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KSAR EL KEBIR-[[[[[[When rumors of a "gay wedding" spread through the northern Moroccan town of Ksar el Kebir, the only evidence produced was a video on YouTube of a man dancing suggestively in women's clothes.Three months later, four people are in prison accused of homosexual acts,Islamists are decrying a decline in public morals and liberals are warning that the north African kingdom risks sleep-walking into extremism.]]]]]]A reputation as a tolerant, nascent democracy has earned Morocco privileged ties with the European Union and helped draw millions of tourists to its cities, mountains and beaches.But rights campaigners say the events in Ksar el Kebir are the latest sign that personal freedoms are in danger as the secular government seeks to placate powerful Islamists."Morocco has become a society where debate is much freer than before but many people are not happy with that freedom," said Issandr el Amrani, north Africa specialist at International Crisis Group. "There is a real risk of people with conservative agendas influencing politics."The Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) has become a major political force by drawing on popular anger at poverty and corruption and calling for more morality in public life.Despite lingering suspicions that the PJD wants to turn Morocco into a purist Islamist state, the secular establishment sees the party as part of a moderate religious bulwark against increasingly active and well-organized radical Islamist groups.But some say this attitude has resulted in more restrictions on personal freedoms to comply with Islamist beliefs.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
