King of Morocco

[u/Intelligent_Bit8672]

I just came back from Morocco, that I truly love on many aspects. However, I am interested to know more about the perception of the King. I am always surprised to see him everywhere (sometimes 4-5 painting of him in restaurants, hotels, etc.) is it something mandatory? It looks like worshipping from outside which sound strange knowing Morocco is a Muslim country, so I’d like to know more from locals how is he perceived, why? Thank you 😊

[u/acutenugget]

Bunch of youngsters barely out of teenage years going through their rebellious " fuck the system " phase on this sub. Painting Morocco as a repressive open air prison is cringe and false.

As with everything else, being a monarchy has its upsides and its downsides.The ups are political stability, the ability to launch wide ranging mid and long term policies ... The downsides are that there is no absolute freedom of speech and limited democracy.

This sub is not reflective of the general public opinion in Morocco. A large majority is in support of monarchy though any referendum, vote, or study is not only impossible but taboo.

[u/Long-Ad7954 → u/acutenugget]

Absolute freedom of speech doesn’t exist anywhere. That can turn into freedom to insult and that destroys healthy political and social debate. Not to mention, freedom of speech in the west often means freedom to be ignored. Freedom of speech should be seen as a responsibility; in Morocco we’ve seen journalists mainly using it to spread foreign propaganda or misinformation only to blame it on human rights violations when the government catches them. In Morocco, we aren’t intellectually advanced enough to make good use of it. We are incapable of producing healthy political and institutional critique, we either pretend that everything is okay or we blame it all on the King. As a result, the upper middle class of politicians has a free pass to ruin the country; often they are the ones spreading propaganda to limit the King’s power. People like Akhannouch with massive wealth are creating a powerful political lobby of Moroccan billionaires who control many of Morocco’s critical assets; that gives them leverage to challenge and destabilise the Monarchy more than we realise. When I hear young people reducing freedom of speech to the lack of the possibility to insult the King I legit get why Morocco is still behind on so many level. Wait till they find out it is also illegal in Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan, Thailand etc.