Morocco’s Two-Decade Battle Against Islamic Extremism: From Casablanca to ISIS

Until the second Gulf War in 1990, Moroccan Salafism was peaceful. The violent branch emerged with the dissemination of messages from former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the arrival of the internet in Morocco, and was strengthened in the late 1990s, particularly in Casablanca, Fez, Tangier and Salé where murders were committed by the extremist Youssouf Fikri against several people, including a policeman.

But it was the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and the invasion of Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda’s stronghold, that gave the final impetus to Salafism in Morocco. Since then, the Islamist group has begun to be more visible on the streets and in the mosques of the kingdom to indoctrinate and recruit as many people as possible. This progression of the movement led to the attacks perpetrated by twelve suicide bombers on May 16, 2003 in Casablanca, causing 45 deaths, including terrorists. This was the worst terrorist attack in the history of Morocco.

After these attacks, which were not claimed by any jihadist group but attributed to Al-Qaeda, the Moroccan state arrested about 3,000 Salafists and implemented a tougher anti-terrorism policy. It also embarked on reforms aimed at further controlling mosques and religious discourse. Despite these efforts, the kingdom still suffered an attack in Casablanca in 2007, killing one person (a policeman). In 2011, the Arab Spring broke out in Syria, leading to the departure of 2,000 Moroccans to these combat zones.

That same year, a jihadist killed 17 people, mostly tourists, in a cafe in Marrakech. Since its creation in 2014, the Islamic State (IS) has carried out two attacks in Morocco, the deadliest in 2018 where two Scandinavian tourists were killed in the Atlas Mountains. In March, a traffic agent in Casablanca was kidnapped and killed by Islamic State terrorists. The Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), created in 2015, has already dismantled some 90 terrorist cells.