Monarchy and Foreign Policy:

Historically, Morocco has set itself as a bastion of religious tolerance despite the suicidal attacks of Casablanca in 2003 that ended the Moroccan exceptionalism towards extremism. Therefore, Morocco adopted a set of religious reforms seeking to foster a religious identity capable of curbing the influence of the intruding extremist ideas and groups. Later, Morocco sought to export its expertise to the world through deradicalization training for Imams and preachers from several nations across Africa, Europe, and as far as Russia and the Maldives. The monarchy’s leverage of Islam in foreign policy, its domaine réservé, is not something new for the Moroccan foreign policy. Rather, the monarchy has continuously used religion in both foreign and domestic policy for political and diplomatic gains. Since the 1970s, Morocco promoted a mediating role in the Islamic world, mainly in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Moreover, in the last five years, Morocco launched a religious foreign policy based on sharing its expertise in deradicalization and fighting extremism.