After having failed in his political documentpublished in February 2024, on its opposition to the hereditary monarchy in Morocco, Al Adl wal Ihsane returns to the line drawn by its founder, Sheikh Abdeslam Yassine. “Hereditary power cannot constitute a basis for a global solution because it contravenes the popular will,” he said in press statements Omar Amkassou, member of the AWI guidance council.
To support his claims, this senior AWI executive drew up an indictment against the monarchical regimes that have governed in Islamic countries. “They monopolized power and wealth and practiced all forms of injustice against their people,” he said. Amkassou punctuated his statements with reminders of the positions of the “imam” (Abdeslam Yassine) on the same subject.
AWI blows hot and cold
“The position expressed by Omar Amkassou on the question of hereditary power is a message addressed to the State, after that of the February 2024 road map,” notes Driss Ganbouri, specialist in Islamist groups, in statements to Yabiladi.
“Through this return to basics, Al Adl wal Ihsane is trying to raise the bar of its demands a little higher, a year after ignoring the subject. It is a tactic intended to bring the State into dialogue with its representatives. Opposition movements, whether left-wing or Islamist, all take this path in order to extract a few concessions,” analyzed the author of the book “Religious Reform and the Westernization of Islam.”
“Jamaa has been in opposition for five decades. She can't hold this position forever. The objective of any political force is to seize power or at least share it. Al Adl wal Ihsane is no exception, even if in Morocco, the PJD of Abdelilah Benkirane remains the ideal Islamist interlocutor for the State,” he underlined.
If the Jamaa has returned to its traditional opposition to hereditary monarchical power, it has become the great advocate of the defense of the territorial integrity of Morocco. “It is a red line which cannot be the subject of negotiation,” insisted Omar Amkassou. “This statement is another message from the movement to the state. The Islamists, like other political forces, have always blown hot and cold on certain subjects, for political purposes,” specifies Driss El Ganbouri.
This is evidenced by the declarations of the deputy secretary general, spokesperson for Jamaa, Fathallah Arsalane, made the same day, on the reform of the family code. “We have no objection to international conventions relating to the family provided that they do not contravene religious foundations, announced AWI n°2. He said he was in favor of the principle of “Ijtihad”.
On December 24, 2024, during the working session devoted to the question of revising the Family Code, King Mohammed VI called on “the Superior Council of Ulemas to continue reflection and adopt constructive Ijtihad on the question of the family”.
