Kieran Baker, a board member of the Foreign Press Association, commented on Morocco’s template for counter-terror success.
The expert stated that “the Kingdom’s counter-terror strategy embodies a “whole of government” and a “whole of society” approach,” adding that “this combines socioeconomic, religious, and legal strands, into a coherent fabric that is both strong and flexible.”
He traces back the genesis of this strategy to the Casablanca terror attacks in 2003 that ” brought to an abrupt end the assumption that the Kingdom’s religious culture, based on an open and tolerant approach to Sunni Islam, would protect it from the terror scourge afflicting the Arab Middle East,” according to Baker.
In addition to legislative reforms, among which was the expansion of the definition of terrorism to include incitement, Kieran Baker declared that “Morocco recognized the importance of robust socioeconomic development policies to forestall the appeal of terrorist groups to vulnerable populations.”
He went on to say that “in launching the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), the Kingdom committed to supporting and protecting vulnerable populations by improving their educational and socio-economic conditions and opportunities.”
Kieran Baker touched on Morocco’s accelerated efforts to promulgate a tolerant vision of Islam since the 1990s, citing the creation of the Mohammed VI Institute for the Training of Imams, Morchidines and Morchidates. In addition to the integration of women in CT and CVE, something that the United Nations Office for Counter Terrorism deemed praiseworthy.
The expert also examined Morocco’s security apparatus citing the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) which Baker declared was “created as an analogue to the F.B.I. in the United States.”
Baker claims that “with the success of its “whole of society” counter-terrorism strategy, other countries in the region and in the Middle East have been looking at Morocco’s experience and drawing upon its expertise to keep populations safe from the threat of terrorism.”