Jokes about Islam earn magazine two-month ban

A MOROCCAN court yesterday sentenced two journalists who published a list of popular jokes about Islam, sex and politics to suspended three-year jail terms and banned their magazine for two months.

Editors and journalists at Nichane, which means "as it is", had feared the worst when the state prosecutor said last week the magazine should be banned for good and the two journalists jailed for up to five years and forbidden from practising journalism.

But the Casablanca court's presiding judge, Noureddine Ghassin, handed down a lighter sentence yesterday. As well as the two-month ban, he fined Nichane 80,000 Moroccan dirhams (6,100).

Nichane's editor, Driss Ksikes, and reporter, Sanaa al-Aji, told the court last week the jokes were published merely to accompany an analysis of Moroccan society.

The magazine apologised to readers who may have been offended by the jokes after the article triggered indignation among conservative Muslims in Morocco and abroad.

Last month, the prime minister, Driss Jettou, ordered Nichane off news stands pending the trial.