Islamist PJD and the Monarchy in Morocco

For centuries, Morocco’s so-called emir-ul-muminin, or leader of the faithful, has served as the country’s monarch. This shows that the state officially recognizes Islam as part of its identity. The Justice and Development Party (PJD) and other Islamist groups, such as Abdessalam Yassine’s Justice and Charity, are the focus of this chapter’s investigation on the evolution of Islamism in Morocco. In this chapter, we focus on the Islamists’ connection with the monarchy under the Makhzen system. The monarchy eventually caved to the PJD’s popularity and let the party establish the government in 2011. The PJD lost the 2021 election because, after a decade in power, it needed more than the backing of the monarchy in Morocco’s fragmented system, bringing an end to the Islamist rule in Morocco.