Rabat, Morocco  - "This is our love story," two gay men, whose faces were not visible, said on the cover of the Moroccan weekly al-Michaal, which published a story on their wedding.

The simple prayer ceremony had no legal value, but the report by the small publication nevertheless apparently annoyed the authorities. It followed several similar ones, including a series of interviews by the daily Assabah with Samir Bargachi, a Moroccan living in Spain who heads Kifkif, the first association of Moroccan-born homosexuals.

The government was "firmly determined" to combat "ignoble behaviours... contrary to our religious and moral values," the interior ministry said in an unusual communique.

Shortly afterwards, the Superior Council of Oulemas (Islamic scholars) issued a fatwa (religious opinion) against homosexuality, urging the state to have "a policy of fighting such deviations."

While in neighbouring Spain, thousands of gay couples have wed with the same rights as heterosexuals, Moroccan gays can only dream of such a possibility.

Not only Islamists, but also most other public figures and media, with the exception of some human rights activists and intellectuals, see homosexuality as an unnatural practice contrary to Islam.

"Society is not ready... to generally tackle the question of sexuality," Bargachi told the daily Aujourd'hui le Maroc.

Homosexuality remains a crime in Morocco where it can be penalized with up to three years in prison.

In late 2007, several gays were handed prison terms after a video showing a gay wedding was made public on the internet.

The video sparked rioting during which the homes of some of the gays were attacked in Ksar-el-Kebir in the north.

The affair prompted 150 intellectuals, artists and politicians to issue a manifesto against a "climate of hatred and Inquisition" in Morocco.

It is, however, rare for the judiciary to jail gays in the country which Bargachi has described as more tolerant than most Arab countries towards homosexuals.

Crackdowns against gays are usually limited to arrests, such as those of more than 20 people suspected of organizing unofficial gay weddings during a pilgrimage in Sidi Ali Ben Hamdouch recently.

The communique issued by the interior ministry, observers said, may have been linked with the ongoing diplomatic crisis with Iran, with which Morocco cut relations following a dispute over the sovereignty of the Gulf state of Bahrain.

Moroccan police have subsequently arrested dozens of Muslims followers of Shiite Islam, dominant in Iran, on charges of proselytizing in Sunni Morocco.

Over the week-end, Morocco also expelled five Christian missionaries, prompting speculation that the clampdown on gays was connected to a tougher line on religions for political reasons.

The authorities may have wanted to rebuff accusations by some media that they were more tolerant of homosexuals than of the Shiites, who were fellow Muslims, observers said.

The government has not, however, officially prohibited a congress planned by Kifkif on "gender and sexuality" in April.

The harshest critics of homosexuals include preachers at mosques and the Islamist Party of Justice and Development, which is wooing conservative voters ahead of the municipal elections in June.

Many Moroccans compare homosexuality with paedophilia and prostitution, attributing such practices to the corrupting influence of Western culture.

The Spanish ambassador to Morocco came under criticism for receiving Bargachi, who visited him as part of a Spanish gay delegation.

Morocco was a "hypocritical society which does not so much disapprove of homosexuality as such, but does not want it to be known about," a lesbian woman named Kawtar wrote in a stormy internet debate on the subject.

"In the beginning, nobody in Morocco would have thought that women could enjoy the rights the current legislation grants them," Bargachi has pointed out, expressing hope that society would eventually give rights to gays as well. (dpa)