Authorities cracked down on a fundamentalist group demonstrating in Rabat, Casablanca, Fez and other cities Dec. 9 and 10, beating protesters with clubs and arresting many. The incidents suggest rising political tensions in a country where such groups were banned and their leaders jailed under the administration of King Hassan II, who died in July 1999. The king’s son and successor, King Mohammed VI, released a key Islamic leader from house arrest in May, and is now seeing his fundamentalist group becoming more demanding.
