Class of 2011

I spent last fall in Morocco. There, I lived with a host family in the old medina, which is the walled city from the 12^th century. The streets of the medina are narrow and labyrinthine, and took me some time to navigate aptly. I arrived in Morocco during Ramadan, during which the country at large is relatively quiet and lethargic during the day. The sleepy quality of the day stands in stark contrast to the festivities of the night time, which include the breaking of the fast and a great deal of outdoor socializing.

As time passed, I learned a great deal about my surroundings and how to navigate them as a very tall, white female. I learned my way around the city, became accustomed to the standard costume of a jellaba, a robe with a pointed hood, and even weaned myself off of bottled water, and onto the tap. I became quite comfortable with my bucket showers and the lack of toilets, and the foreignness of Islamic society lessened steadily. Indeed, I came to anticipate the call to prayer five times a day, and words like “Hamdallah!” (“Thank God”) and “Inch’allah” (God willing) became regular parts of my vocabulary. I still use them, in addition to other Arabic words, a good deal, much to the confusion of my friends here at Wesleyan.

As I became comfortable in my surroundings, I began to form relationships with the people in the old medina. The medina is filled with tiny shops called hanouts, which sell packaged food necessities, and are manned by shopkeepers, usually older men. I passed several hanouts each day on my way to and from school or the market, and thus found a comfortable rapport with many of the friendly hanout men. They were welcome and unthreatening acquaintances, particularly amidst the massive amounts of street harassment I experienced. This harassment is by no means dangerous, but can be obnoxious—or entertaining, depending on the comments made and one’s humor at any given moment.

After settling into my home in Rabat, I began to travel across the country. I visited a vast range of places, including the small cities of Chefchaouen and Tetouane in the north, Casablanca on the coast, the rural village of Loutchina, and Marrakesh, and Ourzazete in the south. These various locales entail a broad spectrum of landscapes, from gigantesque mountains to sweeping ravines to rolling sand dunes.

During a visit to a part of the Sahara desert, my friends and I rode camels into the dunes, only to find ourselves amidst a somewhat severe sandstorm. Realizing we would not be able to outrun it, we descended from our camels and crouched under blankets, hoping for the storm to pass. It soon became clear, however, that this strategy would not serve us for long, as rain was also approaching. So, we re-mounted our camels and rode back through the blowing sand, rain, and hail to the mud auberge where we were staying. An adventure indeed.

Perhaps the greatest adventure was my time conducting independent research at the end of the semester. I was given three weeks to complete an interview-based independent study project. During this time, I set out to explore the causes and consequences of the apparent Sufi revival in Morocco. Sufism, the internal, mystical aspect of Islam, has strong historical roots in Morocco, and the government is currently making an appeal to revive Sufism as a part of Moroccan heritage. Among governmental efforts to endorse Sufism are annual Sufi meetings, Sufi culture festivals, and funding to Sufi groups. I hoped to get to the bottom of why the government was promoting this particular set of groups so strongly.

I found that there was a counter-terrorism aspect to the scheme—Sufism, with its tolerant, pacifist ideals, seems to be a solid ideological remedy to Islamic fundamentalism. Because there is very little terrorist threat in Morocco, however, the efforts to use Sufism against terrorism are much heavier in other Islamic nations. In Morocco, I discovered, the main purpose of the Sufi revival is to safeguard Morocco’s monarchical government against conservative political threats.

The King of Morocco, referred to as ‘Commander of the Faithful’, derives his authority from descent from the prophet Mohamed, and thus is in charge of both political and religious affairs. The current king, Mohamed VI, is quite liberal in comparison to his predecessor, Hassan II, and has been facing heavy criticism from right-wing groups who think that Islam under his rule is too secular. His opposition wishes to dispose of his position and instate a new, more democratic, and more religiously conservative ruling system. This is where Sufism comes to the rescue (at least in the mind of the government): Sufi Islam in Morocco is quite similar, in its liberal nature and tolerance, to the Islam enforced under Kind Mohamed VI. Ideally, the more adherents Sufism can gain within Morocco, the fewer people will be left to question the King’s role as a religious ruler.

This agenda is being kept very much a secret. When I interviewed government officials, such as Ahmed Toufiq, the Minister of Islamic Affairs (a puppet of the King and himself a former leader of one of the preeminent Sufi groups in the country) I was told that there was no agenda to promote Sufism, despite the apparent governmental push for Sufism, seen clearly in the funding of annual Sufi festivals and national and international Sufi meetings.

So, it took careful work and analysis to uncover the true purpose of the government’s heavy support of Sufism. My interviews were integral to this process. I spoke with a number of important figures, including Ahmed Toufiq, the Minister of Islamic affairs (our interview was held in the royal palace!), Mohamed Darif, a renowned political analyst, Haj Habib, leader of the Shariqa Zaouiyya (a long-standing Sufi brotherhood) and governmental overseer of Islam in his region, Mouhssine Hassouni, a member of the leading family of the Hassouni Sufi Brotherhood, and Mustapha Khalfi, the editor in chief of Morocco’s preeminent Islamist newspaper, among many others.

Independently conducting this research and my life in Morocco was a tremendously empowering experience. It helped me synthesize the learning I had been doing at Wesleyan into a tenable and original project. I hope to pursue similar projects in the years to come!