The Crisis Of Islamists Deepens Morocco’s Isolation Due To Normalization

Algerian and Tunisian Islamists’ alignment isolates the Islamists of Morocco in the Maghreb region, even though the Islamists of the three countries are scooping from the system of one current, which is the moderate movement (the Muslim Brotherhood), and the reason is the normalization of the Makhzen with the Zionist entity.

After the statements of Rached Ghannouchi, Speaker of the Tunisian Parliament and the leader of the Islamic Ennahdha Movement, through which he called for reviving the Arab Maghreb Union project, starting from Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, except for Morocco and Mauritania, the turn came to the leader of the largest Islamic party in Algeria, Abderrazak Makri, to support the initiative.

So far, no position has been issued by the Islamists in both Mauritania and Libya, as they are concerned with this initiative, but what happened is considered a rift between the sons of the Islamic trend in the Maghreb region, which may be difficult to mend shortly, given the statements made by the leader in the Moroccan edition of this trend in which he accused the Tunisian parliament speaker of courtesy of the Algerian authorities, through announcing his initiative.

Makri’s statements came less than a week after Ghannouchi’s statements, and consistent with the presentation of the first man in the Tunisian Ennahdha movement, indicating the existence of an Islamist Algerian-Tunisian alignment, consistent with the official position of the two countries, on many issues of concern to the two countries, especially those related to the Maghreb region.

Previously, Makri attacked Saadeddine Othmani, Secretary-General of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Morocco, immediately after Rabat signed the normalization agreement with the Zionist entity, and wrote in a post on Facebook at the time, stating, “The greatest person who receives this disgrace is the honest prime minister, secretary-general of the Justice and Development Party, considering its betrayal of its principles and its previous anti-normalization line in any way, according to what he himself was declaring”.

It is known that the parties of the Islamic currents with a common sectarian background usually show solidarity with each other when any of them are exposed to something, but the issue of normalization with the Zionist entity has split the ranks of the Islamists in the Maghreb, and it is one of the rare cases, and the reason is that the people of the current stand-in Morocco and his country’s position on an issue that is considered principled by moderate Islamists, who consider the Palestinian cause the central issue of the Arab and Islamic nations.

The approach of Islamists in both Algeria and Tunisia confirms that Morocco has become an obstacle to building the Maghreb unity, whether because of its expansionist and aggressive policies against neighbouring countries, or normalization with the Zionists, as many Moroccan politicians still talk from time to time about what they call the dusty lands of historic Morocco, and claim that they are present in Algeria, Mauritania and Western Sahara, and these are among the considerations that undermine the trust between Morocco and the neighbouring countries, and perhaps these are among the reasons that made Morocco live in unprecedented isolation.

The institutions of the Maghreb Union live in a state of blockage more than three decades after their birth, due to the rigid Moroccan position, which insists on linking the solution of the Western Sahara issue to the revival of life in this regional body.