Beyond orientalism and the privatisation of religion: socialist Islam in the experience of Morocco’s al-Badil al-Hadari

Montassir Sakhi

Third World Quarterly, 2025, vol. 46, issue 11, 1361-1378

Abstract: This article critically examines the dominant division in the study of ideologies in the Arab world, often characterised by dichotomies such as political Islam versus the Left. It highlights the limitations of this binary framework and shows how oppositional actors have historically resisted this separation. Through the Moroccan case, it traces the trajectory of postcolonial ideologies shaped during and after colonisation, demonstrating how socialist and Islamic references coexisted within anti-colonial struggles. The first section critiques existing literature, particularly works influenced by Orientalist assumptions, for maintaining rigid distinctions between religion and politics. It also analyses how postcolonial governments have monopolised religious discourse, marginalising oppositional actors and contributing to the Islamist–leftist divide. This division was symbolically sacralised by the 1975 assassination of the socialist leader Omar Benjelloun. The second part focuses on the experience of al-Badil al-Hadari, an Islamic-socialist party legalised in 2005 and banned in 2008. Through the political trajectory of its leader, Mostapha Moatassim, the article explores how the articulation of Islamic-socialist ideas has been marginalised by both state repression and the polarisation between secular and Islamist actors. The party’s struggle embodies resistance to Orientalist narratives and the monopolisation of religious legitimacy by both regimes and Islamist parties.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2025.2546051

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