Rabat/Sale, Morocco - At the headquarters of Morocco's Party of Justice and Development (PJD) in Rabat, female employees wear loose clothing and Islamic headscarves, but the country's biggest opposition party takes pains to stress its religious moderation.

"I prefer to call the PJD a party of Islamic values to calling it an Islamist party," PJD external affairs representative Reda Benkhaldoun says in the large reception room with its comfortable sofas.

The "very moderate and open" PJD would not, for instance, ban the sale of alcohol to others than Muslims, he points out. "We are not in (Saudi) Arabia here."

Benkhaldoun's need to give such explanations reflects the suspicions towards the Islamists, whom many analysts regard as Morocco's only real opposition along with citizens' associations such as human rights groups.

Insistence by the Islamists on the need for more morals in public life makes liberals and feminists fear the coming of a fundamentalist state, while others associate even non-violent Islamists with the Casablanca suicide bombings that killed 45 people in 2003.

Some also raise the question whether Morocco's attempts to keep Islamism at bay could create a situation similar to neighbouring Algeria, where the cancellation of elections in 1991 out of fear of an Islamist victory sparked a bloody civil conflict.

Morocco is, however, deemed unlikely to become another Iran or Algeria given that King Mohammed VI is already the official leader of the country's Muslims, legislation is partly based on Islamic law and practically everyone agrees on the importance of Islamic values.

The PJD, which has 46 seats in the 325-member parliament, has been "domesticated" by the royal palace, which has traditionally drawn the political parties into its sphere of influence, journalist Khalid Jamai said.

The real Islamist challenge, many feel, comes from a far bigger, but officially illegal movement, al-Adl w'al-Ihsane (Justice and Spirituality), which stresses its adherence to peaceful Sufi mysticism, but whose radical discourse nevertheless worries the authorities.

Not very far from the impressive PJD headquarters, the al-Adl w'al-Ihsane women's section is holding a meeting in an unmarked house in Sale, the poorer twin city of the capital, Rabat.

The movement is not keen to attract the attention of police, who have arrested hundreds of its members on charges such as holding illegal meetings. The detainees are usually released soon afterwards.

The regime has stepped up its "war of attrition" against al-Adl w'al Ihsane, whose support it knows to be increasing, said the movement's spokeswoman, Nadia Yassine, daughter of its founder Sheikh Abdessalam Yassine and one of the world's top female Islamists.

If the movement were legalized and decided to enter what it now regards as the "dirty" political game, it could take a landslide election victory, many observers believe.

Far from being conservative, al-Adl w'al-Ihsane seeks nothing less than a social revolution in a country marked by a huge gulf between the wealthy elite and the poor and undereducated masses, Nadia Yassine said in an interview.

Al-Adl w'al-Ihsane is the only significant movement in Morocco to demand the abolition of the monarchy in favour of a republic, a stance over which Nadia Yassine is currently on trial.

Simultaneously to the police and judicial crackdown on al-Adl w'al-Ihsane and a recent ban on a small Islamist party, the regime is trying to promote a moderate brand of Islam in Morocco's nearly 40,000 mosques, which are under the control of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs.

Measures have included guidelines to preachers, new textbooks for students of religion, and placing female instructors at mosques.

Al-Adl w'al-Ihsane and the PJD, however, request a return to what they regard as the real Islamic values, which they see as the only way to cleanse Morocco of the all-pervasive corruption.

Despite its radical reputation, al-Adl w'al-Ihsane joins the PJD in rejecting the Saudi brand of Islam, and at least some of its leaders seek a reconciliation with modern values.

"Yes, we could have women employed at all levels of Moroccan society," Nadia Yassine says. "Why not? But it is also a woman's nature to focus on her sacred maternal role."

Al-Adl w'al-Ihsane has gained support in city slums and the countryside by helping people solve everyday problems through a network of charity, educational and recreational associations.

It also offers solid values to uprooted youths who have fled rural poverty to urban areas, and echoes the anger of many Moroccans over Western policies in the Arab world.

The movement's supporters include middle-class people and students, Professor Mohammed Darif points out, criticizing the widespread idea that Islamism is fostered mainly by poverty.

"Islamism is born out of a lack of democracy and the political exclusion" of the majority from power, the professor said. (dpa)