Al-Hayat has reported that the Moroccan government has prohibited the daughter of the head of a banned Islamist organization from travelling to Spain because of critical comments about the government (“Morocco Restricts Nadia Yassin from Travelling Due to Her Statements Against the Regime“). The article notes that Nadia Yassin, the daughter of Shaikh Abd al-Islam Yassin, the head of the Islamist organization Justice and Charity, was planning to travel to Barcelona, Spain to participate in a conference on “Democracy and Islamist Movements.” It states that a court in Rabat will hold a hearing on June 28 to rule further on the matter “following statements in which she criticized the monarchial system, something considered a violation of the country’s constitution, which stipulates that constitutional monarchy is to be the country’s form of government.”

Specifically, the article indicates that the offensive statements were made during a presentation to an American organization in Morocco in which she reportedly stated that Morocco should become a republic. A separate article (cited below) described her as saying that the monarchy was “on the edge of collapse.”

Interestingly, the article notes that Yassin’s comments were not supported by other opposition movements, but criticized. This is not as odd as it would otherwise seem, however, given the approach which Moroccan opposition parties have generally taken. Whereas opposition leaders across the board in Egypt are being more aggressive these days, Moroccans have witnessed the slaughter next door in Algeria over the past 14 years and have no wish to repeat it. At times legal Islamist parties have even tried to minimize their gains during elections, so as to not seem too threatening to the government. Add to this the government’s stern response to terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, and it is more understandable why the opposition is going out of its way to be accommodating.

In a related piece, Al-Hayat reports that the Moroccan Socialist Union has called for an amendment to the constitution (“The Socialist Union Demands Amendment of the Constitution“). According to the article, at a meeting of the leadership there was sharp criticism of the fact that the recently chosen prime minister – by the king, of course – was not chosen from any of the parties which make up the majority coalition in the parliament. A statement from the party called for “reconsideration of the electoral system and the administrative division of powers” but was careful to “reemphasize the fundamentals of the nation with regard to the role of the monarchy in its constitutional sphere…”

Al-Hayat states that the wording of the statement was expressed as a response to Yassin’s statements. Apparently the strategy of the Socialists is to try and steer King Muhammad V and the elite surrounding him toward a monarchial system on the British or Spanish models without appearing to actually oppose the monarchy. Indeed, the Moroccan monarch himself has said in the past that he considered King Juan Carlos, the Spanish monarch, as his model. But whether successful or not, the Socialists’ approach is certainly the safer one.

Contributed by Kirk H. Sowell of Window on the Arab World, and More!