Titolo completo

Security and Space: Salafism, Shi‘ism and the State in Morocco

Between 2003 and 2010, the Moroccan regime repressed its Salafi and Shi‘ite communities. Advancing understanding of the relationship between social space, social boundaries and securitisation, an analysis is offered that highlights how this repression was enabled through a securitisation process: a palace-centred coalition constructed representations of space that cast these Salafi and Shi‘ites as threats to Morocco’s spiritual and political order. Departing from Securitisation Theory’s conception of ‘special’ security measures as the suspension of ‘normal’ liberal-democratic procedures, in the competitive-authoritarian context of Morocco securitisation arguably involved a rupture with long-established norms structuring its repression and social control. Indeed, non-Western contexts, such as Morocco, may offer productive empirical bases for advancing critical scholarship on securitisation and its relation to social space.
Keywords: security; social space; Morocco; Islam