As reported in the Arab Weekly on 10 September 2021, the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) suffered a
crushing defeat in Morocco"s parliamentary elections on 8 September 2021. The PJD had headed the governing coalition for a decade, but now saw its number of seats falling from 125 to just 12 seats.
World Watch Research analyst Michael Bosch comments: "With this election defeat, it would appear that the wider Muslim Brotherhood movement has lost its last bastion in the Arab world. It had been the Arab Spring which had provided Islamists in the region with the opportunity to get into power via the ballot box, but now political Islam seems to be back to square one. The decline of the Muslim Brotherhood began when Morsi was ousted in Egypt in 2013; since then, they are currently out of power in
Tunisia due to the suspension of parliament (Reuters, 23 August 2021),
Libya (The Africa Report, 18 March 20201), Morocco and
Algeria, where their influence remains limited, according to a report by Al-Monitor on 10 March 2021. And so it continues: It is more than likely that the Brotherhood has
lost crucial support from Qatar, following the restoration of ties between Qatar and the Saudi-led boycott coalition (Washington Institute, 3 February 2021); and‚ the
rapprochement between Turkey (another key-supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood) and Egypt‚ (Dayan, 14 July 2021) does not bode well for the movement either, although both countries will no doubt keep using the Brotherhood to exert regional influence."
Michael Bosch continues: "Some
accuse the dictatorial regimes and their Western backers for the demise of the Brotherhood (Middle East Monitor, 10 September 2021). However, although true to some extent, the parties affiliated with the movement are also to blame for not delivering good government policies and economic stability. "
Michael Bosch adds: "The Islamist agenda has always been a worry for Christians in the region, in particular for those who have converted from Islam to Christianity. However, the loss of the Brotherhood"s political influence does not automatically mean there will be any improvement regarding the Freedom of Religion and Belief. Local grass-root
Salafi networks remain influential, for example in Algeria (Carnegie Endowment, April 2019). In addition, the Arab dictatorial regimes often present themselves as the protectors of Islam and Islamic values in order to preserve popular support. Hence, although not ideologically motivated, they will still want to limit freedom of religion."
