Moroccan king more French than France's Muslims
King Muhammad VI of Morocco, the chair of the al-Quds committee of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), has asked the French government for economic, political and military assistance to obliterate the forces of 'backwardness and oppression' - a euphemism for the Islamic movement - in his country, during a three-day visit to France that ended on March 22. He also requested French backing for Morocco's application to join the European Union, citing the 'eternal values' binding France and his North African Muslim kingdom. He secured a favourable response to the first request and a negative one to the second.
It is not surprising that the two should find common cause in combatting Islamic revivalism. Morocco is a party to the 'anti-terrorism' pacts of the Arab League and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), while Paris is the main sponsor of the recent UN 'counter-terrorism' resolution, and has been conducting a campaign of terror against Islamic activists in France, in addition to collaborating closely with Arab leaders, particularly Algeria's, against Islam.
Nor is it surprising that Rabat's application for EU membership should be rebuffed, as Morocco cannot reasonably be considered part of Europe, as Nicole Fontaine, the president of the EU parliament, bluntly pointed out.
Fontaine, who met the king in Paris, said in a statement that admitting Morocco into the EU as a member was "neither reasonable nor desirable in a geographical sense". However, she did assure him that the expansion of the EU to include East European countries would not be at the expense of cooperation with Morocco and other south Mediterranean states.
It must therefore have come as a surprise to Fontaine - and indeed to French leaders - that Morocco should seek membership of the EU. In fact the Paris-talks covered the issue of southern Mediterranean cooperation as well as the wider matter of the EU-African association. Both issues have acquired greater urgency in view of the intense competition between the US and Europe for political and economic influence in Africa, with Washington trying to replace Paris as the dominant power in former French colonies, including Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.
This explains the French leaders' satisfaction with the results of the visit, particularly the economic agreements, which pave the way for French companies to expand their businesses in the kingdom. The leading French businessmen who had met the king in Paris said later that he was genuine in his expressed desire to expand economic and trade cooperation with France.
Already 15 of the 20 largest French companies, and 500 smaller ones, have operations in Morocco, making France the biggest investor in the kingdom - a position it briefly lost to the US in 1997. In 1998, French investment comprised 34.3 percent of all foreign investment in the country, compared to 14 percent by the US and 10.7 percent Spain. The French believe that they will maintain their pre-eminent position as a result of the king's visit, despite current US efforts to dislodge them.
In return, Paris agreed to 'convert' Moroccan debts owed to France into investment. Both the Moroccan foreign and finance ministers, who had accompanied the king on his French visit, said that the decision would relieve the burden of foreign debt and generate economic development in their country.
During the visit, both sides also agreed to set up a joint ministerial body to prepare concrete recommendations on how to transform French-Moroccan relations to serve their needs in "today's changed circumstances". The ministers will transmit their recommendations to the standing joint committee, consisting of the two countries' primes ministers, when it meets in October.
The need to curb Islamic revivalism, which is part of the "changed circumstances" , will doubtless figure prominently in those recommendations, with Islamic movements presented as the "forces of backwardness and oppression" that the king is anxious to fight. Already the EU and the US have praised the young monarch, who succeeded his father last July, for being a determined campaigner for the development of democracy in his country. In particular, they applaud him for his alleged "courageous role in liberating Moroccan women" in the face of "violent opposition by Islamists".
In a transparent attempt to underline both his role and the opposition to it, the king organised a "grassroots rally" to back the government's planned legislation on women to the eve of his Paris visit. He succeeded in goading opponents into staging a counter-demonstration, claiming that they were against the liberation of women. But his idea was not even original: it was borrowed from another absolute monarch, Abdullah II of Jordan, who had earlier organised a public show of support for the 'liberation' of Jordanian women.
But in order to liberate the women, or for that manner the men, in an absolute monarchy, the first step must be the abolition of that oppressive and pre-Islamic dictatorship. The only political forces committed to its abolition in either Jordan or Morocco are the much-maligned 'Islamists', who are presented as the traditional enemies of women in Muslim countries.
Muslimedia: April 1-15, 2000