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Islamic party set for Moroccan victory

By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 6, 1:49 PM ET

CASABLANCA, Morocco - The Islamic party dominating Morocco's electoral season has many faces — among them bareheaded young women in jeans, marketing students preaching the gospel of global markets and legions of the poor and disenfranchised.

The Justice and Development Party's cross-class, antiestablishment appeal could leave it the largest party in parliament after elections Friday. And that would pose a challenge to the secular monarchy, and its Western allies.

This resort-lined Muslim kingdom forms one front in the broader battle playing out between forces of moderation and extremism across the Muslim world. King Mohamed VI is the latest leader to face the dilemma of whether to co-opt the adherents of political Islam, oppress them, or leave them be and run the risk that they use democratic mechanisms to carry out a hard-line agenda — and ultimately threaten democracy itself.

Such fears lay behind neighboring Algeria's decision to abort 1992 parliamentary elections that an Islamic party was poised to win. The move touched off an insurgency that still simmers.

"Our victory ... is nothing to worry about," said Saad Eddine Othmani, head of the Justice and Development Party. "Moderate Islam is the best rampart against extremism."

The party cites Islam as its inspiration in a country that is overwhelmingly Muslim, but where many women shun head coverings and bars are widespread. Its leadership and message are moderate, though some members may hold radical views.

The Islamic party's platform — streamline bureaucracy, root corruption out of the courts and gear university education more directly toward the job market — resonates among the poor and jobless, who feel abandoned by a government widely seen as self-serving.

The Justice and Development Party accepts the monarch, and wants Morocco to maintain good relations with Washington. U.S. officials say they deal with the party as they do with Morocco's other political parties.

The king — who wields ultimate authority in this country of 30 million — is struggling to keep up his democratic credentials while suppressing terrorism that threatens to undermine his regime.

The country's largest Islamic political movement, Justice and Charity or Adl wal Ihsan, which more openly advocates Islamic government, is banned from politics. But so far, the government has chosen to carefully embrace the Justice and Development Party, even though it redrew electoral districts this spring to blunt its expected victory.

Othmani said his party has softened its image in recent years — especially after 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca blamed on Islamic terrorists — to broaden its base. It has played down calls by hard-liners inside the party to cut off thieves' hands and require women to wear head scarves.

Some fear an Islamic-minded government could nonetheless threaten Morocco's moderate reputation, which helps fuel an economy reliant on tourism.

"I have the impression they are hiding their real ideas. This is what worries us," said Amina Elhaja, pushing her 2-year-old son in a stroller past a Justice and Development Party rally on a dusty lot, where supporters chanted "Justice, Development!"

Mustapha Ramid is the face of the party that secularists fear. A defense attorney for terror suspects, he is loudly critical of Israel and the Moroccan government.

"For now, the goal is to develop democracy," said Ramid. But in the long run, Ramid wants sharia, or Islamic law, established in Morocco.

While Othmani visits voters' living rooms to spread his party's message, secular parties — seen as comfortable in their incumbency despite predictions of a Justice and Democracy Party victory — have barely bothered campaigning.

The Justice and Development Party won 42 seats in the 325-seat parliament in the last elections in 2003, forming the largest opposition group to the governing coalition.

This time, the party is expected to beat the top two parties in that coalition, the conservative Istiqlal and the center-left Socialist Union of Popular Forces. Polls are rare here, but observers predict the Justice and Development Party could double its seats.

If his party comes out on top, Othmani is expected to angle for the prime minister's job, and thinks he has a "50 percent chance," though few expect the king to permit that.

Instead, analysts predict the party will be forced into a coalition with secularists. That could cause it to lose street credibility, pushing unemployed young supporters toward more radical activity.

"It's a risk we have to take," Othmani said.

Islamic parties in many countries have won support by stepping in where governments have failed, providing public services to Muslim poor and wielding an ideology that "appeals to emotions, traditions and piety," said Amr Hamzawy, an expert on such parties at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

While most Arab governments are strong enough to win political shoving matches with Islamic parties, they are frightened by "the capacity of Islamists to get out the vote," said Hamzawy, using a term for those who say their political goals are inspired by Islam. "Elections are becoming less controllable."

Islamic party set for Moroccan victory (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070906/ap_on_re_mi_ea/morocco_energized_islamists;_ylt=Aqy_y0fcpL07oNG5.ekey7ILewgF)