mekouar

Ambassador of Morocco to the United States

April 13, 2004

Good evening.  Thank you very much for coming.  It’s a real honor to speak in front of you and to represent my country here in Los Angeles.  It’s a little far from Morocco, but not that much.  I’m used to talking to the people of the East Coast.  Now we are a little bit more far away but still it’s still very close because it’s the same weather—California is very similar to Morocco.  I’d like to thank Mr. Mack for having organized this.  I would like to thank Catherine Novlli for being with us.  Catherine has become a real friend and I’m very honored to have her with us today.  And, of course, Laura Lane has been instrumental in supporting the free trade agreement, which involved the United States.

I have to talk a little bit about my country.  I don’t know how many of you have been to Morocco.  I’m sure not many of you know the history of my country, but let me talk a bit about it—what my country is.  First of all, where it is.  Morocco is a crossroads between several countries.  It’s in the far west of the Arab and Muslim countries, and this is where its name comes from Maghrib al Aqsa.  It’s ten miles from Europe.  It’s deeply rooted in Africa and it’s very close to the United States—6 ½ hours between New York and Casablanca, which makes it a real crossroad between all these cultures and continents and gives it a special history.

Morocco goes back, in its present form, to the 8^th century.  It was founded in 788 AD when Morocco became one of the Muslim countries, the last one to become a Muslim country.  Some of you have visited Fez.  Fez is a very old city, it goes back to the 9^th century.  Morocco has always has been a monarchy.  It’s a Muslim country where many other religions and many other ethnicities and religions have been living together.  We have always had a huge Jewish community, which until the ’60s, was about 400,000 people.  Of course, we’ve always had some Christians, but mainly foreigners. 

So this is what Morocco has been.  We have had several dynasties, and the present dynasty, the Alaouite, has been in power since 1630.  So it’s one of the oldest dynasties in the world, especially in that region, and even in Europe.  If you compare this dynasty with the European dynasties, I think that Morocco’s dynasty is a little bit older.  Morocco is a monarchy and has been for centuries because in 1912 it went into a weakening process.  Morocco was occupied by the Spaniards in the north and the south and by the French in the center and Morocco became a protectorate of France.  But we kept our institutions and remained.  We had a formal government and the French, according to the protectorate treaty, the French had to fund defense affairs.  In reality the French ruled the country from 1912 to 1956, which is not a long time – 44 years – but still, for the Moroccans, it was something incredible, unbelievable, because Morocco was always considered as one of the big powers of the region and having foreigners coming into the country was something that was very badly felt by the Moroccans. 

The struggle for independence started immediately when the French came in.  First it was a military struggle and then a political struggle.  What the French and Spaniards called the pacification of Morocco was finished around the end of the ’20s with the War of the Rif, where the Moroccans nearly defeated the Spaniards.  If there had not been a coalition between the French and the Spaniards, Morocco would have completely defeated the Spaniards in Northern Morocco.  After that, Morocco was pacified in military terms, but immediately after, in 1913, the political movement started.  I’m talking about the political movement which was called the national movement, which was a kind of party created in the ’30s to fight against the presence of the French and the Spaniards. 

Again, why am I talking about that?  Because that national movement after independence gave birth to all the political parties, and this explains why Morocco has never been a one-party system.  We’ve always had several parties, and so the roots of democracy were there.  Those political parties have had national movements—the Istiqlal party and the party for independence but after independence the Istiqlal party split into the Istiqlal and the Socialist Party.  Again, this is to explain why we are kind of different from many other countries of the region.  All the countries in the region have had a one-party system at one time in their history, but Morocco did not have that.  The reason is that it’s coming from the creation of the national movement but also we are a monarchy and, again, it was an old monarchy, with old institutions, old traditions.  Having a monarchy, it was easy to have political parties and Morocco maybe was the only country in the region, in Africa, where the party which led the struggle against the communist occupation, did not seek power after its independence and this led to the whole modern history of Morocco.

So in 1956 Morocco recovered its independence.  As I said, we had a huge movement split into two parties, because when you fight for independence it’s one thing; then you disagree on the options.  Parts of the Istiqlal became the Socialist Party because they had a vision of being socialists, which was very much in fashion in the late ‘50s and beginning of the ’60s, mainly in the countries of that region.

The country was led in the beginning by King Mohammed V who led the course of the struggle for independence.  That was very interesting, too.  Then King Mohammed V, who was considered the father of the nation, died five years after independence and his son, Hassan II, became king at the age of 32.  The history of the reign of Hassan II was modernizing Morocco.  Morocco was an old country, as I said.  It was occupied by the French which brought certain modernization into the country and we have to give them credit for that.  In 1956 Morocco was a very traditional country in the sense that 70-80 per cent of the population was in the rural areas—so it was very traditional.  If we look to what happened in Morocco in the last 50 years, and today 48 percent of the population is in the rural areas, so 52 percent are in the cities.  This is a big difference between 1956 and today.  In 1956 we were 8 million inhabitants and today we are 30 million.  So there has been a huge population growth.  In the 1960s and ’70s we had 3.3 percent of population growth, which was huge and which we are paying for today in the sense that we have a very young population, coming all together at the same time, so we have to address their problems of jobs and education.  The market economy cannot address all the problems of these young workers.

In 1962 we had our first constitution and the first elections, and we have been going on for all these years with different constitutions.  The first one was in 1962, then another one in the ’70s, and another one in the ’80s, and finally these constitutions provided, of course, a parliament.  The idea was to have a parliament so Morocco was considered as a constitutional monarchy, but to have a parliament does not mean [to have a] democracy.  And even if we had differences from the other countries by the fact that we did have different political parties, we had a parliament but it was not considered a freely elected parliament.  Parliament was not elected freely and fairly.  There was opposition, but there wasn’t enough opposition.  There were parties in the opposition who were very vocal, but not enough.  It was a kind of liberty, but not that much. 

In the beginning of the ’90s was a process and to teach the people to go to vote, to teach the people, to let the people know how a parliament works.  At least the fact that we had a parliament and that people used to vote even if the elections were not free and fair brought a kind of knowledge of what a real democracy could be.  In the second half of the ’90s King Hassan II called the Secretary General of the Socialist Party to lead the government.  It was kind of a revolution because the Socialist Party had been the opposition for 30 years and the Secretary General of the Socialist Party was in exile for a long time.  What is interesting about that is that the society was ready.  Everybody was asking for these reforms and everything went smoothly.  There was no revolution.  There was nothing to oblige King Hassan II to do that, but he thought that the situation and the country and society were mature enough for it.  In 1997 we had this new government which was a government led by the Secretary General of the Socialist Party with a coalition of other parties who were in the opposition before.  So that was the beginning. 

King Hassan II died and his son Mohammed VI became king in August 1999.  King Mohammed VI in his first speech said he was going to follow the trend initiated by his father for the modernization of the country and addressing the problems of human rights.  He also said that all the past problems of human rights were going to be addressed and, third, he said that all the problems of women’s rights were going to be addressed.  In his speech he said that no country can think of evolution if half of its population—meaning women—are not considered and respected and put on an equal footing with men.  And that was very interesting.  This was his first speech, and from then on all his speeches were to stress that.  Now, five years later, I think that we can consider that he delivered.  He delivered because we have had elections in 2002 that were considered free, fair and transparent, not only by the political parties in Morocco but also by the international community.  In 2003 we had local elections, which were considered free, fair and transparent.  This inaugurated a new era where we have a parliament elected in a free, fair and transparent way. 

So today Morocco can be considered as a real democracy in the sense that no law can be passed without the approval of the parliament.  The prime minister cannot rule and the government cannot rule the country without the majority of the parliament.  In the parliament we have two houses; the first house is the House of Representatives, which is more or less the Congress, which is elected for five years in a direct way, and we have the House of Counsels, which is a kind of Senate but elected in an indirect way.  So we have this parliament that has been elected in a free, fair and transparent way. 

Talking about human rights, a commission was set up by King Hassan at the beginning of the ’90s to address all the problems of abuses of human rights.  This commission was led by people who were very active on human rights issues.  That commission has considered and given compensation to people who suffered abuses of human rights during the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.  The compensations given were about $80 million, which was a huge amount.  What is very interesting is that all the new concepts were adopted by that commission.  This commission considered that not only people who were jailed without what could be considered a free trial were entitled to compensation, but also people that were kept in custody more than the legal custody time—in Morocco it’s 48 hours—those who were kept in custody for one hour more than the 48 hours were considered to be entitled to compensation. 

Going back to the ’70s, we had an attempted coup d’etat against the King of Morocco.  There were some cadets from a military academy that came into the palace, killed 180 people, tried to kill the King.  It was a failed coup d’etat and these young cadets were tried and condemned to jail.  The commission considered that they did not have a fair trial, so they were entitled to compensation even if they killed people and tried to kill the King.  Even more interesting is, getting back to 1956, after independence there were militias who fought among themselves and some people got killed, and the commission considered that the first responsibility of the government is to assure security to its own people.  The government didn’t do it, so the people who suffered for that were entitled to compensation. 

On the field of women’s rights, in January the parliament passed the new law which puts on completely equal footing men and women in family law.  This is very important, because everyone says, and very often people think, that in Muslim countries this cannot happen.  Well, this transformation and these changes in the family law are very interesting in the way in which they were done.  We have had 11 changes that put men and women on an equal footing in divorce, custody of the children and so forth.  In front of each change there was a saying of the Koran or a teaching of the Prophet.  So nobody can come and say today that women’s emancipation is against Islam or is in contradiction to Islam, this is nonsense.  We in Morocco show that Morocco, basically a Muslim country, even though we have other communities, there is absolutely no contradiction between women’s rights and Islam. 

Why did this happen in Morocco?  I think because of the leadership, but also because the society was ready for it.  The society was ready for it because you cannot imagine that you have women ambassadors, women ministers, women entrepreneurs leading thousands of people with a very important role in the society and on the other hand not being adult towards the family law.  So there was a huge process over the last 20 years and basically it was a struggle with women’s organizations and men – many men’s organizations and political parties.  In Morocco today the political parties decided that 20 percent of their boards should be occupied by women.  In the elections in 2002, we had affirmative action 30 seats out of 330 were reserved for women.  Men could not run for those seats and today we have 11.5 percent women representatives in our parliament, which is more than in the American Congress.  But this is just to talk about the political democratization of Morocco—human rights and women’s rights.

So again I stress that Morocco is a Muslim country but nonetheless it has a democracy and is a very good friend of democratization, it has complete human rights, it has complete women’s rights.  There is absolutely no contradiction whatsoever to Islam and modernity, and this is very important today, especially where the Muslim world is on the news because of what has been done in the last years by some extremists who call themselves Muslims who are not really Muslims. 

My remarks tonight were not only about democratization and political reforms in Morocco but also about the economic reforms in Morocco, and this is very important.  The economic reforms in Morocco started in the ’80s, but they were accelerated in the ’90s.  These reforms are basically making Morocco a better place for investments, a better place for entrepreneurs, a better place for doing business.  Morocco was kind of a French-type economy where you have a market economy but is directed by the government with a huge part of the economy belonging to the government.  All this changed since the beginning of the ’80s.  Today we have privatized a huge part of our economy, and today Morocco can be considered a real market economy.  The goal and the challenge is to make Morocco a good place for people who want to do business, both foreigners and Moroccans. 

The best way to do that is to have rules and to go by the rules, the rule of law.  When people talk about democratization it’s not only elections, which are free and fair, but if you don’t have justice, if you don’t have the rule of law, well, there’s no democracy.  What people ask about before anything is justice.  This is what we are trying to do, especially in the business sector.  Why and how?  Why?  Because you cannot do business if you don’t know what kind of rules you have and you’re not sure about the rules and how the courts work.  How?  We created, for the people who want to do business in Morocco, commercial courts, which deal only with business.  Commercial court judges are trained, they know what they are talking about, and they know what business is.  So we thought it was a good way to reassure entrepreneurs and people who want to invest and do business in our country.

In the economy of Morocco, we have had an average of 4.5 to 5 percent growth in the last ten years.  That’s not enough for a country like Morocco because we have such a young population.  The population growth that took place in the ’60s and ‘70s the rate was 3.3 percent; today it’s 1.8 percent so at least we won that fight.  The perfect rate is 1.8 percent but we have to address the 3.3 percent of the ’60s and ’70s.  We have a very young population that needs jobs, needs education.  For that we need an economy growth of at least eight to 8.5 percent in order to have, in ten years, a real economy in Morocco. 

What can we do for that?  Well, first of all, create the best atmosphere for those who want to invest and those who want to do business.  Another thing is to have good trade relations with friendly countries and this is why we went through negotiations for a free trade agreement with the United States.  We concluded negotiations in the beginning of the month of March and we hope this free trade agreement will be approved by the Congress this year and will enter into force in 2005.  We have also an agreement with the European Union and 70 percent of our trade is with the European Union.  We’re very close with the European Union because we have historical ties with them. 

But when we talk about history we talk about relations between Morocco and the United States.  I don’t know how many of you know that Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States in 1777.  It’s very important.  This is a litany that every Moroccan, when he meets with an American, says.  We have the oldest treaty and many things have happened in the relations between the United States and Morocco. 

In the last 50 years, and especially during the Cold War, Morocco was on this side, on the American side, and I think it was probably one of the very few Arab countries that were on the West’s side.  If you look at all the others, most of the other Arab countries, I’m not talking about not the Arab countries of the Gulf, but the other countries, they were leaning much more towards the Soviet Union.  So, we have been working together very much during the Cold War and we have been doing many things together and this created real ties between our two countries. 

Lately, unfortunately after September 11, and even before September 11, there was the threat of terrorism and we have been working together since well before and, of course, after September 11 to fight this terrible thing.  Terrorism has increased and the cooperation between our services has been very, very strong, so strong that we suffered our own September 11.  On May 16 of 2003 we had bomb attacks; people blew themselves up in a hotel and restaurant and they killed 42 people.  That was absolutely unbelievable, and it had exactly the same affect on us as it had on the Americans on September 11.  The Moroccans could not believe that that was happening because you always think that happens only to others.  Yes, terrorists attack Egypt and other countries, but never in Morocco because we are not a country like that and our people are not like that.  Well, it happens to everyone. 

So this is a common threat to the whole world, and we have to stick together to fight this terrible threat.  It’s very difficult to fight it because we’re not fighting a real, strong organization; Al Qaeda is a loose organization.  We never know where the people are, although our sources are very efficient and we are all working together.  But everyone is on the frontline and we have to stand very firmly to fight the terrible evil that is terror. 

People try to explain terrorism by social issues and problems.  I don’t think that we should go that way; terrorism is just terrorism.  It’s hopeless people, people who think in an unbelievable way, and terrorism certainly has nothing to do with religion, with Islam.  Islam is a religion of peace.  Islam means “religion of peace” exactly.  The teachings of Islam say that to kill one man is like killing the whole of humanity.  Suicide is the worst thing you can do because you’re taking your life that was given to you by God.  So all this has nothing to do with Islam.  Islam is a religion of openness; it’s a religion of respect for the others, especially for what we call the “religions of the Book.”  That means that Christians and Jews, because of the Old Testament, are part of our beliefs. 

So respect for others is the most important thing for the Muslims.  This is why, at the beginning of the Inquisition, the Jews left Spain and came to Morocco, a Muslim country, because they knew that it was there that they could live peacefully and happily.  That’s exactly what happened and as I’ve told you we had a huge Jewish community.  Those who left who are living in Israel, living in Canada, living in the United States, living in France, are Moroccans. They never cut the ties with Morocco, and this is one of the reasons why Morocco has been so instrumental in trying to bring peace to the Middle East.  The influence of Morocco, especially the King of Morocco, in the Israel-Palestinian problem happened for many reasons.  First, of all the King of Morocco is the commander of the faithful, he has a religious role.  Secondly, we have in Israel 700,000 Israelis of Moroccan origin.  I’ve been told that all Israeli families that are of Moroccan origin, in Israel have a picture of the King in their houses, because they’re Moroccans and you have to factor the same things with the Canadian Moroccan Jews who are completely and totally Moroccans.  If you go to their weddings they’re Moroccan more than anything else.  One of the strengths of Morocco is the national identity.  We are different, we have different ethnic backgrounds.  Morocco is made up of Arabs, Jews and others.  Nonetheless, given the difference, everyone is very much Moroccan.  Why?  Because we are a very old country.

So this is what I wanted to tell you.  You now have some ideas about what my country is, and I want very much to stress that there is absolutely no contradiction between Islam and modernity.  Certainly you can never think that Islam is a religion of violence.  Islam is a religion of peace for everyone and terrorism is just a bunch of people, a group of people, who went to unbelievable beliefs and hiding and hijacking a religion for their purposes that are mainly for purposes of power.

Thank you very much for having listened to me.  I hope that you have more ideas about Morocco and that my remarks will lead you to come to my country and visit.

Thank you.

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