A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Monday, June 20, 2011

Dueling Views on Morocco's Constitutional Changes

King Muhammad VI of Morocco's proposed new Constitution is receiving mixed reviews at best. Before linking to some of the interpretations, you may want to read the King's speech and the proposed constitutional document:

King's Speech: EnglishFrenchArabic


Constitutional Document: French, Arabic (I can't find the English version yet)

The punditry on the subject is all over the map. Morocco's protesters say they'll continue to march, though the King's supporters are now confronting them.

Marina Ottoway at Carnegie and Nicholas Kristof at The New York Times offer fairly middle of the road assessments (hope but a healthy skepticism); Moroccan blogs are worried (link in French). Ahmed Charai at the Foreign Policy Research Institute offers a strongly pro argument, though I fear he may have the King confused with Thomas Jefferson.

I am indeed from Missouri, and I've got to be shown. I'm willing to wait and see, however. I wonder if Moroccans are?

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