Sins of the Father: Reform in Rabat

Change in the air: Morocco's tradition-centered society is evolving, but that doesn't make it a model for Bush's drive for Middle East democracy. (By Tim Graham -- Getty Images)

"This work has to be done from the inside. We do not follow the Bush model. We started before Bush," says Benzekri, who was released from prison in 1991 as Hassan began one of his periodic loosenings of his authoritarian grip. "The changes here are not ordered up by George W. Bush or Jacques Chirac or anyone else."

Identification with democratic change encouraged from the outside is even seen as a threat by some: "Bush has chosen an approach that can only crush moderate Muslims," adds Saad Eddine el-Othmani, the secretary general of the Justice and Development Party. The party says it wants Islamic principles -- but not Islamic law -- to guide a democratically elected government loosely overseen by the monarchy. "Always choosing Israel, linking Muslim nations in an axis of evil, making war on Arabs -- that can only bring forth extreme responses, not moderation," Othmani asserts.

It was a litany I heard from wealthy entrepreneurs and Socialist party functionaries as well as politicians and government officials on my trip here. Bush does not have to accept this self-interested argument, but its ubiquity suggests he has to take it into account and offer more than rhetorical pushback.

I met Othmani in Rabat in February as demonstrations erupted in Islamic nations over the European publication of cartoons satirizing the prophet Muhammad. Echoing the position of the weak coalition government he hopes to displace in parliamentary elections next year, Othmani denounced both the cartoons and the violence.

So did the tens of thousands of marchers who filled Rabat's streets on Feb. 10. No Danish flags were burned, no placards threatening death brandished by the good-natured marchers I saw. It was protest à la Marocaine : organized by the government and friendly trade unions and political parties to preempt more radical groups from seizing the issue.

Elsewhere, governments stirred up protests, let mobs run wild or called out troops to battle them. "We are the people of the edge -- always worried that we may fall into the seas of obscurity if we are not careful," Foreign Minister Mohammed Benaissa told me as we discussed the demonstrations. "Moroccans understand that democracy is cohabitation, living together in peace," as much as it is fair elections and free speech.

That definition of democracy falls far short of the ambitious political goals outlined by President Bush. But it underpins far-reaching change in what is already the most open and tolerant country in that turbulent zone. If the Bush plan for Islamic democracy cannot adjust to gain greater acceptance here, it is unlikely to gain it elsewhere.

jimhoagland@washpost.com

Jim Hoagland, an associate editor at The Post, has covered the Middle East and North Africa. He writes a syndicated column on foreign affairs.