Beginning To Heat Up As Elections Near

The controversy over the alleged ban on praying by staff at the national airline carrier Royal Air Maroc is a harbinger of things to come in the lead up to 2007 parliamentary elections as both sides try to woo voters. The affair over Air Maroc started with an accusation by the opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), which criticised the airline for imposing a ban on employees wanting to pray and forcing pilots to eat during the fasting month of Ramadan, claiming it is a restriction of religious freedom. In response, Bourara Khadija, advisor to the Transport Minister Karim Ghellab has stated that 'since July, Air Maroc has banned workers from praying in their offices to enforce work discipline, but the airline workers are allowed to pray at the two mosques nearby. It is a shame that the decision was branded as a crackdown on religious freedom'. The authorities have insisted that the decision was taken in order to avoid workers taking an over-extended period off work to pray and that fasting pilots could not operate adequately. As such, they have accused the JPD of using religion for electioneering purposes, bringing up an old topic in order to embarrass the government.

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