RABAT, Morocco — In his four years in power here, the 39-year-old king has promoted a policy of reform — however slow, uneven and controlled — designed to make this North African Muslim country of 30 million people less autocratic and more tolerant.
But since Moroccan suicide bombers attacked five targets in Casablanca eleven days ago, Mohammed VI has also been the thoroughly silent monarch. He has appeared on state-controlled television surveying the damaged sites and visiting the wounded, but he has said nothing to his people. No prime time television address, not even a royal proclamation issued in his name.
His silence reflects both the sensitivity of the subject of religious radicalism in Morocco and the trauma of the nation, aides and political observers said. Morocco has long portrayed itself as a peaceful place, a fiercely nationalistic oasis of stability largely untouched in recent years by terrorism or the civil strife in neighboring Algeria.
The terror of the night of May 16, which is being called Morocco's Sept. 11, was by far the most profound crisis the king has faced since he assumed power after the 38-year reign of his father, Hassan II.
"This king is not at all like his father, who was a despot," said Fatema Mernissi, a leading feminist sociologist and author. "He is not a man of the sword. Rather, he is like me. He doesn't speak because he's in shock, like all of us. He shows he is vulnerable."
But the bombings shattered the regime's image of itself as the liberal, unthreatening face of Islam. And they offered shocking proof of a strain of radicalism inside the country capable of producing suicide bombers ready to die in the name of God.
As security forces struggle to uncover the plot behind the bombings and crack down on those suspected of involvement, the question now is whether the king will be capable of both combating extremism and moving ahead with reform.
"We were attacked because we are a democratic, open-minded society, because we built a model that shows the art of the possible in an Arab and Muslim society," said Andre Azoulay, a senior adviser to the king and the only member of his inner circle who is Jewish.
Indeed, throughout his brief reign, King Mohammed has been careful to present himself as a navigator between two Moroccos. One is secular, Westernized, urbane, French speaking, often with connections to Paris. The other is angry, alienated and poor, often with connections to mosques that sometimes preach messages of hate but offer the only unifying force and source of hope in many communities.