How does Iran seek to make Morocco Shiite?

Maher Farghaly

The report on the religious situation issued by the Moroccan Center for Studies and Research revealed that the phenomenon of Shiism in Morocco has become a serious challenge facing the kingdom. For centuries, the religious system has been framed by the perceptions of the Maliki doctrine and Ashari creed, but Iran and its allies are exploiting the transformations of what modern sociologists have called the “age of religions” and its complex waves to spread Shiism in North Africa. This exposed the religious fabric of this region to the sectarian interactions taking place in the Middle East, and forcibly incorporated it into the globalization of values ​​and the religious ambiguity of Imami Shiism, which Iranians, Iraqis and Lebanese have adopted as a supreme religious authority.

According to US State Department reports, the number of Moroccan Shiites is increasing by about a thousand annually, in addition to more than 8,000 Shiites from Iraq, Syria and Lebanon who are in the kingdom, while some researchers estimate that only about 3,000 of them are settled, suggesting the seriousness of the matter and prompting Moroccan authorities to sever diplomatic ties with Iran.

Why Morocco?

A 2012 Pew Research Center report titled “Muslim World: Unity and Diversity” stated that the concept of “exporting the revolution” is ideologically linked to the concept of “Waliyat al-Faqih”, which is not bound by any bilateral or international treaty. This is manifested in the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Wilayat al-Faqih and “exporting the revolution” were able to establish armies and groups that could at any time carry out the aspirations of the “guardian” and thus achieve a Persian caliphate based on the conquest of land.

Media sources said that in one of the Friday sermons, a preacher assigned by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that the whole of Islam must be under the leadership of one infallible imam and that if there is one Islamic country governed by such a system like Waliyat al-Faqih then Muslims living in non-Muslim countries should obey his orders, adding that even then obedience to the supreme leader is obligatory, whether they pledge allegiance or not, because the pledge of allegiance does not have a role in the legitimacy of the guardian.

It is clear from this that the matter is serious and that the Shiite doctrine has a specific policy to achieve its geopolitical goals, and Morocco comes in the context of the attempt to spread Shiism for the sake of Wilayat al-Faqih.

Political alignment and creedal loyalty

Researchers on Shiite movements, including Egyptian researcher Ali Rajab, asserted in a special statement that Shiism in Morocco is divided into two parts. The first is creedal Shiism, which is the most dangerous and the least in number. The second is political Shiism, which is the most prominent and benefits mainly from the popular Moroccan position on the Palestinian issue and the need to resist the Zionist entity.

Shiite missionaries are recruiting Moroccans by through Iranian-supported TV programs like through Press TV, which airs in English and is responsible for the dissemination of sectarian thought. Another channel airs similar content in Spanish.

Spain and Latin America have closed these channels following international sanctions against Iran.

The Apostolic Line website, run by Issam Ehmaidan, is the main channel that expresses official Iranian positions towards national and international events. The site Tangier Commission is known for its defense of the theses of Kuwaiti Shiite Yasser Habib.

Web sites, forums and social networking sites are the main channel for Shiites to attract Moroccans to the Shiite doctrine.

Rooting Moroccan Shiism

The rooting of Moroccan Shiism is a movement that can be summarized in the writings of Idris Hani directed to the intellectual and cultural sphere, which consider Morocco a Shiite country in terms of its culture and identity because its history demonstrates this, including expressions that speak of the celebration of Ashura.

One of his articles, entitled “Shiism as a socio-cultural component of Morocco”, Hani stated, “Morocco in my estimation: Sunni in view, Shiite in action, Sunni in doctrine, Shiite in expression, Sunni in picture, Shiite in essence, Sunni in doctrine, Shiite in culture, Sunni in geography, Shiite in history, Sunni in judgments, Shiite in compliance, Sunni in consciousness, Shiite in the unconscious.”

Since the formation of the Arab Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen and the fight against ISIS, Quds Forces commander Qassem Soleimani has recruited writers and media platforms to launch a campaign against coalition countries, especially the Gulf states, and to play on the differences between some of the coalition countries regarding Qatar’s relations with Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. According to a special statement by Dr. Mohammed Al-Bashari, the secretary general of the Shiite-rooted movement Muslim Communities in Europe, the most prominent of these Moroccans is Bashir Al-Haimer, whose articles defame the role of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, play on the strings of Moroccan bilateral relations, and comment on the results of the Gulf, Arab and Saudi summits with his views. He said “The summit of the Arab countries held in Saudi Arabia is a failure and its content is successful as everyone agreed to fight against Iran. But the expressions are more aggressive and hypocritical. The Iranian position in the Middle East is nothing but a defense of the repeated attacks on Palestine, Syria and Yemen. I opposed the text of the resolution against Iran and I think its position is right.”

Iranian arms in Morocco

The Al-Ghadeer Association in the city of Meknes, founded by Moroccan Shiites, circulates the books and ideas of Hussein Fadlallah, Mohamed Mehdi Shamseddine, Dr. Ali Shariati, Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, and former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami.

The Imam Shirazi Organization, a Shiite group previously called the Shiite Authority of Tangier before 2012, is associated with Yasser Habib, a sectarian extremist now living in London after Kuwait revoked his nationality.

The apostolic current considers the cultural movement as an entrance to building the political movement, while the latter is a tool for change, and therefore the first is the foundation in the process of apostolic construction. This current believes that it is necessary to engage in the logic of political culture, meaning to approach political issues from a cultural point of view, as well as in a practical way in the field by engaging in political positions, in order to gain the experience that gives members of the current the ability to act in the depth of civil and political society.

The first public output of the apostolic current was through the establishment of its official website in January 2012. This step came after its members in eastern Morocco and the city of Tangier attempted to establish associations subject to the law of public freedoms.

The site also issued a number of statements, such as a statement calling on the Moroccan government to “protect the Moroccan Shiites in Brussels” following the death of Abdullah al-Dahdouh, who was killed in Belgium in 2012. The apostolic current managed to hold his funeral, which saw a clear departure from the Maliki jurisprudential school.

Many Moroccan Shiite leaders are also politically active through national parties.

The Islamic Front for the Liberation of Marrakech was established by Rabat Cherkaoui and publishes Khomeini publications and books in Morocco.

Idris Hani, member of the Social Democratic Movement in 2015, was one of the founders of Ennahda and was preparing his sectarian paper in 2005 before he withdrew from it and joined his new party.

In 2015, some Shiite figures tried to join the United Socialist Party, but parties within the party were reluctant to take this step, especially with the ambiguity of some Shiite elements in Iran.

Bashir al-Haimer is a leader in the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, which has the task of mobilizing to improve Iran’s image among Moroccans.

Mohammed Marouani, one of the historical faces of the Shiites of Morocco, was the first nucleus of the Shiite movement in Moroccan universities, penetrating the student union.

Belgium is the capital of Moroccan mourners

The Iranian embassy in Belgium plays a major role in financially supporting Shiite associations to funnel funds to Moroccan immigrants. Since the early 1990s, the embassy has been providing regular monthly financial assistance to young Moroccans arriving in Belgium and encouraging them to have temporary marriages that enable them to obtain residence papers.

The number of Shiites in Belgium alone is estimated at 30,000 Shiites from various Muslim communities, especially from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey and Morocco. They are mostly based in Brussels and Antwerp. Unofficial reports say that Moroccans top the list of Shiites in Belgium, numbered at about 20,000, according to figures of associations concerned with the conditions of Moroccan Shiites in Belgium.

Hundreds of Moroccans converted Shiism in the early 1980s following the Iranian Revolution, according to data published by the Moroccan newspaper Sabah. Most of them live in Brussels and its suburbs.

With the support of Iranian authorities, the Shiite Moroccans were able to establish two institutions, namely the Rida Foundation and the Rahman Foundation. They were also able to obtain a spokesperson to deal with the official bodies, whether the Moroccan embassy in Belgium or the Belgian government.

Brussels is the first city in terms of Shiite propagation activity in Belgium, where there are various Shiite organizations, including the Shiite Islamic Cultural Center of Ahl al-Bayt, Beirut Library, and Moroccan Hadi Association, as well as Shiite mosques, including a mosque for Shiite Turks, which is attended by many Moroccans. Meanwhile, the Zahra Association and Al-Ghari Association are located in Antwerp.

These Shiite associations and centers organize various propagation activities, especially during Ramadan and weekend gatherings, as well as the celebration of Shiite events and Husseini rituals, along with a series of lessons and speeches promoting Shiism.

One of the Moroccan Shiite leaders in Belgium is Ezzedine Laghmeish, a graduate of the Moroccan University. He is currently the cultural official of the Reza Mosque in Brussels, a mosque that had previously witnessed the killing of its Moroccan-born imam, Abdallah Dahdouh, by an extremist who was said to be Salafist.

The Netherlands also has a number of Shiite institutions, including the Dutch Shiite Parliament in Rotterdam, the Islamic Cultural Center of Utrecht, the Ahl al-Bayt Center in the city of Elmira, the Kawthar Cultural Foundation in Daenhach, and the Fatima-Zahra Foundation in Amsterdam. The Shiites also have a number of mosques throughout the country, while the situation is similar in Germany.

There are currently more than 300,000 Muslims living in Denmark, according to estimates by some specialists. Most of them come from Syria, Iraq, Morocco and Turkey. There are Shiite centers active in Copenhagen and other cities throughout country.