Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Challenges

In Morocco, Marvine Howe, a former correspondent for The New York Times, presents an incisive account of the Moroccan kingdom and its people, past and present. She provides a frank portrait of the late King Hassan, whom she credits with laying the foundations of a modern state, and she highlights the pressures his successor King Mohammed VI has come under to transform the monarchy into a modern democracy. Howe addresses emerging issues--equal rights for women, the correction of glaring economic disparities--and asks the question: can this ancient Muslim kingdom embrace democracy in an era of deepening divisions between Islam and the West?