“Combating” Violent Radicalism in the Moroccan Context: When the State Monopolizes the Religious
“Combating” Violent Radicalism in the Moroccan Context: When the State Monopolizes the Religious

Summary/Abstract: Since the 2003 attacks in Casablanca, the Moroccan state has embarked on a new strategy to guarantee national security from any violent threat. The implementation of these strategies has required the involvement of actors from different fields: political, religious, economic and human rights promoters. A range of studies has also been conducted on Salafist movements to present an explanation of “terrorism and violent extremism”. Our research is based on another political framework. We will present an analysis of the discourse of different state actors and decision-makers in Morocco with whom we conducted in-depth interviews, to analyze the different strategies that Morocco has found to fight and combat violent extremism (VE). It is about analyzing the political and religious storytelling of this new strategy led by the state and how the latter monopolizes this issue. Our research presents a new sociological reflection around the implementation of political strategy on the VE on the one hand, and the ability to access a “sensitive” field of research despite the difficulties of this work. The results presented in this article pave the way for sociologists to open up other new questions related to VE, namely, the reintegration of “ex-radicals” and prevention against the phenomenon.

• Details
• Contents