Arrests in Morocco put focus on Sufis

Islamist Sufis, who want the monarchy's power reduced, say police beat seven men while arresting them over an alleged assault.

Sheikh Abdesslam Yassine, the founder of the Islamist Sufi group Al Adl wal Ihsan, attends prayers in May 2000 on the outskirts of Rabat after the Moroccan government lifted an order confining him to house arrest.Show less

KENITRA, MOROCCO // Early one morning in June, a schoolteacher in the city of Fez named Abdella Bellah was reading the Quran at home when police broke through the door and dragged him off in handcuffs. "They were punching him as soon as they got the cuffs on," his wife, Hinde Zarrouk, said. "I told our two daughters not to look." Mr Bellah is one of seven activists from Morocco's leading Islamist movement arrested after a former member said the group had kidnapped and tortured him. As their trial starts today, they are suing police on similar claims of torture and illegal detention.

All seven deny the accusations against them, said Mohamed Aghnaj, one of their lawyers. The arrests have spiralled into the latest controversy over Al Adl wal Ihsan, or "Justice and Charity", an Islamist Sufi group that seeks to re-Islamise Moroccan society and supports curbing the power of the monarchy. Authorities have not granted the group legal recognition and have arrested hundreds of its activists in recent years, while some academic and media critics have speculated that it is capable of mobilising thousands of supporters for street demonstrations.

Al Adl wal Ihsan says it is non-violent, with ideology based on the Quran and the Sufi teachings of its founder, Sheikh Abdesslam Yassine. Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, starts with the concept of dhikr, a profound awareness of God. Sufis typically embrace techniques such as meditation and repetitive prayer to achieve it. "Sheikh Yassine is a Sufi par excellence," said Mohamed Darif, a politics professor at Morocco's Mohammedia University. "But he has politicised Sufism."

Born in 1928 to a Marrakech farmer, Sheikh Yassine worked in education and temporarily joined a Sufi order before veering into Islamist activism with a series of books and public statements. In 1974, he urged reform in an open letter to King Hassan II titled "Islam or the Deluge". The letter got him three years' detention in a mental hospital. After his release, he soon began assembling the grassroots Islamist movement that became Al Adl wal Ihsan.

"In classic Sufism, there's a spiritual link between master and student," Nadia Yassine, Sheikh Yassine's daughter, said in an interview. "My father added one with other members." While most Sunni Islamists reject Sufism, in Morocco it gives Al Adl wal Ihsan popular appeal, Mr Darif said. With hundreds of Sufi orders and a landscape dotted with the white shrines of local holy men, mystical traditions "are anchored in the Moroccan countryside", Mr Darif said.

King Hassan II placed Sheikh Yassine under house arrest in 1989, but Al Adl wal Ihsan kept growing. In 2000, King Mohamed VI freed Sheikh Yassine amid reform efforts to move past the reign of his father, who died in 1999. While Al Adl wal Ihsan keeps its membership largely secret, Mr Darif said its members are believed to number up to 100,000. In 2004, Mohammed el Rhazi, a Fez lawyer and the accuser of the seven activists, was casting about for "something to be involved in" when a friend invited him to an Al Adl wal Ihsan meeting at a member's house.

Dozens of people sat around the room as their host discoursed on Islam. Mr el Rhazi joined the group at once. "I read Sheikh Yassine's books, as required," he said in an interview. "I liked feeling my spiritual side grow." In 2008, however, he was called for political work. According to Mohamed Salmi, a member of the group's political committee, their immediate goal is pushing for a revised constitution to expand democracy.

Many members, including Ms Yassine, want reforms to blunt the monarchy's power and abolish the king's role as Morocco's top Islamic authority. But for Mr el Rhazi, such projects amounted to "exploiting people's spirituality for political ends". Days after he left the group in May, he said, the seven suspects are alleged to have lured him to a house where for more than four hours they beat him, threatened to kill him and branded him a police informant, which he denies, before releasing him.

Mr el Rhazi reported the alleged incident a month later, a delay he blames on fear. A week after that, police pounced. "There were eight or 10 of them," Ms Zarrouk said, recounting Mr Bellah's arrest. "I knew they were police, although they wore civilian clothes and never showed identification." While two policemen struck Mr Bellah several times, she claimed, the other officers flung the couple's belongings about, confiscating two hard drives and other digital material.

Mr Aghnaj said police arrested the other six suspects in similar dawn raids and failed to show warrants. The suspects claim that police beat them, gave them electric shocks and hung them in stress positions over three days, and forced them to sign statements incriminating one another, Mr Aghnaj said. In August, the suspects sued the police for the alleged violations and abuses, after suing the state news agency in July for reporting the investigation while it was still underway.

Police officials could not be reached for comment. Mr Salmi said the arrests were part of a politically driven campaign of harassment by the government. That claim was denied by Khalid Naciri, the communication minister, who called the accusations by Mr el Rhazi and the seven suspects a matter for the courts. [e-mail]