Morocco has a long history of religious heresies, all were made illegal & more or less went underground. I can tell you that many very well educated Moroccans admire Hezbollah, they see Shi’ite Islam as quite attractive & successful. Since religion & politics are intertwined, Shi’ite missionary activities are viewed as subversion. The Moroccan king is the ”Commander of the Faithful” – a descendant of Mohammed & the head of Moroccan Islam, the legitimacy of the monarchy is at risk. The recent Lebanon War made Hassan Nasrallah quite the hero for many Moroccans, his claims of ”victory” against the IDF readily accepted as true. Personally, I was quite shocked to hear several of my friends praise the Shi’ite sect. It was bad enough to see the influence of Saudi-style Islam grow in Morocco over the years but the thought of Shi’ism taking root is even more disturbing.
