Muslims in Spain

[Al-khiyal]

On a green hillside above Spain's southern city of Granada stands the magnificent Alhambra palace, the last seat of Iberia's Muslim rulers and the country's most famous monument to centuries of enlightenment and religious coexistence.

Across the Darro river, perched atop a steep hill stacked with whitewashed houses, is Granada's modern beacon of Islam: the first mosque to be built in the city since the collapse of the Moorish Iberian empire, known as al-Andalus, 500 years ago.

The mosque, completed in 2003 with €3m donated mainly by the Gulf Emirate of Sharjah, draws hundreds of visitors every day to its garden of orange, olive and pomegranate trees, which looks out over the 13th century Alhambra and the dazzling snowy mountains beyond.

On Friday afternoon, hundreds of worshippers – the majority of them North African men – climb the cobbled streets of the Albaicín, Granada's Arabic quarter, to reach the mosque. After prayers, men and women mingle in the garden and teenage boys in jeans and sweatshirts exchange high fives. A bearded farmer from the nearby Alpujarras hills sells lemons, oranges and avocados from the back of his van.

Spain's Muslim population – suppressed and then expelled 500 years ago by Catholic rulers – began to reemerge in the late 1970s as Spaniards converted to Islam. The 50,000 or so converts have been joined by an influx of North African and Pakistani immigrants, swelling Spain's Muslim population to about 1m.

While growing scrutiny of religious practices and fear of violent extremism have led to a sense of siege among many Muslims in Europe, Spain's Muslims say they feel broadly comfortable among the country's overwhelmingly Catholic population. A recent survey among 1,500 Muslim immigrants indicated 74 per cent were fairly or very happy in Spain and 83 per cent said they felt free to practice their religion.

Incidents of harassment or racist violence are isolated and the debate about the Muslim headscarf that has convulsed European neighbours has not resonated strongly in Spain. The March 2004 bombing of Madrid commuter trains by Islamic extremists was viewed by many as a reaction to Spain's military presence in Iraq - since withdrawn – rather than the product of an insidious jihadist threat.

"Frankly, it's much easier these days to be a Muslim in Spain than it is to be a Muslim in Iraq or Algeria," says Sidi Karim Viudes, head of the Islamic Community, an organisation representing Spanish Muslim converts.

Munira Mendonca, a Californian Muslim convert, says there was initial hostility to the nascent Muslim community in Albaicín when she moved there 25 years ago.

"They threw rocks at us and sprayed stuff all over the walls. They thought we would take over Albaicín and then take over Granada," she says.

But respect between the communities grew, and several women from the mosque said their Catholic neighbours had stopped by in March 2004 to say they did not believe Islam was the culprit of the Madrid bombings.

Abdulhasib Castañeira, head of the foundation that runs the Granada mosque, believes interaction between religious communities is key to preventing prejudice and extremist violence.

"We have to avoid creating ghettos, isolation," he says. "We [Muslims] have to be realistic about the times we live in and communicate our values without causing confrontation."

The challenge now is to reach out to the immigrant Muslim community and try to foment a proper understanding of Islam, says Mr Castañeira. The mosque, where the imam, Sidi Muhammad bin Mubarak, preaches religious and cultural tolerance, is central to this effort.

"The only way to avoid alienation is for Muslims to know their own teaching and to recognise the values of European culture," he says.

Some Muslim representatives and analysts say Spaniards learned a bitter lesson in the 1936-39 war and have adopted a live-and-let-live attitude to minorities. The socialists government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has created a political backdrop of acceptance.

But, above any other factor, it is the country's Moorish history that has allowed Spain to accept its growing Muslim population, they say. Spanish culture, food and language is peppered with remnants of Moorish culture. Iman Travieso, Mr Castañeira's wife, says Muslim ablutions are performed in much the same way that Spanish children are taught to wash by their mothers.

"On the one hand, people don't want anything to do with Islam and see it as a thing of the past, of the Arabs. On the other hand, Islam is their heritage and they take pride in that," she says.

Granada is replete with architectural reminders of the coexistence of, and rivalry between, Christianity and Islam in Spain: many of the city's churches are built on the site of mosques and include Moorish minarets. Within weeks of breaking ground for the Albaicín mosque, the adjacent church of San Nicolas – abandoned for decades – suddenly reopened. Other than the Albaicín mosque, Granada's mosques are housed in ordinary buildings that have been repurposed.

In such a setting, it is hard to ignore the powerful history of al-Andalus, says Mr Castañeira: "It is very difficult to convince somebody who has seen the Alhambra that Islam is about brutality, about violence," he says.

Islam returns to a tolerant Andalucia

[Al-khiyal]

· Córdoba's former mosque 'must be open to all faiths'

· Letter follows Islamic anger over papal remarks

An organisation of Spanish Muslims has asked Pope Benedict XVI for permission to worship alongside Christians in the former Great Mosque of Córdoba, an elegant vestige of Moorish rule that was turned into a cathedral in the 13th century.

In a letter sent on Christmas Day to the Pope's ambassador in Spain, the Spanish Islamic Board requested that the world heritage site - known for its red and white arches and often filled with more tourists than worshippers - be opened for prayer by all religions as a model of tolerance and a way to foster inter-faith dialogue.

It was timed to capitalise on the Pope's recent goodwill gestures to defuse Muslim anger after he quoted disparaging remarks by a 14th-century Christian emperor about the Prophet Muhammad, said the president of the Islamic Board of Spain, Mansur Escudero.

"We invite you to create a new example, to send a message of hope to the world," says the letter, which was published yesterday on the Spanish Muslim website Webislam. "Do not fear. Together we can show the violent, the intolerant, the anti-semites, the Islam-phobes and also those who believe that only Islam has a right to remain in the world, that prayer is the strongest weapon imaginable."

Mr Escudero told the Guardian: "I believe there is a new climate of understanding. He is rectifying his position, and this is the right moment to make the bid. It would be a message of humanism that could have positive repercussions."

The letter refers to the Pope's visit last month to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, where he removed his shoes and prayed beside the city's Grand Mufti, Mustafa Cagrici. "Our proposal does not fit within a framework of false dialogue, as the Spanish Catholic Bishops' Conference claims, but it is inspired by the optimism caused by the image of Your Holiness in the Blue Mosque saying a prayer shoulder to shoulder in Islamic style."

The Spanish Muslims, the letter says, do not intend to take control of the building or "recover a nostalgic Al Andalus", the name for the large part of modern Spain that was under Islamic rule from the 8th century for about seven centuries.

Rather, they seek to restore the "spirit of Al Andalus", as Mr Escudero put it, when Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in relative harmony.

This is not the first time the organisation, made up mainly of Spanish Catholics who converted to Islam, has broached the subject with the Vatican. In 2004, the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue rejected a similar request, leaving the decision to Spanish church authorities, who oppose Muslim prayer at the cathedral.

The former mosque, built in the 8th century on the site of Visigoth church and a Roman temple, was once the second largest in the world. It was the jewel of the Muslim caliphs who ruled Córdoba when this small provincial capital was an international centre of scholarship. The mosque was expanded by successive rulers until the 13th-century Christian reconquest, when it became a cathedral.

Today the dark paintings of saints contrast with the stark rows of marble columns installed by caliphs. The mihrab, a stucco-decked prayer niche in the wall facing Mecca, is usually flanked by tour groups with video cameras. Any member of Spain's growing Muslim community who kneels to prayer before the mihrab will be scolded by a church security guard.

"It's scandalous," Mr Escudero said.

Will his letter reach the Pope's inbox? He is certain that it will. The Pope's ambassador in Spain has confirmed receipt and emailed it to the Vatican, he said.

Pope asked to let Muslims pray in cathedral

[Al-khiyal]

The Roman Catholic bishop of Cordoba in Spain has rejected an appeal from Muslims asking to be allowed to pray in the city's cathedral.

Juan Jose Asenjo rejected the request for Muslims to use the Cathedral, a former mosque, which was made by Spain's Islamic Board in a letter to the Pope.

The Islamic Board had asked for the cathedral to become an ecumenical temple where believers from all faiths could worship. However, the bishop of Cordoba said the proposed move would not help to pave the way for the peaceful co-existence between people of different religions.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the bishop explained that the joint use of temples and places of worship would only generate confusion amongst the faithful.

Shared use of places of worship could make sense in airports or an Olympic village, but not in a consecrated Catholic cathedral, the bishop emphasised.

Spain's Islamic Board, represents a small community of some 800,000 in the traditionally prominent Catholic country of 44 million. They had taken the argument to the pope saying that the move in Cordoba could serve to “awake the conscience” of followers of both faiths and help bury past confrontations.

The letter stated, “What we wanted was not to take over that holy place, but to create in it, together with you and other faiths, an ecumenical space unique in the world which would have been of great significance in bringing peace to humanity,” according to the BBC.

The board's general secretary, Mansur Escudero, said Muslims came from around the world to see Cordoba's cathedral, but Muslim worshippers were often told not to pray inside the Christian Cathedral, which is no longer a mosque.

The Cordoba mosque was turned into a Catholic cathedral in the 13th Century after the city was conquered by King Ferdinand III.

Spain cathedral refuses Muslim requests to form ‘ecumenical temple’

[Al-khiyal]

"The decision of the Bishop of Córdoba to release his opinions against the request from the Spanish Islamic Junta to be allowed to pray in the Córdoba Mosque, is a disappointing one.

While the official request from the Muslims has been made to the Vatican, the declarations from Monseñor Asenjo saying such a move would lead to confusion, are hardly Christian.

With the world stage rapidly breaking up along religious lines, what was once known as the region of Al-Andalus could now be used as a beacon for peace.

Anyone who has ever visited the Córdoba Mosque Cathedral, to give it its current title, will know the massively impressive building is certainly big enough for two separate areas of worship to be established.

It could become living proof that different peoples can indeed respect each other and live and worship together.

Monseñor Asenjo’s decision seems even more disappointing, coming as it does, during Christmas."

A wasted opportunity

[Al-khiyal]

December 21, 2007 -- Muslim immigrants are happy in Spain, and point to the freedom and public health care they enjoy in the country, a country where most said they feel at ease and can practice their religion without significant interference.

Those were some of the conclusions from a study carried out by the Justice, Interior and Social Affairs ministries on the integration of this immigrant group, the largest in Spain. Released Tuesday, the survey was conducted on the basis of interviews with 2,000 Muslims living in the country.

More than half of those surveyed are from Morocco, with the remainder hailing mainly from Senegal, Pakistan and Algeria.

Three of every four respondents said the country had met their expectations, 83 percent said they felt they had adapted totally or quite well to Spanish life and customs and an even higher percentage said they had encountered no barriers to practicing their religion.

Regarding their degree of confidence in Spanish institutions, these migrants gave the highest score to non-governmental organizations, with a ranking of seven on a scale of one to 10, followed by the monarchy, with 6.9 points, and Parliament, with 6.3.

Almost half of those surveyed said they regularly attend mosque services, while 34 percent said they practiced their faith occasionally.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba announced at a press conference the results of the survey, which describe "a people who are well integrated and satisfied" with the treatment they receive and feel free to practice their religion.

Nevertheless, he said the government remains alert and ready to respond to any extremist threat with the full force of the law.

Radical Muslims were convicted earlier this year in connection with Spain's worst terrorist attack, the March 11th, 2004, bombings on Madrid commuter trains that left nearly 200 dead and some 1,800 injured.

The survey also revealed that the Muslim community in Spain practices a tolerant and open form of Islam and that the majority believe violence is an absolutely unacceptable means of defending or spreading religious beliefs and that no religion is superior to another.

Nine out of 10 respondents repudiated violence as a way to disseminate one's beliefs and 82 per cent said that being a Muslim and Spanish are compatible, while 64 percent said there is no attitude of rejection or distrust toward the Muslim religion in Spanish society.

Survey shows that Muslim immigrants are content in Spain

[Bent_Bladi]

spain kul malha 3am te3jibni....

spain is catching my attention more and more these days

[Al-khiyal]

Spain's Muslims face dearth of mosques

LLEIDA, Spain, March 16, 2008: As prayer time approached on a chilly Friday afternoon and men drifted toward the mosque on North Street, Hocine Kouitene hauled open its huge, rolling steel doors.

As places of worship go, the crudely converted garage leaves much to be desired, said Kouitene, vice president of the Islamic Association for Union and Cooperation in Lleida, a prosperous medieval town in northeastern Spain surrounded by fruit farms that are a magnet for immigrant workers. Freezing in winter and stifling in summer, the prayer hall is so cramped that the congregation, swollen to 1,000 from 50 over the past five years, sometimes spills into the street.

"It's just not the same to pray in a garage as it is to pray in a proper mosque," said Kouitene, an imposing Algerian in a long, black coat and white head scarf. "We want a place where we can pray comfortably, without bothering anybody."

Although Spain is peppered with the remnants of ancient mosques, most Muslims gather in dingy apartments, warehouses and garages like the one on North Street that are pressed into service as prayer halls to accommodate a ballooning population.

The mosque shortage stems partly from the lack of resources common to any relatively poor, rapidly growing immigrant group. But in several places, Muslims trying to build mosques have also met resistance from communities wary of an alien culture or fearful they will foster violent radicals.

Distrust sharpened after a group of Islamists bombed commuter trains in Madrid on March 11, 2004, killing 191 people, and in several cities, local governments, cowed by angry opposition from non-Muslims, have blocked Muslim groups from acquiring land for mosques.

The result, Muslim leaders say, is that some Muslims feel anchorless and marginalized.

"A proper mosque would act as a focus, a reference point for Islam here," said Mohammed Halhoul, spokesman for the Catalan Islamic Council. A quarter of Spain's Muslims live in Catalonia, the northeastern region that is home to Lleida, but the area has no real mosques.

"I feel like a Catalan," Halhoul added, "except when it comes to the question of the mosque."

Muslims ruled much of Spain for centuries, but after they were vanquished in the 1400s, their mosques were either left to ruin or converted into churches. Since then, fewer than a dozen new mosques have been built to serve Spain's Muslim population, which has grown in the past 10 years to about a million from about 50,000 as immigrants have poured into the country.

That rise has coincided with a decline in church attendance in overwhelmingly Catholic Spain, giving new echo to an atavistic rivalry between the two religions. It was the Catholic king and queen, Ferdinand and Isabella, who defeated the last Moorish ruler in Spain in 1492 and oversaw the expulsion of Jews and Muslims. Now, as churches struggle to draw a dwindling flock, Muslim prayer halls are overflowing.

"The reality of this country has changed much faster than that of other countries," Ángel Ros, Lleida's mayor, said in an interview.

"A process that took 30 years in Italy or France has taken 10 years in Spain."

Lleida is a case in point: The city, whose 13th-century cathedral looms from a fortified hilltop over plains that produce half of Spain's pears and apples, has drawn a flood of immigrants. They now make up nearly 20 percent of the city's 125,000 residents, compared with 4 percent in 2000. A quarter of them are from Muslim countries.

Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, has replaced Saturday as a day off in addition to Sunday on many local farms.

The North Street mosque faced opposition from the outset. Marta Roigé, head of the local neighborhood association, said residents tried to block the prayer hall on North Street five years ago by renting the garage themselves, but they backed down after the landlord started a bidding war. They have since sued the local council to close it down on the basis that it is a health and safety hazard.

"The tension has grown as the numbers have grown," Roigé said.

"They've set up shops, butchers, long-distance call centers and restaurants." These businesses, catering to Muslim immigrants, line the surrounding streets.

She added: "They are radicals, fundamentalists. They don't want to integrate."

Muslim leaders, however, say the lack of proper mosques is one barrier to integration. And Spanish authorities and Muslim leaders say the potential for extremism would be easier to monitor at fewer, larger mosques than at the 600 or so prayer halls scattered throughout the country.

Some Muslim leaders believe the tide is starting to turn in their bid to return minarets to Spanish skylines. Following a pact between the Islamic Association and Lleida's town hall in December, the city may become the first in Catalonia to build a mosque.

The association secured a 50-year lease on a plot of government land on the edge of town, and Kouitene says the group hopes to break ground next year if it can raise the money.

Several other Muslim communities in Catalonia and the rest of Spain are on the verge of similar breakthroughs. In the southern city of Seville, Muslims are close to obtaining a plot of land for a mosque after years of bitter local resistance; in 2005, protesters dumped a pig's head on a plot originally chosen.

Meanwhile, the coalition of parties that rules Catalonia, a semiautonomous region of seven million people, submitted a bill in the regional parliament in December that would oblige local governments to set aside land for mosques and other places of worship.

Representatives of Muslim organizations hope it will inspire a similar national law.

"People are realizing the world has changed, and they can't look the other way," said Mohammed Chaib, a member of the Catalan parliament and the only Muslim lawmaker in Spain.

Some Catholic clerics see things differently. Cardinal Lluís Martínez Sistach, archbishop of Barcelona, has said he opposes the bill, which would entitle all religious groups to land on an equal basis. He argues that Catholicism requires different rules.

"A church, a synagogue or a mosque are not the same thing," he said, according to the conservative Spanish newspaper ABC. The bill, he said, "impinges on our ability to exercise a fundamental right, that to religious liberty."

Although no law on religious land use exists, the Catholic Church faces no difficulty acquiring land, say specialists in law and religion.

Álex Seglers, a specialist on church-state relations who has written extensively on Muslims in Catalonia, is skeptical that the bill would be effective. The bill is vaguely written and gives local governments too much discretion over what land it provides to which religious group, he says.

Juli Ponce, a specialist in urbanization at the University of Barcelona, agrees. "It's an attempt to clarify the rules of the game, but it's flawed," he said.

For the worshipers at North Street, the next big hurdle is money.

Spain's secular state cannot finance religious buildings, though it has a special arrangement to subsidize the Catholic Church. Kouitene said the construction of the new mosque would rely on individual donations or financing from abroad. He said he had no idea how much it would cost but was confident they would find the money.

"We have a saying in our religion," he said, shifting effortlessly between Spanish, Arabic and Catalan as he talked. "Anywhere there are even a few Muslims, you must build a mosque for joint prayer. Otherwise, the devil rules in that place."

The mayor, for one, welcomes the building.

"We used to have a dominant religion, and now we have many religions, and we have to find a way of respecting that fact," Ros said. "Churches were the great public works of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance. Now I see a day when every large city in Spain will have a mosque."