It seems 1,500 homosexuals in the Casablanca Grand Mosque would have been too much......
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| The 'Nieuw Amsterdam' in Málaga port |
The ‘Nieuw Amsterdam’ cruise liner has been diverted to Málaga port after the Moroccan Government refused permission to dock in Casablanca. The reason, most of the 1,564 passengers are gay.
As Gay Pride marches were held last weekend in cities around the world, those on the cruise were told of the diversion to Málaga.
El País reports one passenger, Eric from Washington, saying ‘I was in the hairdressers when the captain said over the megaphone that the visit to Casablanca had been cancelled for security reasons, and because the arrival of the liner had become a matter of public controversy'.
The owner of the liner, Holland America Line, and the travel agency who arranged the trip, RSVP Vacations which specialise in the gay market, said it was the Moroccan authorities who rejected any homosexuals, half of them from the United States, disembarking in the Mahreb Country.
But the Moroccan tourist minister, Lahcen Haddad, denied there had been a veto. ‘We don’t prohibit any cruise liners and we don’t ask our visitors about their sexual preferences'.
There are reports however that there had been protests of the idea of 1,500 homosexuals visiting the Grand Mosque, even it would have had to been outside the hours of worship.
Another of the passengers said ‘We imagined the Moroccans are more sophisticated’.
Not being able to visit what many thought was the most exotic port on the cruise, the passengers welcomed the trip to Málaga with many heading to the Picasso Museum. One couple said ‘We are not going to leave our money in Morocco, we’ll leave it in Spain’.
typicallyspanish.com
