Morocco welcomes Elton John

Religious screechers' attempts to get Elton John disinvited from playing Rabat's Mawazine World Rhythms festival have been rebuffed, and he'll still going to go.

"We asked the government to exclude this person from the list of artists invited to this festival. This man -- sorry, I should say this person, not this man -- is known for bragging about his homosexuality," said Mustapha Ramid, a leading parliamentarian from the opposition Islamist PJD party.

"Morocco is an Islamic state where stages should not used to allow a person with such a degree of debauchery to perform because we have to shield the young from such influences," said Ramid.

Given that Morocco is known as the place where Joe Orton would go to pick up young men, it might be a bit late to start trying to salvage the image of the country.

You've got to love Mustapha's "this man, oooh, no, he's not a man at all" gag. Although if John isn't a man, then surely there's no way he could cause a problem having sex with men? Hasn't really thought this through, has he?

Still, the festival is having none of it:

"Elton John is one of the best artists in the world. He is great and extraordinary when he appears on stage. That's why we invite him and welcome him to the Mawazine festival," festival director Aziz Daki told Reuters.

"The private life of a singer is not our business. We do not invite singers and artists after assessing their private lives."

That's great - although, apparently, they don't invite singers on the basis of their recent work, either.

Happy IDAHO, everybody. Happy IDAHO.