Tempers as frayed as the hip scarves at Moroccan Belly Dance Festival

These are mad days in Marrakesh.

Only a few days before the scheduled opening of the 3rd annual International Belly Dancing Festival protesters have taken to the streets demanding... well, you've got quite a variety of demands.

First of all you've got your hard core Sharia advocates who believe that women should only be seen in public wearing a full length burlap sack. To them the mere thought of belly dancing is immoral. They want the festival cancelled or held somewhere else, like in Hell maybe, where all the loose women who will be shimmying their stuff are headed anyway.

Then you've got your somewhat more worldly types who are alright with belly dancing but are outraged that a couple of Israeli women have entered the festival. That's a sellout of Moroccan sovereignty to the forces of Satan, welcoming Israeli belly dancers to an Islamic country. They'd be OK if just those land-stealing Israelis weren't invited.

Then you've got your nit-pickers. They're secular Moroccan ultra-nationalists who don't have an issue with hip-shaking or Israelis, but they're upset that posters for the event are available in eight languages, none of which is Arabic. They'd be happy with a new poster.

On top of all the hip-shaking controversy is the problem that a certain segment of the population is deeply sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, who are having their annual "land day" anti-celebration just before the festival opens. The fact that that a couple of Israeli gals are going to be shaking their hips while millions of Palestinians sit in the West Bank watching illegal Israeli settlements go up makes the festival a focal point of outrage for these folks.

The think tank here at Falling Downs has come up with a solution; move the festival to Falling Downs. We welcome everybody here.

Bring your hip scarves, bring your hookas, leave your politics at home.