<![CDATA[Research Problem: This article addresses the need to understand how states in contemporary Muslim contexts become involved in regulating public morality through laws, religious institutions, and policing practices. Such involvement often creates tensions between moral order, individual freedom, religious authority, and state legitimacy. Using Morocco as a case study, this article examines how the state assumes a moralizing role in public life and how this role shapes governance, authority, and social control. Research Purposes: This article aims to analyze the structures and functions of the moralizing state in Morocco. It seeks to explain how public morality is regulated through legal instruments, religious authority, and security institutions. More specifically, the study examines the Moroccan Penal Code, the Supreme Council of Religious Scholars, and the Public Morals Police Squad as key mechanisms through which the state governs moral conduct in the public sphere Research Methods: This study uses a qualitative case-study approach based on legal, institutional, and textual analysis. It examines Moroccan laws, religious institutions, public morality regulations, and selected cases involving state intervention in moral issues. The article also engages with theoretical literature on religion, public morality, governance, state authority, and Islamic ethics to interpret the Moroccan case within broader Muslim contexts. Results and Discussion: The findings show that the Moroccan state’s involvement in public morality is not merely intended to enforce religious norms. Rather, moral regulation functions as a means of maintaining public order, reinforcing state authority, and preventing perceived threats of social subversion and disorder. The state uses moral legislation, religious councils, and policing mechanisms selectively and pragmatically. This demonstrates that the moralizing state is less concerned with moral transformation in itself than with preserving a stable moral and political order. Research Implications and Contributions: This article contributes to the study of religion, governance, and public policy by showing how public morality operates as a field of state authority in contemporary Muslim contexts. It highlights that religion functions not only as a source of ethical values, but also as a framework of legitimacy used by the state to justify governance practices. The article also offers a conceptual contribution by distinguishing between moralizing society and maintaining moral order, thereby providing a useful framework for analyzing the relationship between religion, ethics, and state power in Muslim-majority societies.]]>
