Abdelillah Benkirane
| Abdelilah Benkirane عبد الإله بنكيران |
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| Prime Minister of Morocco | |
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In office 29 November 2011 – 5 April 2017 |
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| Monarch | Mohammed VI |
| Preceded by | Abbas El Fassi |
| Succeeded by | Saadeddine Othmani |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
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In office 20 July 2008 – 29 November 2011 |
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| Prime Minister | Abbas El Fassi |
| Preceded by | Saadeddine Othmani |
| Succeeded by | Salaheddine Mezouar |
| Leader of the Justice and Development Party | |
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Assumed office 20 July 2008 |
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| Preceded by | Saadeddine Othmani |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1954 (age 62–63) Rabat, Morocco |
| Political party | Justice and Development Party |
| Signature |  |
Abdelilah Benkirane (Arabic: عبد الإله بنكيران, born 1954) is a Moroccan politician who was Prime Minister of Morocco from November 2011 to March 2017. After having won a plurality of seats in the 2011 parliamentary election, his party, the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party formed a coalition with three parties that had been part of previous governments.
During the 1970s, Benkirane was a leftist political activist. He has represented Salé in the Moroccan parliament since 14 November 1997. He was elected leader of the Justice and Development Party in July 2008, taking over from Saadeddine Othmani.
Benkirane's politics are democratic and Islamist. In a 2011 interview he said: "If I get into government, it won't be so I can tell young women how many centimeters of skirt they should wear to cover their legs. That's none of my business. It is not possible, in any case, for anyone to threaten the cause of civil liberties in Morocco". However, he has in the past described secularism as "a dangerous concept for Morocco", and in 2010 he campaigned, unsuccessfully, to ban a performance in Rabat by Elton John because it "promoted homosexuality".
Benkirane became Prime Minister on 29 November 2011. His government targeted average economic growth of 5.5 percent a year during its four year mandate, and aimed to reduce the jobless rate to 8 percent by the end of 2016 from 9.1 percent at the start of 2012. Benkirane's government also actively pursued Morocco's ties with the European Union, its chief trade partner, as well as becoming increasingly engaged with the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council.
On 1 December 2016, Benkirane criticized the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad for its actions during the Syrian Civil War: "What the Syrian regime backed by Russia is doing to the Syrian people surpasses all humanitarian limits".
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Wikipedia