Islamists win most seats in Moroccan vote (Reuters) - Morocco's moderate Islamist PJD party won the most seats in the country's parliamentary election, final results showed Sunday, in the latest sign of a resurgence of faith-based movements since the Arab Spring uprisings. The victory for Morocco's Justice and Development Party came a month after Tunisia handed power to a previously-banned party of moderate Islamists. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is also expected to do well in an election starting Monday. PJD, which will get its first chance to head a coalition government, has said it will promote Islamic finance but steer clear of imposing a strict moral code on a country that depends on tourism. The party, whose deceased founder was a physician of King Mohammed's grandfather, is loyal to the monarchy and backs its role as the supreme religious authority in the country. PJD won 107 seats in the 395-seat parliament, according to results from the interior ministry carried by the official MAP news agency. Three parties from the secularist Koutla bloc, with which the PJD wants to form a coalition, won a total 117 seats, the results showed. Koutla includes the Istiqlal Party, of outgoing Prime Minister Abbas Al Fassi, Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) and Socialism and Progress Party (PPS). The three parties won 60, 39 and 18 seats respectively. Istiqlal headed the incumbent coalition. Ruler King Mohammed is expected to pick a prime minister from PJD's ranks next week, with its secretary general Abdelilah Benkirane touted for the job. PJD's rivals, a grouping of eight liberal parties with close ties to the royal palace, lagged behind with about 160 seats in total, according to the final results. Morocco has not had a revolution of the kind seen elsewhere in the region. But King Mohammed, has pushed through limited reforms to contain what has become regular protests demanding a British or Spanish-style monarchy. Fathallah Arsalane, a prominent figure in the banned al-Adl Wal Ihsane (Justice and Spirituality) which has been a driving force behind the protests, said PJD deserved to win but he noted that it may not be any different from parties that have led previous governments. "They (PJD) are honest people who love their country. But it will be in a coalition with other parties ... Parties execute the ruler's policies," he told Reuters in an interview. The moderate Islamists' strong showing came on the back of its promises for greater democracy, less corruption and to tackle acute social inequalities by raising minimum wages and reforming education. Youth unemployment is at 31 percent and nearly a quarter of the 33 million population live in severe poverty. Mohamed, a building concierge in his mid-thirties in Rabat, gave his vote to PJD, which he referred to as "Justice." "I like Justice. They are fearless. Benkirane is blunt, he calls things by their name. He is not like other politicians who speak words I can't fathom." "But they have to work quickly and it will not be made easy for them. The other parties don't like them. I think Justice have one year to show us some satisfactory change ... We want dignity and jobs," said Mohamed, arms-folded. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/27/us-morocco-election-idUSTRE7AQ0OY20111127 The Arab spring is really the Islamist spring. We knew this all along. _
Hard to imagine how any Islamist could ever be "moderate". Here in the USA, there are quite a few Muslim Brotherhood front groups who routinely try to pass themselves off as moderate, when they are anything but that. I wouldn't doubt there is a similar situation in the North African countries. Islamists promising democracy ? When a country falls to the Islamists, you can expect to see a brief period of democracy (one day ?), followed by decades of severe Islamic totalitarianism, especially tough on women, children, gays, blacks, apostates, Jews, and all non-Muslims.
It sounds like the PJD Party are an Islamic party rather than an Islamist party. The difference is important, since the latter hate the modern world and embrace an ideological form of Islam that encourages extremism and allows any vile act in the name of the cause. Islamic parties are not the kind of government we in the West like to see, but assuming the Islamists don't infiltrate it and take it over this is not a disaster
LOLOL PJD is a moderate party.. Evidently you have problem with that.. Its modeled after the moderate parties in Turkey. It should be encouraging that Morocco and Tunisia have gone moderate and that should spell good news for Libya and Egypt to follow, but evidently the Zionists want to poison the new reports with NEW fears.
In don't think so.. I think the Arab world can devise government that is in line with their culture and heritage that doesn't have to conform with our beliefs. And I said so in a press conference in Arabia in 2000. Our goal should be to empower these people for reform within their culture, heritage and religion.. not to jam them up.. I have a lot of confidence that the men and women of the Arab world are capable of doing that.
Your goal might be to empower these people for reform within their culture, heritage and religion, but I'm quite sure if that were to happen it would be catastrophic for women, children, gays, blacks, apostates, Jews, and all non-Muslims. I'd hate to see that happen to them. How many of these people of oppressed groups have been executed in Iran since they took over, or in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Hopefully, the new government will be more like Mubarek was in Egypt, with the Muslim Brotherhood being outlawed, as they should be everywhere.