Look at any newspaper or television broadcast and undoubtedly there will be discussion of Islam or the Middle East. Conflict in the modern era centers around issues such as tensions between Israel and Palestine, terrorism, and the Syrian civil war. These topics are some of the most pertinent crises that challenge nations today. Conferences tackling these matters often discuss the role of political Islam in developing Arab Nations, especially following the Arab Spring. However, despite many of the radical changes that resulted from the political upheavals of the past decade, the nation of Morocco has remained relatively unchanged. A professor of anthropology specializing in Middle Eastern culture, Henry Munson, attempts to provide a clear description of the relationship between Islam and the politics of Morocco. In his book Religion and Power in Morocco, Munson challenges the work of the revered cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz that the Moroccan monarchy is central to the country’s religion by stating that Geertz neglects a nuanced understanding of Islam as a religion and the politics related to it. Munson’s work is oftentimes labored and overly academic but contains flashes of wisdom that work to uncover Geertz’s gaffes and demystify the way in which Islam is interconnected with Moroccan politics.
Munson divides his book into seven chapters that substantiate his criticism of Geertz and provide a new conclusion about the relationship of religion and power in Morocco. He begins his argument by interpreting the same stories that Geertz used in his own work about the seventeenth-century scholar al-Yusi in order to illustrate how Geertz glosses over the historical context of the works. Munson also initiates a discussion of the “righteous man of God who dares to defy an unjust sultan” in this chapter, a recurring motif throughout the text (27). In the second part, he discusses the evolution of the the ulama in Moroccan politics as well as the changing role of the king in terms of his relationship to Islam. He furthers this argument in the following chapter where he discusses the passivity of the ulama by looking at the unconventional historical figure al-Kattani. Munson then turns his discussion to Salafi reformist Islam and the part that colonialism played in its conception as well as the overall religious insignificance of the monarchy in Moroccan politics. In the penultimate chapter, Munson brings his reader to the present era in a dialogue on Islamic fundamentalism in both its successes and shortcomings. In the final and shortest section, Munson offers a closing and culminating interpretation of Geertz’s work, showing how while Geertz had insightful ideas, his conclusions were ineffectual and unfounded.
The first three chapters of Munson’s book feel labored and lack the focus of the latter half of his text. In the first chapter, his movement between stories that center around al-Yusi feels disconnected and unguided. He offers different interpretations of the folktales that Geertz uses in his own argument, but the stories seem to lack some sort of common theme or overarching point. Oftentimes, it feels necessary to have a strong prior understanding of Moroccan history and the work of Geertz before attempting to read these sections. When continuing to read, these first three chapters are overshadowed by the second half both thematically and in terms of its style. Realistically, it comes off as an overwrought and dense history lesson that only has a few points relevant to the argument at hand. Without Geertz, the first chapter cannot stand alone as Munson’s writing does not bring anything new to the discussion, except for the beginnings of criticism. Munson often goes off on tangential topics such as that of Sufism, that, while interesting, are never discussed fully enough to be significant to his argument.
Undoubtedly, there are moments of clarity in Munson’s book. The second half of the work provides particularly noteworthy insight and characterization of Islam in Morocco. Munson touches on ideas such as colonialism and its impact on Morocco. He writes that European dominance was seen as a result of “the believers deviat[ing] from the laws of God” (88). This resulted in a “religious dichotomy” that fostered ideas of Salafism (113). He clearly delineates the missteps made in the analysis of Geertz. He warns to “never mistake the Islam of polemical texts for Islam as really lived by people” (114). His discussion of the unimportance of the Moroccan king is best seen in how citizens “support the king and the monarchy for fear of the alternatives” (148). In the modern era, it has been seen that without the king, Islam would survive in the country. Using a variety of examples, Munson is able to disprove Geertz in his assertion of the importance of the Moroccan king to the religion of the nation. These chapters are cogent and well-written, especially when compared to the opening chapters.
Religion and Politics in Morocco is not a casual read and it certainly was never intended to be so. Munson presents a breadth of knowledge that is both complex and informative. His work can be tangential and requires some background knowledge of the topic to truly understand the points he makes. The first half of the book feels scattered and overly-academic, using Geertz’s work as a crutch to his own. However, the second half of his work is novel and paints a clear picture of the how the religious institutions in Morocco are connected to the political. It is daunting to challenge someone whose work is so acclaimed but Munson provides a strong argument that suggests another valid interpretation of similar concepts. Religion and Power in Morocco is very focused and polemic, deriving from a historiographic perspective. However, for the armchair historian, there are other books and writings that provide a more general overview encompassing the idea of Islam and politics in Morocco.
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