‘Lo everybody. I am back after a long, long hiatus from this fine blog (incidentally, I was present at the birth) and wanted to point to a subject that is near to my heart.

My daughter spent this past Summer in Morocco, studying Arabic and sociology. I have to admit that I was unprepared for her return and the impressions that she brought back. In the general scheme of MENA countries, Morocco, although economically hobbled in many ways, is moving forward in the areas of political freedom, human rights (including women’s rights) and engaging in the world.

I linked to an article last week on the young King Mohammed VI’s effort to liberalizing is country at my blog Bloggledygook. Here is the post:

Morocco’s 42-year-old King Mohammed VI has discovered religion as a means of modernizing his society — and progress through piety seems to be the order of the day. By granting new rights to women and strengthening civil liberties, the ruler of this country of 30 million on Africa’s northern edge, which is 99 percent Muslim, plans to democratize Morocco through a tolerant interpretation of the Koran.

Morocco’s 350-year-old dynasty, the world’s oldest next to the Japanese imperial dynasty, claims to be directly descended from the prophet Mohammed. And as “Amir al-Muminin,” or leader of the faithful, the country’s ruler enjoys absolute authority.

The Conseil Sup????rieur des Oul????mas, or council of religious scholars, which the king installed a year and a half ago, has been issuing fatwas on the most pressing questions of the 21st century — and, surprisingly, they’ve been well-received by both young people and hardened Islamists. If the king’s reform plan succeeds, Morocco could become a model of democratic Islam.

Five decades after his country declared its independence from its French and Spanish colonial rulers and six years after the death of his father, Hassan II, Mohammed VI is trying to achieve a delicate balance between thousands of years of Islamic tradition and the demands of a globalized world.

The King, a young man (mid 40s) is very popular with his people and as my daughter tells me, far more liberal than his subjects. This looks like not only an attempt to reconcile Islam with Democracy, but of “liberalizing” using tradition Sufi principles to battle Wahhabism. The economics of Morocco are still quite bad, but the King’s push towards Democracy is seen as a bid to bring some vigor to the country’s economy.

In the midst of this, a few surprises emerge:

Now all Moroccan women, even those who are illiterate, know that they are protected by law, says civil rights professor Fatna Sarehane, who is working on a study about the implementation of the new law. Although many jurisdictions still lack family courts, says the Casablanca attorney, the new legislation is an enormous step forward. For the first time in the country’s history, discrimination against women is as punishable an offence as sexual harassment. Even if the Islamists come into power one day, says Sarehane, it’s a step that can “no longer be reversed.”

…

Another tool in Mohammed’s battle for the souls of his subjects is the “National Initiative for Development.” Although officially more than half of the government’s budget is spent on social projects, Morocco is still ranked 124th on the United Nations Human Development Index. With a budget of just under ???????25 million in immediate aid and another billion euros between 2006 and 2010, the government hopes to reduce poverty by half within the next five years.

If the king has his way, Moroccans will liberate themselves from the slogans and handouts of radical Islamist preachers. Although they may represent a threat to Mohammed VI’s reform policies, the only Islamist party seen as capable of succeeding in next year’s parliamentary election is the Justice and Development Party.

The party’s young leaders are using the Turkish ruling party, AKP, and the German Christian Democrats as their model. In the eight cities controlled by the Islamists, they have already dispensed with prohibitions on serving alcohol, Western films and provocative swimwear — knowing full well that Morocco’s economy depends on tourism.

Why would the King, who is absolute, want to liberalize his society? I suspect that he sees that there may come a time when the monarchy is challenged by Islamic parties, and he wants to have constitutional guarantees in place. But there is another theory.

Caitlin (my daughter) says “Kings are generally loathe to give up any of their own power, but are less squeamish about giving up power of others, even their heirs. Mohammed VI will likely keep his authority while he’s alive and have provisions ready when it comes time for his son to ascend.”

Interesting take, I think.

It would be very instructive if Mohammed VI succeeds, thereby proving both sides of the Islam-Democracy debate wrong. Here, an Islamic (yes, Sufi, but it counts) country liberalizes without guns pointed at it. And those who tout the lure of Democracy may just have a point, too.

There will be problems, and I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that more attacks will come from fundamental terrorist groups. But we may be witnessing the will of a people expressed through a monarch who actually knows what’s best for his country.