MOROCCO – Country Paper on Micro-Level Drivers

Addressing the issue of violent extremism (VE) in the Moroccan context can only be done from a multi-dimensional approach. In this regard, our study based on the micro-individual approach is a continuation of the work we carried out at the meso-community level as part of the H2020-funded CONNEKT project, which addresses the issue of VE in Morocco among seven other countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the Balkans.

This research focuses on the analysis of VE in Morocco in various territories. The aim is to show how Moroccan youth in differently characterised regions interpret VE, based on the identification of seven driving factors: religion, transnational dynamics, territorial inequalities, leisure and cultural opportunities, political issues, digital socialisation, and economic deprivation. We also cite the presence of these factors in the social, economic and political lives of young people, and their interaction in the construction of violence. Young people are a difficult social category to define. For many sociologists, youth is seen as a transition to adulthood; a transition that takes place on two levels: the passage to adulthood through work, and the founding of a family of one’s own. This category of young people cannot be apprehended as a socially homogeneous category; it can only be perceived in its plurality and diversity, attached to the social, cultural, and territorial environment, among others. Our study is thus a continuation of the qualitative work carried out as part of CONNEKT, reflecting the diverse practices and experiences of young people through a quantitative method. Questioning young people and their relationship towards violence is a way of grasping the evolution of a society, because violence is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. It is neither homogeneous in its forms nor in its meanings.

The results of this work will enable us to grasp the reasons and motivations that explain VE among young people, but also an entry point for building a policy framework to prevent violence and extremist acts in the MENA and Balkan contexts.