Hijacked Protests
Developments in Moroccan streets in late September and early October 2025 have revealed a clear pattern: peaceful youth movements intersecting with forces linked to the Muslim Brotherhood seeking to politically exploit these mobilizations.
The “Generation Z” protests on September 27, 2025, raised legitimate social, health, and educational demands. Yet they quickly came under the influence of political forces that shaped their trajectory and altered their dynamics.
Emerging as a prominent front, the Justice and Development Party (PJD) leveraged youth anger to advance political goals. Its statement on September 28, placing “full responsibility” for deteriorating conditions on the government, reflected a direct investment in the language of popular anger rather than addressing the root causes of the demands. Secretary-General Mohsen Mfidi encouraged youth participation without an official announcement, demonstrating a dual tactic: fostering popular support under a youthful cover to amplify public discontent while maintaining formal political leverage.
Internal divisions within the party’s general secretariat, between those advocating continuation of mobilization and others urging caution to prevent violence, reveal a struggle between short-term gains and the consequences of unrest.
Similarly, the Justice and Charity Movement (Al Adl wal Ihsan) used a parallel approach. Its statement on October 1 condemned repression and presented the state as culpable while overtly rejecting acts of sabotage. This dual strategy serves two simultaneous goals: consolidating a human-rights-oriented discourse that resonates on the streets, while maintaining the social base by signaling distance from apparent violence. By investing symbolically in the protests, the movement positioned itself as a defender of youth causes and shifted full responsibility for unrest onto the government.
The Wider Playbook
Understanding current youth mobilizations in the streets and on digital platforms requires looking back at the broader political landscape. The war in Gaza, the rise of the Sharia Party in Syria, and the sidelining of Shiite competitors in Lebanon created fertile ground for social mobilization and strategies aimed at destabilizing political and security authorities.
This approach involves media bombardment to diminish the value of governmental and international efforts, direct engagement in protests under slogans supporting Hamas and the people of Gaza, and seeking support from foreign actors known to back the Muslim Brotherhood internationally. During this period, national institutions and officials, from ordinary government staff to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including military leaders, were targeted through provocations and political or media statements.
Youth participation in street protests provided the Brotherhood an opportunity to escalate internal political contestation by adopting protesters’ demands and embedding members among them, exploiting the political, ideological, and organizational vacuum within the Gen Z movement.
Two divergent strategies are apparent: the PJD, under short-term political pressure, seeks proximity to power and readiness for upcoming elections; the Justice and Charity Movement operates over the long term to undermine political legitimacy and gradually escalate social tension.
Global Brotherhood
Despite external media amplification reminiscent of the Arab Spring, the situation in Morocco does not currently pose major domestic political or security threats. The state has responded in a measured, multi-tiered way: monitoring at the sovereign level, enhanced communication and social measures at the governmental level, and strict law enforcement at the judicial level.
At the same time, recent Brotherhood activity in Morocco, and potentially across other Arab countries, is coordinated globally, from Nepal to Madagascar. External actors are actively leveraging youth mobilizations to advance strategic agendas. While domestic stability holds for now, these developments highlight how local protests can become instruments of wider, transnational influence. This trend demands ongoing vigilance.
Mohammed Abbouch
Founder | Pan-African Alliance for Citizenship
