Spain's resurgent Muslims clamour for places to pray By Victoria Burnett
Published: February 9 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 9 2007 02:00 For centuries the Iberian peninsula was studded with the minarets of mosques that served its Moorish rulers. When the call to prayer goes out nowadays, many of Spain's Muslims cram into scruffy shop-fronts, garages and warehouses. Five hundred years after the Catholic kings ousted the Moors, Spain's resurgent Muslim population is clamouring for places to pray. A campaign for land on which to build new mosques has sparked debate about the rights of religious minorities and underlined the challenges of absorbing a growing immigrant population. Spain has a dozen mosques to serve a Muslim population that has swollen to about 1m in the past few years as North African immigrants stream into the country. Immigrants generally get a laid-back reception in Spain, but Muslim leaders complain that they face political and bureaucratic hurdles as they try to buy land and get building permission. "It's almost impossible for the Muslim community to try to build a place to pray without confronting strong public rejection," says Mohammed Chaib, a socialist member of the Catalan parliament. Catalonia - home to about 250,000 Muslims - has no purpose-built mosques. About 170 spaces have been converted into places of worship. Plans for a mosque in the Catalan town of Badalona drew national attention after more than 20,000 local residents signed a petition of protest last month. Cowed by public pressure, the local government has dropped a plan to allocate public land for the mosque. Eduardo Tortajada, Badalona's deputy mayor, says the fast rise of the Muslim community has strained relations with other residents; the town's Muslim population has grown from a few hundred to about 10,000 in the past five years - about 5 per cent of the population. Suspicion that some mosques are hubs for Islamic extremism adds to public distrust. Badalona police in January arresteda Moroccan, Abdullatif Nekkavi, for alleged ties to jihadi groups in Iraq. Mr Tortajada says the Badalona government faces a legal paradox: a lay government cannot hand over land to religious groups, but the constitution demands that the state provide space for religious buildings. "This is an issue our society is really green about," he says. "The law is contradictory." He says the legal framework has not evolved to deal with religions beyond Catholicism - the religion of about 80 per cent of Spaniards. The close ties between the church and the nominally secular state are unwinding, but it still enjoys privileges, including a share of income tax worth €150m ($195m, £100m) per year. Muslim claims over Spain's Moorish buildings have stoked an ancient rivalry with the Catholic church. Mansur Escudero, head of the Islamic Council, called on the Vatican in December to allow Muslims to pray alongside Christians at Córdoba's famous 10th century mosque. The mosque was turned into a church after the Moors' defeat in 1236 and a Renaissance cathedral built at its heart. Juan José Asenjo, bishop of Córdoba, declined the request on the basis that it would sow "religiousconfusion". Mohammad Halhoul, spokesman for the Catalan Islamic Council, says a lack of financial resources is as much to blame as political opposition for the paucity of mosques. Most of Spain's Muslims are poor immigrants in low-wage jobs, and mosques built during the past 20 years have been funded by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The use of inadequate spaces has done little to boost the image of Muslims in unreceptive communities, with worshippers spilling out on to the streets and clogging narrow stairwells. Many mosques are unregistered and several have been closed because they failed to pass health and safety rules, says Mr Halhoul. Muslim leaders warn that the difficulty in establishing mosques is feeding a rising sense of discrimination among Muslims. "The longer we take to recognise [religious minorities] as citizens with equal rights, the longer it will take to live together harmoniously," says Mr Chaib. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007 +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
