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BY
SANAE EL MELLOUKI
Abstract
This paper analyzes the discourse of the Moroccan party of Justice and Development on the plan to integrate women into development. Analysis is grounded in Paul Chilton’s (2004) two main analytical approaches namely the strategic use of Language and the dimension of deixis. The latter provide a central theoretical construct and are valuable tools for analysing identity in the context of the PJD since political actors from this perspective are situated with respect to a particular time, place, and group. The deictic and strategic components of the selected corpus are assessed, thereby digging deeply into the representational dimension of language use by the party as well as the construction of reality about particular meaning categories and events. The aim is to explore the Islamist discourse beyond the taken-for-granted assumption that it is mainly premised on ideology, which ultimately reduces the Islamist experience to an ideological frame that is dissociated from the context where it lies situated. The current paper presents a case study of the Islamist party of Justice and Development from this perspective to help de-emphasise the ideology with which research on political Islam has been mainly concerned. This in turn highlights the processes of meaning making and identity building as well as brings new insights into research on political Islam.
Keywords: Political Islam, identity, deixis, context, ideology, discourse
I. Introduction
The issue of political Islam has captured the attention of researchers globally. However, despite the apparent widespread interest in Islamism, its identity has rarely been the site of analysis. Politics is a struggle for power in order to assert a particular identity. In this process, language plays a crucial role since every political action is disseminated through language. This paper is premised on political discourse analysis which is viewed as the narrative interpretation of ideas and situations that provides contexts where political identities can be displayed and evaluated.
This view implies that political discourse analysis is resorted to in the present paper to mainly look at the specific linguistic choices that have been made in particular political terms to assert political identities. As such, political discourse analysis, in the current paper, focuses on the way the strategic and deictic use of language in the PJD’s discourse permits a greater understanding of the complexity of identity construction processes beyond any narrow focus on ideology in the area of Islamism.
The findings reveal two main themes: the first one significantly projects a gradual maturation in the party’s political thinking while the second demonstrates an adamant ideological demarcation by the PJD. In other words, discourse analysis has helped reveal through a close look at the linguistic strategies employed by the party that its members continuously seek to position themselves with respect to both their ideological aspirations as well as the changing political context.
II. Theoretical Underpinnings
The construction of identity in discourse and the ways in which members interpret, categorize and construct their experiences have been a major concern for a number of discourse analysts (Burman and Parker 1993 &Van Dijk 1997). From this perspective of discourse analysis, identity is construed as an ongoing process accomplished through social interaction and communication. In other words, this implies that political meaning is discursively generated and constantly shaped in response to the requirements of different contexts as well as the type of membership within particular political categories. This perspective has helped place emphasis on the fact that identity is often associated with the group’s demarcation from the different other. This is why more importance should be given to the specific discourse strategies through which the relationship between identity and the group membership is conveyed.
Placing the concept of identity at the heart of the PJD’s political discourse as well as the broader political context where the party operates entails a discourse analytical approach to the way in which the party’s collective identity is negotiated within constantly changing political realities. Discourse analysis is meant to provide an in depth interpretive approach to the study of the PJD’s discourse and also lay out the basic tenets of the strategic use of language in the realm of politics by the party of Justice and Development. This perspective is supported by Chilton and Schäffner (1997) who hold that “what is political is a matter of interpretation and one focus of attention in political discourse has a critical reflection on the strategic use of political concepts or keywords for achieving specific political aims.”
On this same issue, Tajfel and Turner’s (1979) theory of how groups in subcultures create identities also suggests that perceptions of the self/group by people are often located into opposing camps with each side highlighting its difference from the other. A related theory is that of Baumeister (1996) who has also argued that when groups are challenged by others, they often highlight positive aspects of their identity while characterizing others as evil. This is clearly supported by Wodak (1996) who asserts that “Discourse about others is always connected with one’s identity that is to say with the question “how do we see ourselves?” the construction of identity is a process of differentiation; a description of one’s own group and simultaneously a separation from the others”. In this sense, the present study attempts to search for these linguistic lines of demarcation by the party as a means for understanding political interactions as well as the positioning of the party through numerous discursively generated strategies such as the conceptualization of truth and group categorizations each of which has been widely observed in political discourse. This focus will then, represent a rich opportunity for digging deeply inside the linguistic forms employed by the party to display the various meanings inherent in its discourse.
Building on this overall orientation, the present paper attempts to provide interpretive accounts of the ways in which the party members organize their perceptions of themselves and others within the gender reform context. It is in this sense that this study is framed with the theory of political discourse. Particularly, the purpose of discourse analysis, in this paper, is to decode the meaning embedded in the linguistic sign of the PJD’s political speech by including an analytical interpretation of the inherent meanings of a collection of specimens of the party’s texts and speeches on the event under study.
II. Political Discourse Analysis
To conduct discourse analysis of the PJD’s specimens of texts and talks on the gender reform plan, the current study has considered the linguistic choices the party members made in their speeches and the way such language choices might have reflected their positioning along the political continuum in Morocco. For this purpose, the researcher has adopted a constellation of different analytical approaches to achieve the objective of the study. More specifically, the researcher has drawn from the notions of the strategic and deictic uses in discourse that have been developed by Chilton (2004).
At the heart of this two-dimensional analytic approach is the thesis which holds that texts be they written or spoken ‘provide a rich tapestry of ways of speaking’ that define a particular experience in a given context. This is why the discourse analysis conducted for the purpose of the current study does not constitute a single unitary approach but rather multiple ways that assist in reflecting on the PJD’s textual activities and identifying how a particular way of speaking signals the construction of political roles, boundaries and identities. Following in Chilton’s footsteps, the current analysis takes a cognitive approach to the analysis of the PJD’s talks and texts by exploring both the strategic and deictic forms used by the PJD during the aforementioned specified timeframes. A description of each analytical method and the way it is carried out in the current paper is provided below.
II.1.1 The Strategic Use of Language in the PJD’s Discourse.
This paper analyses the PJD’s discourse from the methodological perspective of the strategic use of language. Premised on the idea which argues for the importance of analyzing the linguistic strategies through which political actors manage their interests,the current endeavor considers the language used by the PJD not only as a means of communication, but also as a potential instrument of strategic functions whereby the party members pursue their political interests and manage their collective identity.
The choice of this analytic approach is informed by the works of Chilton and Schäffner (1997) who discuss two major categories of strategic functions that linguistic expressions of various types may be used for. This means that of a particular importance to the study of language and politics is the epistemological framework which holds that knowledge is not a neutral representation of an objective world “out there,” but is realized through language in use determined by interests. This denotes that the act of performing speech by the speaker is a process through which the political actor inhabits a particular social and political role as well as possesses a particular authority.
According to Chilton and Schäffner (1997), politics is a linguistic activity in which political realities and interests are presented and managed through the medium of language. On that basis, both researchers propose that there is a strategic pattern of communication that is linguistically realized to serve these purposes. They, then argue that the pattern arises from various strategies of language mostly generated by the general need to favor one’s own interests while disfavoring others.
Accordingly, Chilton and Schäffner (1997) discuss two major strategic functions of language which have the effect of placing the utterers in different positions vis a vis the others. These two specific strategies and their relevance to the current project are discussed below. They are:
Legitimization / delegitimization strategies: with regard to the legitimization function of language, it is essentially employed by political actors for the general purpose of either legitimizing one’s own group or delegitimizing others. And it is usually expressed in the form of arguments that convey particular ideological convictions, praise specific political performances or simply positively present one’s own group. On the other hand, the delegitimization strategy typifies the typical antithesis of the former where others are demonized and also where techniques of differentiating others from one’s own group are mostly apparent through the use of speech acts of blaming, accusing and insulting.
Representation / Misrepresentation strategies: while the first strategy of legitimization/delegitimization mainly targets the opponents who hold different and opposing views from those of the utterers, Representation/Misrepresentation ‘mostly involves the political control of information which is by definition a matter of discourse control.’ In the mode of representation/misrepresentation, information is expressed through various kinds of verbal manifestations such as omission, denial or the use of metaphors and euphemisms. All these strategies are said to have the cognitive effect of ‘conceptually blurring” unwanted pieces of information for the purpose of pursuing one’s own interests.’
Both these two linguistic strategies consist of targeting the emotions of the audience to gain more support. They are also closely related in practice as they both have the function of delving deeply into the speaker’s conceptual system to highlight his/her own representation of reality. As such, the choice of these strategies as analytical methods in the current project is mainly due to the major influence they have on the formation and change of cognitive models and social representations. More precisely, these strategies are significantly relevant to the current analysis because they constitute an analytic circle that relates identity and discourse via cognition which is obviously intended to emphasize or deemphasize opinions within the general strategy of positive self-presentation and negative other presentation.
To translate these strategies into practical analysis, identification of the legitimization / delegitimization and representation/misrepresentation strategies in the PJD’s speech proceeds as follows:
Analysis of the first strategic function of legitimization/delegitimization in the current paper pays particular attention: First to the PJD’s negative other presentation where acts of blaming, marginalizing, excluding and attacking the opposition are mostly apparent in the party’s discourse. Specifically, this particular strategy looks for overt accusations, definitions and attributions in the area of the ‘other-presentation’ as well as the construction of enemies through various levels of demonization of the enemy related to the fear appeals embedded in the party’s political discourse. Second, this strategy also attempts to reveal the positive self-presentation by looking for arguments of self-praise and self-identification employed by the party as a means of establishing difference and setting boundaries. Analysis of this particular strategy in the party’s speech is believed to provide a methodological tool for understanding how the different attempts to legitimate one’s own group is built linguistically.
On the other hand, analysis of the second strategy of representation/misrepresentation addresses attempts by the PJD members to present their own conceptualization of what Chilton labels “the truth of events” through various levels of linguistic practices. Identifying the cognitive bases of connotative and conceptual meanings in the party’s speeches provides an understanding of the cognitive frameworks of the party members’ view of the world as well as uncovers the values underlying the party’s political identity. Thus, considering the party’s representation of the event in question as a mental conceptualization of truth and not simply as a linguistic expression that occurs during communication deserves a close examination of the party’s references to a particular piece of information. This will be realized by determining in the PJD’s discourse references and denotations that define the party’s own perception of a particular set of reality.
II.1.2 The Dimension of Deixis in the PJD’s Discourse
In addition to the analysis of the strategic use of language by the PJD, this study also analyses the PJD’s discourse from another methodological perspective namely the processes of indexicality in the PJD’s speech. Analysis from the perspective of deixis points to the means established by the linguistic elements, the speaker and the utterance act. Moreover, the salience of indexicality lies in the way locatives and time expressions as well as pronouns are employed by language users to position themselves in a specific relationship with others.
According to Chilton (2004), the process of indexicality is a dynamic process whereby speakers position themselves within what Hanks (1992) has named “the indexical ground.” The latter constitutes a three dimensional axis along which the speakers are positioned through the articulation of deictic expressions vis-a-vis particular space and time “to prompt the interpreter to relate the uttered indexical expression to various situational features.”
Pronouns are one class of words that can perform deixis. For example in political discourse, the first person plural (we, us, our) places the speakers in the deictic center along the continuum of space and time. The deictic center, according to Verschueren (1999) is employed to “induce interpreters to conceptualize group identity, parties and the like either as insiders or outsiders.” The two continua of space and time are usually referred to as ‘temporal’’ and ‘spacial’ deixis. For example, the use of ‘nowadays’, ‘today’ or ‘just now’ in the temporal deixis transcends ‘a simple act of orientation in physical space to denote particular historical periodization which can be understood to refer to a particular time or history’. On the other hand, the spacial deixis may refer to representations of space which are directly associated with a particular geopolitical space. Thus “here” beyond being a simple reference to a personal physical distance may signal a space that is governed by specific power relations and social structures.
Hence, the indexical dimension in discourse stresses the positioning of political actors along spacial and temporal axes since they are always held to be situated with respect to a particular time, place and social groups. The idea of indexicality indicates the ability of linguistic expressions to convey complex systems of meanings such as socially shared conceptualizations of space, time and social representations about group membership as well as presuppositions about all aspects of social reality and collective stances. Because of considerations such as these, the dimension of deixis is also considered as particularly relevant to the current analysis of the PJD’s discourse. As such, a description of the way analysis of deixis is carried out in the present paper is presented below.
The current analysis attempts to locate in the PJD’s speech the way the party members make use of time and place as well as personal pronouns to refer to their roles not only as speakers, but also to their positioning within a particular time and space and to their relationship with the opposition. Analysis also tries to locate meanings that closely associate the self (that is the party) with truth and righteousness in the complex self-time-space discourse that sets up spaces for the party as being particularly positioned in a subjective ideological area whereas the opposition as existing in the space of potential danger to the party.
Analysis of the notion of deixis in the PJD’s speech is believed to delve deeply into the multi-layered and creative process of meaning making to understand complex systems of political conceptualizations of space, time and ideology. This will help reveal how language expressed in relation to the party members and anchored in the dimensions of both space and time allows the linguistic expressions in use to go beyond simple ‘referential anchoring’ to denote an ideological demarcation and identity boundary-setting.
III. The Present Context & Data
This work has as its focus both the content of the PJD’s discourse on the gender reform question as well as the context in which it was produced. The context in this study refers to significant time periods in the political praxis of the party which witnessed the occurrence of major events. While the content of the PJD’s discourse refers to the texts or any other documents that were produced by the party as a response to the plan to integrate women into development (PANIFD). These texts have been grounded in three different periods of time (1997 – 2007) that have witnessed considerable advancements in the laws governing gender relations in the country.
The first time period referred to as time A includes the periods from 1997 to 2001. This period has witnessed the attempt of introducing PANIFD (The National Plan for The Integration of Women into Development) by the former Prime Minister Abd Errahmane EL Youssoufi. At that time, this initiative ignited the fury of all the Islamist factions who expressed strong opposition to the implementation of the plan claiming that it was inspired by the western model after the 1995 Beijing conference. During this time period, the PJD besides rejecting the plan and marching in the streets of Casablanca in protest against its implementation, also issued a memorandum suggesting changes be made to the personal status code according to the Islamic precepts.
The second time period referred to as time B includes the years of 2002 and 2003. During these two years, the PJD became one of the major parties in the Moroccan government and the first party in the opposition by gaining the third highest number of seats in parliament. This period witnessed several heated debates about how Morocco envisages the enactment of the amendments to the Mudawwana. The PJD, at that time, repeatedly stated that the plan would only undermine the Moroccan social fabric because it was inspired by western institutions. This period also witnessed an unprecedented event in Morocco; namely the Casablanca terrorist bombings on May 16th 2003 which has virtually interfered with the party’s strong rejection of the new Mudawwana implementation.
The third period of time or time C includes the period from 2004 to 2007 which witnessed what the researcher labels “the post Mudawwana” implementation phase. This period has been chosen to capture the various kinds of venues the PJD has evolved into. 2004 is the year in which Mohamed VI made his public decision to officially enact the changes to the Mudawwana. A decision, the party of Justice and Development did not object especially after the king placed his speech about the reforms in a religious frame which seemed to be in total harmony with the scripture and the prophetic tradition.
Notably, these three time periods have been chosen for the salient role they played in the PJD‘s political praxis. Premised on the thesis which holds that moderate Islamism has emerged to assert a religious-based identity within modern pluralistic politics, this paper investigates the PJD’s interaction with its political context with a particular focus on the development of its Islamist identity. Accordingly, the chosen historical periods are believed to provide an interesting site where identity can be grounded for analysis in this particular area of Islamism.
IV. Findings
Close analysis of the PJD’s discourse on the new reforms during the abovementioned periods has revealed that there are two main levels at which the party of Justice and Development responded to the reform attempts in the country. These levels can be summarized as: First, loyalty to ideological stasis as well as readiness for political change. More precisely, these levels are expressed in the form of two major themes that have been identified in the party’s speeches. They are: first, an ideological bias in the form of positive in-group versus negative out-group presentation which persisted along the three periods (A, B, C). Second, a political pragmatism mainly concerned with gaining recognition and continuity as an efficient political actor on the Moroccan political scene through the party’ shift towards a more politically structured language, which only appeared to emerge during the last period (period C). These findings are presented below under two main headings that highlight the party’s constant differentiation from the western secular premises upon which the reforms are based through an obvious ideological demarcation while attempting to be more politically pragmatic to avoid jeopardizing its political continuity.
IV.1 Ideological Demarcation in the PJD’s Discourse
The first main theme observed in the party’s speech demonstrates an obvious determination by the PJD to position itself as a fierce critic of the new reforms in an attempt to identify itself in terms of what the opponent is not, and it is often during such identifications that the religious beliefs of the party are highlighted. Thus, the opponents of the plan are placed in a distant camp defined by the PJD as an alien system of values and beliefs. A dominant catchphrase representing this binary opposition with regard to this theme is “the secular other” versus “the religious we”. This phrase is often used in reference to the party’s demarcation from the ideology and philosophy of the plan supporters. Qoranic verses are also used in speeches when comparing ideology, values and criteria upon which the family institution should be premised. Several party speakers have made mention of this identification. Examples include:
“فنحن كمسلمين لدينا منهج قائم على الثوابت الدينية فقيمنا الدينية لا تمت بصلة لخطة تعديـل المدونة بقيادة تلك الإيديولوجيات الغربية التي تحكمها مواثيق وقوانين دولية هي تماما عكس ما يؤمن به معظم الشعب المغربي.” بسيمـة الحقــاوي 2000
“We, as Muslims, have a constitution that is premised on religious consistencies. Thus, our religious values have nothing to do with this plan to change the Mudawwana led by those foreign ideologies underlying international treaties and laws which are completely the opposite of what the majority of Moroccan people believe in.’ Bassima Haqqaoui 2000
In this excerpt, the strategic choice of categories such as “المواثيق الدولية” “international treaties” and ” «الثوابت الدينية “religious consistencies” has precisely the function of legitimizing the party members in terms of the general values and identity of all the Moroccan people. EL Haqqaoui’s statement named two different groups with ideology-based tensions through the use of the personal subject pronoun “نحن” “we” and the possessive pronoun “نـا” “our” as opposed to the demonstrative pronoun “تلك” ‘those’ (which refers to things that are farther away in space and time). The latter in EL Haqqaoui’s argument serves to create physical as well as moral and ideological distance between the two camps. While the party members and the Moroccan people are all placed in the same category of religious enclavism, the Mudawwana drafters or proponents are referred to as distant outsiders.
Applying Chilton’s (2004) analytical approaches in the analysis of this excerpt, both the use of the legitimization / delegitimization and representation/misrepresentation strategies as well as the spatial deixis are reflected in the careful use of metaphoric senses, group categorizations and the use of space builders.
The legitimization/delegitimization strategy in EL Haqqaoui’s excerpt can be easily picked out through the use of group categorizations. Quite prominently, EL Haqqaoui appears to assert the party’s own exclusive religiosity leaving open the inference that the opponents are irreligious. This strategy is also supported by describing the party members and all the Moroccan population as like-minded individuals who belong to the same group.
Moreover, the misrepresentation strategy has also been observed. The use of the term “الإيديولوجيات الغربية” ‘foreign ideologies’ to refer to the plan presumes some sort of value system that involves a negative connotation linked to a secular scenario. The plan is represented as an alien form of change that is at odds with religious values. Obviously, this representation provides a cognitive schema and paves the way for the subsequent group categorization which immediately occurs through the presentation of two opposing camps namely; the Mudawwana supporters and the party.
Additionally, the indexical dimension has also been observed in this excerpt by Bassima EL Haqqaoui. Deixis is prominently apparent through the use of space builders such as the personal pronoun “نحن” ‘we’ and the possessive pronoun “نا” ‘our”. These two have placed the party in the deictic center and have established an extra-textual relationship between the party and the Moroccan people such that both are postulated as present in the same political space. The deictic center which is in this case the party has specified a reality space through the phrases “قـيـمـنــا الـديـنـيـة” ‘our religious values’ and “تلك الإيديولوجيات الغربية” ‘those foreign ideologies’ along which two different groups are distributed. One (that is all Moroccans) is situated as proximate to the party whereas the other is situated in a far-away place.
Another adamant statement is Mohamed Yatim’s excerpt:
” لا شك أن هذه الخطة نالت إعجاب أعداء الإسـلام فهي حصيلة مؤتمر بكيـن الذي يقف وراءه مجموعة من اللواطيين والسحاقيات وبعض المناضلات الفاشلات أسريا اللواتي لا يعرفن لا أمومة ولا حضانة فهؤلاء يطمحون فقط إلى دعم استغلال جسد المرأة من خلال دعم التعديلات المقترحة.” محمد يتيم 2001
“This plan, has no doubt appealed to the enemies of Islam since it is the outcome of the Beiging conference, led by a group of homosexuals and lesbians and some losers who have no family life or any sense of motherhood and custody. Those are just aspiring to support the exploitation of women’s body by advancing the new laws of the plan.” M. Yatim 2001
The plan drafters and supporters, in this excerpt are being attributed all kinds of insults and accusations. The delegitimization strategy used in this excerpt targets the categorization of the plan supporters as “enemies” and further demonizes them by breaking down this category into two further socially stigmatized groups “اللواطيين” ‘homosexuals’ and “السحاقيـات” ‘Lesbians’. It becomes apparent that the abuse directed at opponents and used to categorize them descriptively presumes a system that involves a negative pole linked to depraved forms of sexual behavior from which the party seeks to distance itself. In line with this, the spatial deixis has been observed through the use of the demonstrative pronoun ‘those’. The party members insist on placing the plan supporters in a farther category. The use of “فهؤلاء” ‘those’ followed by “يطمحون إلى استغلال جسد المرأة” “aspiring to support exploiting the body of women” represents a mental space that is largely determined by beliefs and value frames. Even if the party’s positioning in this excerpt is not overtly verbalized, it is communicated by way of reference to the opposition’s location as an alien system of beliefs that threatens the country’s sacred values.
Indexically speaking, the use of deixis through the employment of the space builder “هؤلاء” ‘those’ maintains the party in the deictic center and further extends the spatial deixis where the opponents are situated by way of reference to their location in a space of “moral decadence” which is linked metonymically to homosexuality and depravity. The link, here, can be said to be metonymic because the relation between the Mudawwana supporters and depravity connotes a “conceptual contiguity” within a stereotypical frame.
To sum up, the PJD’s articulation of its views regarding the plan has been mainly characterized by the party’s emphasis on its difference from the ideology underlying the plan through an outright rejection of the opposition as illogical, unreligious, and therefore unreasonable. The aim of such a discourse by the party is to present its political participation as directly linked to a particular belief system that does not resonate with the plan’s ideological lines.
Obviously, the positive in-group vs negative out-group presentation appears to be the critical ingredient in the emergence of ideological bias. In other words, the meaning that the PJD assigned to its group constituted the central component of this process. The meaning category where the party places itself is premised on religious principles of Justice, patriotism, humanism and expertise, which captures the extent to which the party members are positively presented. The positive in-group presentation, here, is accomplished by directly deriving from a religious ideology at the expense of “the other” who is referred to as mainly “ungodly” leading to its categorization as problematic.
Additionally, the negative portrayal of the other has also been observed in the remarkable consistency with which words and phrases belonging to the register of anger and degrading language are employed. The party’s representation of the opponents as “alienated” and “secular” can be viewed as integrally linked to the constant critique against any project that does not fall within the party’s religious realm of politics. In terms of its wider implication, the construction of the party as being concerned with the loss of the religious identity is framed within the party’s “politics of difference.” The latter emphasizes the high relevance of its orientations since they are aligned with a correct mode of political conduct that tends to preserve Morocco’s religious identity. What is important about this focus on in-group positive presentation is the positioning of the party in a sacred space as a particular sanctuary of a just political action.
This ideological demarcation that is discerned in the aforementioned excerpts convey that the ideological bias in the PJD’s speech is a prominent theme that identifies the framework of the party’s ideological standpoint in its political use of language. However, besides this bias towards the party’s system of ideas which appears to unfold a great extent of its understanding of how the social blueprint should be, its political language has been observed to considerably shift from rigidity to pragmatism. The latter point is elaborately outlined in the following section.
IV. 2 Political Pragmatism in the PJD’s Discourse
A strategic shift towards a more pragmatic political discourse has also been observed in the PJD’s speeches within the framework of the second dominant theme. Aside from the ideological bias, the language employed by the party of Justice and Development has moved from a proselytizing mood to a more politically restructured language. This pragmatism in the PJD’s discourse has unfolded in the form of one main argument which reveals a more democracy-friendly language by the PJD through the use of a terminology that appears to strengthen the party’s commitment to the democratic process.
This remarkably marks a shift in the PJD’s political discourse towards a more pragmatic stance where no aggression is presented and a third space of joint action and cooperation is called for as seen in the following excerpt by Lahcen Daoudi
” فمن الواجـب علينا كلنا نحن كحزب، المساهمـة في إحداث تغيير وخطـو خطـوة صادقة تتطلع إلى مغـرب أكثـر ديمقراطية… نقول نعم للديمقراطية ولحقـوق الإنـســان ولكن في إطار مرجعيتنا الإسـلامية التي تضمن للفرد وللمجتمع معا حقوقهما.” لحسن الداودي 2004
“We should absolutely all work for the best interest of Moroccan people to achieve a positive change and take a genuine step towards a more democratic society; we say yes to democratization and Human rights but within an Islamic frame of reference that guarantees for both the individual and society their rights.”Lahcen Daoudi 2004
This excerpt represents the party’s smooth tone to communicate its positive intentions through a collective will as opposed to the group categorizations employed previously by the party. The use of كلنا” “all” as a starting point followed by the choice of the deictic space builder “نحن” “we” ” is an attempt to be inclusive and show more solidarity with a space previously located in a remote place. The attempt to create a link with the opposing side can also be seen in the emphasis placed on achieving common goals.
This implies that the party’s priorities have been reconsidered by prioritizing the interest of Moroccans over ideological discrepancies previously conceptualized in the form of “نحن” “we” versus “هم” “they”. The previously held to be the party’s opponents are now being conceptualized as proximate in a space where we infer that both the party and the opposing side might cooperate together to attain the same goal. Daoudi, in this excerpt, speaks in favorable terms about an agreed upon development that unites all Moroccan people as opposed to the previous emphasis on ideological differences which only spur divisions among them.
However, the attempt to reconcile positions does not seem to develop a phase of ideological accord and agreement. The party appears to remain critical of some of the plan’s ideological underpinnings yet through non conflict means and through a discourse of confrontation avoidance. The following excerpt is a clear case where conflict is avoided through words.
” فنحن ندعم النقد البناء لمشروع الخطة الذي يهدف إلى خلق مجال للتعاون والشراكة ويستنكر أي نوع من أنواع الصراع والصدام بين مختلف فئات المجتمع المغربي.”
الإدريسي أبو زيد 4200
“we are for a constructive criticism of the new family laws, a criticism that results in collaboration and partnership rather than confrontation and conflict among the different factions of the Moroccan society.”
Abu Zeid 2004
This excerpt further indicates the party’s smoother stance on the issue. Yet, the term “النقد” ‘criticism’ reminds us that the party’s reluctant attitude to digest the ideology upon which the reforms are based is still persistent. The adjective “البناء” ‘constructive’ denotes that the party is preparing for a new phase of “التعاون والشـراكـة” ‘collaboration and partnership’ which is an evidence of the party’s new inclusive perceptions of the Moroccan society and its urgent need for unity for the sake of positive change.
At this point, the party appears to prioritize the achievement of one goal which is in the best interest of Moroccan people. Moreover, the reappearance of the space builder “نحن” “we” here intends to narrow distances between the party and its adversaries and instead builds a space where calls for joint actions are encouraged as opposed to the previous dichotomies of good and evil built around two distant spaces to evoke conflict and confrontation frames.
Additionally, this new emerging space has also been extended along the temporal axis through tense markers that present these new spatial dimensions as an ongoing process in time with potential future directions. The following excerpt by Saad Eddine EL Othmani explains the alternative path towards a phase of more political maturation when interviewed about the party’s vote to pass the new family code.
‘Au début, nous avons insisté sur l’expression générale des principes, mais avec le temps, bien évidemment, nous sommes devenus plus expérimentés et capable d’injecter l’évaluation voulu dans nos affaires politiques. Ceci est un progrès, et nous avons l’intention de continuer à persévérer sur cette voie d’expertise.’
Saad Eddine. EL Othmani 2004
“In the beginning, we focused on articulating general principles, but over time, we became more experienced and capable of evaluating in a detailed way as well as making political deals. This is progress, and we are looking to expand this expertise in future.” Saad Eddine El Othmani 2004
In this excerpt, El Othmani skillfully presents the party’s political experience as evolving in time. This appears to be a point of view expressed from a particular perspective and mediated through deixis and other time-related expressions. In other words, Saad Eddine El Othmani clearly anchors this point of view (the point from which the party’s political experience is viewed) in the temporal axis. The time marker ‘in the beginning’ ‘au debut’ builds a specific temporal discourse which presents the party’s previous political experience as a very distant past which is by implication a phase of political immaturity. On the other hand, the ‘but clause’ ‘mais’ and the following sentences further establish another space where evolution is occurring and from which we are invited to expect the start of a new phase.
Moreover, El Othmani also extends this phase in time through the strategic employment of ‘nous avons l’intention de continuer…’ which indicates both action and progress, and also involves a linear conception according to which the “we” ‘nous’ as a group is moving on and leaving the past behind. Here, El Othmani recognizes not only the occurrence of transition but also its extension in time by further defining it as both ‘progrès’ and ‘expertise’. Both these two terms have served to communicate that there is an ongoing effort to establish new political versions of the PJD as well as provide more comprehensive accounts of its political experience.
Notably, the party’s discomfort with the new Mudawwana appears to be absent from its rhetoric. For instance, the party members’ reservations on the content of the proposed amendments are expressed in a more careful and non-confrontational manner by skewing interest at a position where the status of women no longer constitutes an ideological stalemate but a salient part in its political agenda making it integral to the economic and social development.
The term development has been frequently mentioned by the party speakers as a means to showcase its active participation in the political process. Other key terms such as “ديمقراطية صادقة وفعالة” ‘effective and genuine democracy’ and “تغيير إيجابي” ‘positive change’ have become prominent in the PJD’s discourse, which reflects the increasing attention of its members to redirect their speech from heated debates over ideological assertions to a more comprehensive political outlook.
Interestingly enough, the political experience of the PJD in Morocco reveals a complex picture. The nature of the PJD as a political actor with religious roots confronts the party with a constant quest for a continued practical balance between the requirements of participation and the demands of ideological commitment. A quest that provides a rich opportunity for the examination of the various ways in which the PJD deals with the inherent conflict of its identity as both a political and religious actor.
To sum up, analysis of the PJD’s discourse on the new Mudawwana reform has provided an interesting perspective from which to study the evolution of Islamism within its political context. This is so because the party has shown both a strong and persistent rhetorical emphasis on the religious-based perception of the family institution as well as a linguistic revision by developing a more constructive political rhetoric to legitimate its presence on the Moroccan political scene. This combination suggests that the interplay between ideology and political interests in the PJD’s discourse is highly contingent upon the context within which it operates. As previously alluded to, the language used by the PJD has provided a frame of reference that significantly informs the different ways in which the PJD displays its identity.
V. Conclusions & Implications
This paper was an attempt to analyze the political discourse of the party of Justice & Development on the gender reform in Morocco. Analysis is embedded in Chilton’s deictic and strategic notions residing in texts. In this process, the present paper has shown that these notions work as methodological tools that aid in understanding how the PJD’s identity is built linguistically. The findings this study yielded reveal that the party has developed both a rhetoric that is as distinct as possible from ideological assertions and religious bigotry, and has also maintained religion as a back door through which it performed its difference and traced its identity.
The persistence of the way the party has conceptualized, categorized and positioned itself as a safeguard of the Moroccan religious identity versus the other’s threatening set of values provides a significant set of analysis and a relevant area of reflection on how the party’s identity is managed through political interactions. The following are some conclusions that have been derived from the findings:
The identity of moderate Islamist movements cannot be looked at simply as an ideological expression for the following reasons:
1. The rise of a new moderate generation of activists who are ready to pursue both religious and political objectives.
2. The dual character of these movements as political and religious organizations dictates that the expression of identity has deeper and more complex avenues.
3. The rapid changes in the broader sociopolitical context of the countries where this new brand of Islamists operate dispel the ready made assumptions and the one dimensional perspective about the phenomenon.
As a result, assumptions about the axiomatic nature of identity are no longer valid. Rather, the possible avenues Islamists might evolve into appear to be highly contingent upon and determined by how events evolve in the country. Accordingly, the findings this study yielded have demystified the rhetoric of essentialist assumptions that consider the expression of identity as a purely ideological practice in the context of Islamism.
This is so because movements are both religious and political. As political organizations, Islamist movements face an imperative to be flexible and pragmatic and devote much attention to urgent political and socioeconomic matters. On the other hand, having religious roots, Islamists are more inclined to make use of a religious demarcation from the opponents. In responding to both the religious and political imperatives, the PJD members appear to be caught between a constant adjustment of their political rhetoric and assertion of their religious distinctiveness.
More specifically, this study also suggests that the political identity construction in the case of the PJD, unlike religious identity assertion is subject to interaction, evaluation and negotiation and has therefore demonstrated that Islamist political identities are not expressed in a linear fashion. Contrary to what has been predicted about its rigidity or dilution with time. The analysis showed that the PJD’s identity is remarkably differently displayed to better represent the party’s relationship with the changing political realities. This means that identity in the context of Islamism appears to be more complex due to its contextual responsiveness that allows it to swing between the requirements of politics and ideology.
The present findings have yielded a number of significant implications which can be summarized as follows:
1. The findings argue for a multi-dimensional rather than polemic approach to the study of Islamism. Multi-dimensional in the sense that it acts as a constellation of factors linking the linguistic and contextual together in order to posit a comprehensive understanding of its evolution.
2. The findings posited the need to highlight contextual specificities in the area of Islamism. This is so because the positioning of identity within these multiple layers of construction in the study of Islamism uncovers the distinctions that each particular context yields.
3. The findings have also implied the need to reconsider the Islamist identity as a fluid concept that varies along different political continua which in turn leads to the construction of a less rigid framework of political Islam. A framework that transcends the misleading logic of the ideological force behind the phenomenon and focuses instead on the richness rooted in the dynamics of identity construction in the area of Islamism.
Works Cited
Chilton, P., Schäffner, C. (1997). `Discourse and Politics’, in Teun A. Van Dijk (ed.) Discourse as Social Interaction, pp. 206-30. London: Sage
Elena Mihas. (2005). Non-Literal Language in Political Discourse LSO Working Papers in Linguistics 5: Proceedings of WIGL, 124-139
Hanks, W.H. (1992). The Indexical Ground of Deictic Reference. In Duranti A and C Goodwin, editors, Talk at work Cambridge, pages 43–76. CUP
Martin Terre Blanche, Kevin Durrheim, Desmond Painter. (2007). Research in Practice: Applied Methods for the Social Sciences. South Africa Juta Legal and Academic Publishers.. p.330
Verschueren, J. (1999). Understanding Pragmatics, London, Arnold
Wodak, R. (1996). Disorders of Discourse, London and New York, Longman
