Contemporary Islamist Opposition in Morocco

Alfonso Casani is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). He is Research associate of the Group of Studies on the Arab and Muslim Societies (GRESAM) at the University of Castilla-la Mancha and the Complutense Research Group on the Maghreb and Middle East (GICMOM) at the Complutense University of Madrid. His research interests focus on the study of political Islam, opposition dynamics and social movements in North Africa. He is co-editor of El impacto de la Guerra de Ucrania en el norte de África y Oriente Medio (Dyckinson). His articles have recently been published in journals such as Democratization, Contemporary Politics and the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

The book – a case study of one movement – is perfectly situated in the current literature on the way in which Islamist movements behave. It in fact presents a rather unique case of Islamism, which is neither moderating in the traditional sense nor radicalising due to it being shut out of institutional power. This is an excellent book about important and under-studied movements within the broad church of Islamism. It offers a new understanding of how politicisation, moderation and inclusion occur in practice through the study of a movement that does not conform to what we know of Islamist movements more broadly.

• List of Figures and TablesAcknowledgementsIntroduction: The Inclusion-Moderation Approach to Political Islam in MoroccoAWI and the Emergence of Islamism as an Opposition ForceAWI as a Religious Actor: Women, Terrorism and Islamic VisionsAWI as a Political Actor: The Anti-authoritarian Demonstrations of 2011The Post-Arab Spring, Post-Sheikh Yassine Era: The Politicisation Process of AWIConclusionAppendix AAppendix BBibliographyIndex