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Morocco in midst of Islamisation

Visiting relatives in northeast Morocco, social worker Touria was surprised when a woman took issue with her appearance. ``I was wearing the usual thing, jeans and a T-shirt, and she says: `Don`t you have the money for a Djellaba?` I told her I`m free to wear what I want.``

Visiting relatives in northeast Morocco, social worker Touria was surprised when a woman took issue with her appearance. ''I was wearing the usual thing, jeans and a T-shirt, and she says: 'Don't you have the money for a Djellaba?' I told her I'm free to wear what I want.'' Such stories are common in Morocco where more young women are donning the loose Djellaba robe and a headscarf, reversing a tendency by the previous generation to wear western dress.


It appears the kingdom is succumbing to a wave of political Islam imported from the Middle East that aims to unite Muslims under Sharia, or Islamic law, and reject western secular values.

A visit to an average Moroccan town suggests the scarves worn by some young women are inspired by fashions further east, fitting tightly to the head and covering the neck completely.

Long beards favoured by conservative Muslims, once hardly seen in the Maghreb, are a common sight in poor areas.

Prayers are broadcast in taxis, shops and banks. Newspapers speak of moral vigilantes patrolling beaches and upbraiding sunbathing couples. Office workers tell of pressure from colleagues to observe the fast at Ramadan.

According to a survey by the Sunergia Institute for L'Economiste newspaper this year, close to half of young Moroccans consider themselves religious conservatives and 42 percent of those agree religion should guide political parties.

The tendency for people to wear their religion on their sleeves can be traced back to social upheavals that have left much of the population seeking safety in traditional values, local analysts say.

Migration to the large towns has weakened family and clan ties that offered security and continuity in the Muslim country.

''This situation of uncertainty creates the need for protection and to belong to a group that is expressed through a return to conformism,'' said sociologist Omrane Abderrahim.

Morocco languishes in 123rd place out of 177 countries in the UN human development index, which measures factors like child mortality and access to health and education.

Free market reforms to spur the economy have not yet solved high unemployment and jobless graduates stage angry protests almost every week in Rabat to demand government jobs.

''Young people today are hit by the social disease of unemployment. They feel abandoned and social fragility dominates their thinking,'' said sociologist Youssef Sadik.

A lack of wealth and prospects has led many young people to fall back on spirituality, he said. An active minority of students are members of Morocco's largest Islamic opposition movement, al Adl Wal Ihssane, which is tolerated by the government but banned from mainstream politics.

Images of violence in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a decade of conflict in neighbouring Algeria that pitted the government against Islamic militants, has engendered a widespread distaste for sectarian religious excess.

''There is more Islam, that is true, but that doesn't mean there's more Islamism,'' said Serge Berdugo, head of Morocco's Jewish association and a former government minister.

A poll by the U.S.-based international republican institute forecast the moderate opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) could win parliamentary elections next year, posing a potential obstacle to King Mohammed's liberal reform programme.

The PJD says it will focus on fighting corruption and poverty rather than pushing a fundamentalist agenda, although some statements by party members are seized on by the liberal press as evidence of a strong reactionary undercurrent.

Telquel magazine quoted Ahmed Raissouni, a cleric regarded as being close to the PJD, as saying Moroccan music festivals introduced ''alcoholic drinks, drugs, dancing, adultery, homosexuality and sexual and intellectual perversion'' into society.

After the Indian Ocean tsunami, Attajdid newspaper, which reflects the PJD views, said it showed god's displeasure with Southeast Asia's sex tourism industry and Morocco could face a similar disaster if it did not stamp out immorality.

Sadik said politicians can win easy votes by criticising modern ways because the bulk of Morocco's population has fallen far behind a wealthy westernised elite that dominates the administration and jealously guards its privileges.

The gulf between rich and poor was thrown into stark relief in 2003 when disaffected youths from Casablanca's slums headed into town and blew themselves up, killing 45 people.

Since then the authorities say they have broken up more than 50 radical Islamist cells plotting attacks and arrested about 3,000 people, some 300 of whom are in jail.

This year, the government said it busted a cell named Ansar el Mehdi (Mehdi partisans) that was planning to launch a holy war to establish a purist Islamic state.

Comments from ordinary Moroccans suggest groups like Ansar el Mehdi have little popular support.

''Someone has manipulated these people, told them that dying for God will open the doors of paradise,'' said social worker Malika Zaimi. ''Their leaders are motivated by politics. Our religion says he who does evil things will be judged by God.''

Bureau Report