The Arab World: The Fuse Grows Shorter

(4 of 4)

Popular sentiment has forced Morocco's King Hassan II to make an even sharper turnabout than his Algerian and Tunisian counterparts. Grateful for generous Saudi aid in his war against the Polisario Front rebels in the Western Sahara, Hassan contributed 1,300 troops to the allied coalition. But when opposition parties and trade unions declared a general strike two weeks ago to denounce the war, the King, having measured the mood of the country, allowed the protest to take place.

Hassan also agreed to permit a pro-Iraqi march last week. Attracting 300,000 people, it was the biggest demonstration since Morocco's independence in 1956. Although the King had forbidden criticizing the deployment of Moroccan troops to the gulf, some marchers did so anyway, in an unusual display of defiance in a country as tightly controlled as theirs. An estimated 25,000 Islamic fundamentalists brought up the rear of the march in the most organized manifestation of their strength ever seen in the country.

The greatest danger for the leaders of all these countries -- short of a well-aimed terrorist's bullet -- is that the humiliation of a Muslim leader at the hands of infidels, particularly a leader who dared to confront Israel, will fuel religious extremism. "This is a religious war," says Khaled Saleh Khlefat, a Koranic teacher in Jordan. "It will promote Islamic nationalism throughout the Muslim world."

The bitter irony is that even Saddam's followers recognize him as a thoroughly secular man who uses religion only when it is expedient. It is a testament to the power of Islamic solidarity that such a prodigal son can draw the Muslim ranks around him in a crisis that he provoked.