Desecularising the postcolonial resistance: the role of Islamic spirituality in the framing of Moroccan anticolonial thought

Abstract

ABSTRACT It is worth noting that Marxist and secular forms of resistance have been given much priority in postcolonial discourse. We find that almost all prominent postcolonial works produced in the 1980s and 1990s celebrated the secular and Marxist nature of anticolonial liberation struggles. This emanates from the fact that the concept of resistance within postcolonialism has been defined in secular terms. Postcolonial historians and critics marginalised the role of religious anticolonial movements in favour of secular, nationalist and Marxist liberation movements. It is ‘odd’ that postcolonialism did not devote some space for Islam and anticolonial Islamic liberation movements. However, the post-9/11 global resurgence of religion has prompted postcolonial studies to re-open the question of the sacred. Because 9/11 has provoked an upsurge of spirituality and religion worldwide, postcolonialism has entered the ‘God debate’ and postcolonial writers have started to investigate the multiple roles religion played in the imperial project. In this sense, this article sheds light on the role Islam played in shaping Moroccan anticolonial consciousness. It presents Islam – Salafism and Sufism - as a mobilising ideology for the anticolonial liberation movement in Morocco. In other words, being aware of the fact that the future of postcolonialism is the return to the past as well as of the growing interest in religion within postcolonialism, in this essay I am going to desecularise the postcolonial resistance by highlighting the theological origins of Moroccan nationalist movement and attempting to incorporate North African anticolonial spirituality into the realm of postcolonial studies.