Allal al-Fassi
Muhammad Allal al-Fassi was a Moroccan nationalist leader, politician, writer, poet, Pan-Arabist and Islamic scholar who was one of the early leaders of the Moroccan nationalist movement. He later became the president for life of the Istiqlal Party after independence representing it until his death in 1972. He served briefly as Minister of Islamic Affairs from 1961 to 1963.
Born into the prominent scholarly, he became involved in the Moroccan nationalist movement at a young age during his years as a student at al-Qarawiyyin. In response to the Berber Dahir, he helped to arouse protest and began to coordinate with other nationalists leading to the formation of nationalist parties like the. After riots broke out in 1937, al-Fassi was exiled to Gabon for 10 years. During his exile, the Istiqlal Party was formed and he was given the honorary role of zaʿīm.
After returning from him exile, he went into self-exile to Cairo. Whilst in Cairo, he collaborated with other nationalist leaders from the Maghreb. He supported militant nationalists like the Moroccan Army of Liberation after Mohammed V's exile and after independence became the leader of the Istiqlal which at that point had expanded massively becoming divided between a right and left wing later culminating into a split within the party. He was also involved as the head of the codification commission for the Mudawana. As Minister of Islamic Affairs, al-Fassi promoted the institution of a new constitution but he eventually resigned after the controversial Bahai Affair. After his resignation, al-Fassi became a prominent opposition leader against Hassan II's government. He died of a heart attack on a trip to Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu.
He was a "neo-Salafist" who advocated for the synthesis of nationalism and reformist Salafism. As an advocate for an Arab-Islamic identity for Morocco, he wanted a Morocco that imposed Arabisation and ruled by Sharia. He developed the idea of Greater Morocco which later came to influence the official policy of the Moroccan government. He was also a prolific writer who wrote over forty books and articles.
He has been described as the "father of Moroccan nationalism".
Early life and education
Muhammad Allal al-Fassi was born in Fes on 10 January 1910 to a prominent bourgeois Andalusian family claiming descent from Uqba ibn Nafi and a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad which produced hundreds of Islamic scholars known as the. His father, Abd al-Wahid al-Fassi, was a judge, grand mufti, doctor of divinity at and curator of the library of Qarawiyyin. Abd al-Wahid was also a merchant who founded the Nasiriyyah Free School in Fes. He served as the mufti of Fes and the imam at the Royal Mosque in Fes. Allal al-Fassi's mother came from a prominent mercantile family known as the Ma'safirine family who held considerable influence in northern Morocco.At the age of 5, he entered a Quranic school. He memorized the Quran by the age of 7. Before attending Qarawiyyin at the age of 14, Allal al-Fassi was a student in the Nasiriyyah Free School his father founded. Beginning in 1924, he studied at the University of al-Qarawiyyin where he received a purely Arab education and came under the influence of the Salafiya movement. In this time, as a student, al-Fassi was highly influenced by Salafi thinker.
Career
Early nationalist activity
According to al-Fassi, he became politically conscious in 1925 when the French authorities attempted to appropriate water from the Oued Fes to divert it to French companies. When he joined Qarawiyyin, he associated with the older students who started their nationalist activities in 1919. Allal al-Fassi describing the development of early nationalism in Morocco and the influence of the Salafiya says:In 1926, he set up a nationalist newsletter called Umm al-Banin. In 1927, along with other students at Qarawiyyin, al-Fassi founded the Students' Union which sought the purification of Islam and aimed to alter the teaching methods of the university. It joined with the Supporters of Truth, a student group in Rabat led by Ahmed Balafrej, in 1929 to form The Moroccan League. By 1930, al-Fassi began to lecture at mosques, Quranic schools and the Qarawiyyin on the theme of the Prophet and the Rashidun caliphs. Al-Fassi graduated with a degree in Islamic law in 1930 or 1932. He used the public lectures and course on the life of the Prophet to express his political views like his disdain for the French Protectorate. This was seen as a threat by the French administration and by 1933, the Resident-General passed a dahir forbidding al-Fassi along with two other Qarawiyyin lecturers from public speaking. He was also barred entry into Morocco in August 1933 after visiting France. He along with his colleagues were removed from their position as ulama at Qarawiyyin.
Beginnings of mass nationalist protest
In response to the Berber Dahir being passed, Allal al-Fassi began to coordinate alongside other nationalists like Ahmed Balafrej and aroused public protest against the dahir. In al-Fassi's view, the dahir was "barbaric" and an "attempt at the annihilation of native people" by suppressing Arab and Islamic culture while replacing it with pre-Islamic Berber customs. Al-Fassi was arrested twice during these protests. As a result of the Dahir, he also met prominent Lebanese Pan-Arabist Shakib Arslan. He co-founded the first political party in Morocco, the National Action Bloc or founded in 1931, 1933 or 1934. This party emerged from the protest movement against the Berber Dahir. Allal al-Fassi served as its president. In February 1934, al-Fassi met with Sultan Mohammed and he called him "a great monarch" and said that Sultan Mohammed promised to recover the lost rights of Moroccans.The Kutla published the Plan of Reforms in 1934 in both Arabic and French. Allal al-Fassi was one of the ten signatories of the reform plan and he took a copy to the Resident-General with. The demands of the reform plan included the abolition of the Berber Dahir, unification of legal systems under Maliki law, expansion of the education system open to Moroccans, the forming of municipal councils, the promotion of Moroccans into positions of power and making Arabic an official language. The reform plan did not outright call for independence but sought reform and the restoring of confidence in the aims of the 1912 Treaty of Fes. Allal al-Fassi discussing the reform plan says:
The plan was rejected by the French administration and by 1937, the nationalist movement started to split. The Kutla was also outlawed by the French protectorate in October 1937. The Kutla split into the which al-Fassi co-led and the Popular Movement later the Party of Democracy and Independence which was led by al-Fassi's former ally Mohamed Hassan Ouazzani. Those that followed Allal al-Fassi in the split were often referred to as the Allaliyin or Wataniyin, while al-Fassi was referred to as "Shaykh Allal" or "Hajj Allal". Traditionally, the split has been characterised as one between "traditionalists" and "Westernists" but this split was likely more to do with personality differences and disagreements over the structure of leadership. Ideologically, al-Fassi's party was only reformist and although Ouazzani's party claimed to be more radical, the two parties were ideologically similar. Out of the groups that split, al-Fassi's faction was able to garner the most success recruiting. This was due to his faction having an administrative structure, an annual national congress, a council that met quarterly and a permanent executive committee.
Exile
After riots broke out throughout Morocco in 1937 in response to the French attempting to reroute the water supply of the Meknes area to irrigate French farms, Allal al-Fassi was exiled to Gabon. In one document, the French justified the exile by accusing al-Fassi of conspiring to overthrow the protectorate to crown himself king. This was unlikely as al-Fassi had not made demands for independence at this point nor was he opposed to the monarchy. It is more likely he was exiled because his opposition to the French caused political instability. He also spent some of his exile in the Congo.Despite being exiled, he still managed to maintain his influence over the nationalist movement. Scholar Ian Shaw says "His years of exile had given him the mystique of political martyrdom". He was isolated during this exile only being allowed to speak to his father but that too was restricted. During al-Fassi's exile, Charles de Gaulle was in contact with him starting from 1941. De Gaulle aimed to use al-Fassi in a coup against the Vichy government in Morocco to bring it to the Free French fold but De Gaulle eventually broke off contact. The Istiqlal Party was founded in January 1944 by former members of the Kutla. This party submitted their manifesto for independence although al-Fassi did not sign it. Allal al-Fassi was given the "purely honorary" role of zaʿīm of the Istiqlal.
In 1947, Allal al-Fassi, alongside other nationalist leaders, returned to Morocco from exile. This ten year period of exile only increased his legitimacy as a representative of the nation. His return along with the return of other nationalists was met with huge banquets and parades in Fes and Rabat and helped expand the membership of his organisation. After his return from exile, he became leader of Istiqlal and founded the newspaper Al-Alam.
Al-Fassi shortly left for Cairo to self-exile due to clashes with the king and the Istiqlal leadership as well as the hardening of French policies in Morocco. When he first arrived in Egypt, he managed to establish links with leaders and diplomats from the Arab World as well as bring attention to the Maktab al-Maghrib, an organisation in Cairo that served as the local headquarters of nationalist parties across North Africa. This was due to Allal al-Fassi being well known across the Arab World. He alongside other nationalists established links with Amin al-Husseini and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood supported Maghrebis logistically and financially because their leader, Hassan al-Banna, considered al-Fassi a friend. These links with the Muslim Brotherhood would later become problematic for al-Fassi when he returned to Cairo in 1953 leading to the Egyptian media and Egyptian politicians becoming disinterested in him. Whilst in Cairo, he became a lecturer at Al-Azhar University. Furthermore, he began collaborating with other nationalist leaders like Abd el-Krim al-Khattabi, Abdelkhalek Torres and Habib Bourguiba and they formed the Committee for the Liberation of the Arab Maghreb. In 1952, al-Fassi went for a world tour to gain international support travelling to and lecturing in Europe, South America, North America and the Middle East. He also went to the UN to plea the case for Moroccan independence and put pressure on France. While this only led to limited reforms by France, it raised awareness around the world for Moroccan independence. This period in Cairo was when he wrote his most important writings like The Independence Movements in Arab North Africa and .