Posted on 05/03/2004 3:47:14 PM PDT by ambrose
Spanish government wants to monitor mosques to check Islamic extremism
06:44 PM EDT May 03
MADRID, Spain (AP) - The government is considering monitoring mosques and imams to curb Islamic extremism blamed for the March 11 terror bombings in Madrid, the foreign minister said Monday.
"I think it is important to know what is being preached on Fridays in the various religious forums that have been growing in Spain in a totally uncontrolled fashion," Miguel Angel Moratinos told the Telecinco television network, referring to prayers on the Muslim holy day.
He said that, as Spain's North African immigrant community has expanded in recent years, mosques have arisen in everything from workshops to offices.
"I think that is where the interior and justice ministers, with my help, want to establish a degree of order," Moratinos said.
Spain has a Muslim community of about 500,000 people out of a total population of 42 million. Moroccans make up the second largest immigrant group, with about 380,000 members.
Fourteen of the 18 people charged in the Madrid bombing are Moroccans.
The judge leading the investigation into the bombings, which killed 191 people, has said the alleged instigator of the attack, a Tunisian named Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, preached holy war among Muslims in Madrid and associates of Fakhet have said he was a frequent visitor to the city's main mosque.
Moratinos spoke a day after Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said in a newspaper interview that he is considering drafting a bill to monitor imams, or Moslem clerics, as well as clergy of other faiths.
"We cannot name the imam who is going to preside over a religious service, but we can require of the imam or preacher of any religion that it be known who he is and what he is going to say in the mosque or the church," Alonso told El Pais.
He said such a law would not violate constitutional guarantees of free speech.
"We are talking about a phenomenon that can create a breeding ground for terrorism that kills people," Alonso said. "Anybody can say anything they want. But the state has the right to know what is being said when that activity is public and can create this kind of scenario."
Opposition parties criticized the idea of a registry of religious activities.
The conservative Popular Party called it unconstitutional, and United Left said it besmirched Muslims who have nothing to do with terrorism.
A Moroccan-dominated association of immigrant workers triggered an uproar last month by calling for government supervision of mosques and appointment of imams.
Muslim leaders rejected the idea, saying Muslims in Spain could oversee themselves and already had a forum to do this.
It is called the Islamic Commission of Spain, founded in 1991. It represents Muslims in dealings with the government on issues such as religious education for Muslim children in public schools.
Killing the immigration program wouldn't be a bad idea either. Sure wish we would.
Need to do that here too. We did it with Communist cells (although there were some excesses). Is Islam more friendly to us? No, it isn't.
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