Moroccan Minister denies Islamic extremists' fighting vice

Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane Rabat – Rachid Bougha Moroccan Interior Minister Mohand Laenser denied the presence of extremist Islamist parties in charge of fighting corruption and conducting actions to preserve public morality inside the kingdom. "The media was right when it denounced the presence of groups promoting campaigns against some shops, calling them "dens of corruption"," Laenser said in a statement obtained by Arabstoday.
Laenser, who is the Secretary General of the Popular Movement (MP), stressed that Morocco will not allow any interference in the security services and that the competent authorities will not hesitate to deal with such acts with a firm hand.
Mohand Laenser called on the media to check the accuracy and credibility of their sources before publishing stories, in order to avoid spreading rumours, which would harm the democratic process.
“Such news was relevant to personal cases, but they were exaggerated and reported out of context,” Laenser added.
Meanwhile, the media head said it obtained the news from citizens in villages and cities where the events occurred.
Earlier on Thursday it was reported to Arabstoday that an extremist Moroccan group has threatened to go on jihad against the Islamist government headed by the Secretary General of the Justice and Development Party Abdelilah Benkirane describing it as the government of "tyrants and disbelievers".
Analysts believe that the move is directed by hands which have no interest in Benkirane's stances, while they are relevant to extremists or to the Palestinian issue.
The recently established group, which has called itself "Al-Tawhid Wal Jihad in Al Maghreb Al-Aqsa," threatened to resort to violence as a solution against the "moderate Islamist" government which established by the Moroccan monarch.
Meanwhile, media sources said that an anonymous group started to organise against the new political situation following the electoral victory of the Islamist Justice and Development Party.
An expert in Islamist movements' affairs in Morocco, Saeed Al-Kohl, said that the Salafist movement has become major in Morocco and that it is important to politically deal with it.
It was reported that extremist Islamists started to stop cars in Morocco and ask people for their national identity cards, while others attacked liquour stores, bars and hotels in order to fight vice and corruption.