Islam in Spain

In Spain there are about 600 thousand Muslims; 6 thousand of these are converts. Islamic immigration started about 15 years ago.

There are different Muslim communities and religious reference points. The most important are: the Association of Immigrant Moroccan workers, like a union, unlinked to religious groups; the CIE, Spanish Islamic Commission, an organ recognised by the government and integrated by FEERI, the Federation of Islamic Religious Entities and by UCIDE, the Union of Islamic Communities in Spain.

In Spain there are 74 mosques and 139 associations. Just like in France, there are many garage-mosques, where violence is preached out loud. The majority of the imams of these mosques, indeed, might be paid by the Arab Countries or radical sects. In order to control this phenomenon the Spanish government has requested the Ministry of Interior to introduce a mandatory register for all mosques, especially the small ones placed in informal places, and identify all their imams. There have been many protests: the Muslims of the Maghrebian community of Ceuta have pointed out that on their territory they have 24 small mosques, all probably the object of the new registration policy. The FEERI says the problem of the imams (about 40 thousand) could be solved if they were selected directly by the Muslim immigrant communities and they were paid by the Spanish government.

Cities - Mosques , Associations
La Coruna 2
Bilbao 2
Geronia 2
Barcellona 11 , 27
Terragona 1 , 5
Saragozza 3
Valencia 2 , 5
Madrid 10 , 39
Toledo 6
Cacenea 1
Alicante 1 , 6
Murcia 3
Almeria 2
Granada 8 , 10
Malaga 4 , 5
Cadice 2, 3
Huelva 1
Siviglia 4
Cordoba 4
Jaen 2
Toledo 6
Ceuta 5 , 10
Melilla 3 , 6
La Palma 5
Palma di Mallorca 2 , 2

The newspaper La Razon, on 24.11.2002, wrote “the integralist imams preach in the mosques against coexistence and against Spanish customs. The secret services are concerned with the radicalisation of the Muslim community in Spain. Religious leaders imposed by integralist associations hurl messages of intolerance from their temples. The Muslim community in Spain is growing more radical due to the mass arrival of immigrants exerting a fundamentalist influence on the more moderate Spanish Muslims. A Superior Council of the Imams is now in the process of being established to promote integralist wahabite proselytism in Spain. The split in the Muslim community in Spain is producing huge integralist cracks. The 9/11 terrorist attacks further spread the wings of groups of radical Muslims who wish to recruit the immigrants on their side. In these months, after the case of Fatima, the young Moroccan who wanted to go to school with the Muslim veil, and the case of the man in Ripollet, who refused to send his children to a catholic centre, the government looks upon these movements withfeelings of anxiety.

This case took place in the mosque of the Cabrerizas barrio in Melilla. In January 2001 the president of the mosque filed a complaint against an imam asking the Spanish authorities to expel him, since he taught integralist doctrines to his believers, justifying terrorist activities and the use of violence against one’s wife and against the Jews.

According to the charges, the religious leader took advantage of the absence of the previous imam, on a journey to the Mecca, to encroach his functions and seize control of the mosque. Once he returned, he was threatened with death by young radicals, until he was forced to return to Morocco.

Later, in April 2001, a group of Muslims, identified as members of the Jamaa of the Mosque of Cabrerizas, informed the government delegate about the situation of the previous imam. From that moment onward, in this religious centre, accusations against the west have increased considerably. On February 8th, 2001, the believers listened to a sermon that was an outright attack against the Jews. The sermon was also against the “western colonisation” in Afghanistan that “corrupts that country’s society”. Concluding, the preacher said that “the West wants to convert Afghanistan into the same rubbish Morocco, Tunisia or Egypt are today”. The same sermon was read on the same day also in the two mosques of barrio Canada de Hidun at Melilla. In one of the two, the “vieja”, the imam had already been identified during the previous Ramadan for his “intolerant sermons, opposing the West”. In one of his sermons he even made a connection with the holy war proclaimed by Bin Laden: “the most pressing problem there is today is war in Afghanistan”, he said “and the jihad is every Muslim’s duty, whether man or woman. Any Muslim who does not take part in the Afghani jihad, whatever country he or she may be from, is a sinner, because in this moment the jihad is more important that prayer or fasting. The jihad is not only something you carry out on the battle-field, you can live it in each of our actions. We can carry it out with our economical help, by showing our support, with our propaganda for the Afghani cause or giving logistic support. Any person calling him or herself a Muslim who does not collaborate in this difficult moment with his or her Muslim brothers is a despicable hypocrite”.

In the same sermon, preached on November 23rd, 2001, the imam of the mosque of La Canada de Hidum levelled a severe attack against European coexistence and its customs: “our duty is to prepare the men of Islam to fight the spirit of homosexuality that is rising in the West”, he said. “We must fight against the secular and anti-fundamentalist press that encourages prostitution and licentiousness”, he stated. “History teaches us that societies where men have lost their courage and their virility and women govern and walk undressed on the streets, who encourage decreasing birth-rates, sterilizing men and women, end up disappearing. Muslims – he concluded – must struggle with any means whatsoever and must not let themselves be subjugated by pagan Europe”.

These preaches counted on the support of the imam of the central mosque of Melilla, on the Coalition for Melilla, the religious association BADR and the NGO Social Action Islamic Volunteers.

The Spanish secret services attribute to the BADR association the coup de main performed at the mosque of Cabrerizas, to substitute the moderate imam with a radical one. They suspect the association initiated a campaign to strengthen its control over some of the suburbs of Melilla to drive away the “official” imams, mainly connected to the Moroccan administration, and substitute them with others professing an integralist ideology.

Something similar took place at Canada de Hidum, where a new mosque was built to plant an imam and isolate the official one, as an official note on the activities of the BADR association reads. This general plan anticipates the progressive establishment of Islamic integralism in all colleges and institutes where Muslims are the majority.

A significant element is that one of the channels, through which the funding and policy building of the BADR association take place, could be the NGO Social Action Islamic Volunteers that received government grants mostly ending up in BADR’s coffins. The Moroccan administration, traditionally connected to Spanish Muslim associations, is equally concerned as it looks upon the increasing influence of these integralist groups and the growing isolation surrounding “official” imams. That is why the Moroccan governor of Nador transferred information about the activities of the integralist movement in Melilla to the Government of Rabat and expressed his anxieties to the Spanish governor for these actions that challenge his control. However, the radicalisation of the mosques does not concern only Melilla. At Castellon, only a month after the integralist announcements at the mosque of Canada de Hidum, also the imam of the Nur Islamic Centre provoked a split within the board of directors of the community for his sermons in favour of Bin Laden. He was relieved from his office, but he refused to leave the mosque.

In his book “In the name of Allah. The secret network of Islamic terrorism in Spain”, published by Planeta, writers Enrico Montanchez and Pedro Canales point out that while in the seventies in Spain there were about ten Islamic associations, presently there are more than 200 and they cover the whole territory of Spain, especially the eastern coast and Andalusia. The influence of the Muslim associations on Moroccan immigrants is decisive, due to the power they exert on them: many of them are defenceless and in these groups they find help and support to survive in Spain.

Mosques, schools and newspapers for 600 thousand Muslims In Spain there are 600 thousand Muslims, at least 50 thousand living in Madrid. In the capital there are ten mosques, several Islamic schools and newspapers (“The hour of Islam” is one of the most important, selling two-thousand copies). In the barrio of Lavapiés in Madrid, 30% of the children registered at the civil registry are of Muslim origin and in Madrid there is one of the largest Islamic centres in the whole of Europe.

Islam in Spain has long been divided in two great associations of diverse nature. On one side there is the Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Entities, gathering Spanish Muslims practising a moderate kind of Islam, on the other there is the Union of Islamic Communities in Spain, representing the orthodox current.

While for more than a year now the Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Entities is in crisis, guided as it is by a deputy president, the Union of Islamic Communities in Spain has increased its power by networking with other groups such as the Muslim Brothers which control many Mosques on the Costa do Sol and in Madrid.

The book “Women in Islam” (published and distributed by the House of the Arab Book in Barcelona and the Islamic Cultural Centre in Madrid), whose author is Mohamad Kemal, the imam of Fuengirola, proposes a way of beating women without leaving any marks. The imam has been accused of violating article 510 of the Penal Code that punishes with two or three years imprisonment “whoever incites to discrimination, hatred or violence against other groups or associations, for racist or anti-Semite reasons, or for any reason referring to ideology, religion or sex”. The book stirred also the indignation of the Muslim women’s collective which demanded it be withdrawn from the market. Associations such as An-Nisa and Inshallah consider some of the statements in the book to be a blatant crime in themselves.

The uprising of the spokespersons of An-Nisa and Inshallah, Jadicha Candela and Yaratullah Monturiol, was based on the fact that the author dared to give a series of suggestions such as “blows should be dealt on a specific part of the body, such as feet or hands, using a stick, not too big, rather thin and light so that it doesn’t’ leave scars or haematomas on the body”. Suggestions that people may interpret as a justification for beating one’s wife believing their behaviour is endorsed by Islamic doctrine.

For Muslim women the book could not be more fastidious, in a moment when the central government and local authorities are promoting a campaign to sensitize people against domestic violence. According to the spokesperson of the An-Nisa association (literally meaning “women”), Jadicha Candela, the text of chapter 6 of the book “Women in Islam” is twice a concern, since it constitutes “only the top of an iceberg of misogynous interpretations of Islam”.

A commission of Islamic jurisprudence says that daraba in Arab does not mean beat, as the imam of Fuengirola translates. It is an interpretation that hides a dispute between Spanish Muslim groups over the ideological control of the Spanish Federation f Islamic Religious Entities (FEERI).

In April four years ago a document was issued by the Barcelona Medical College (A Deontological Committee presided over by Joan Monés), to orient the behaviour of its associates who refuse to release virginity tests or certificates requested by Muslim immigrants. The initiative began after the case of a certain Muslim family who came to a gynaecological study in Girona asking for this kind of certificate for one of their daughters.

According to the deontological committee, doctors are not obliged to certify the virginity of their patients, since, according to Monés, it is not a medical act and furthermore it does not fall in with the parameters a doctor must abide by, since it prevents no disease. The board of Catalan doctors, however, let doctors decide whether to perform virginity tests or not, but only if the interested person comes to the medical study on her own and with no pressure from her family or from the outside.

Andalusia opposed the document the board of doctors of Barcelona drafted considering virginity tests an attack against the right to privacy. It decided not to forbid doctors from issuing virginity certificates. In fact, the parliament of Andalusia refused the Popular Party’s proposal to prohibit doctors from certifying a patient’s virginity.

The imam of one of the mosques of Lleida, Jaideh, justifies the practise of infibulation for cultural and religious reasons. Also Abdelwahab Houze, imam of the mosque on calle Pau Claris and head of the Maghrebian Islamic community in Lleida, assures that “no Muslim can refuse the practise of infibulation” and that it is justified in the holy religious texts. However, Houze does make it clear that according to the “Sunnah”, the book of commentaries to the prophet, the practise of genital mutilation is restricted to very hot climates and such temperatures are never reached at Lleida.

The prison in Jean does not allow a Muslim prisoner to meet his four wives, two married according to the Koranic rite, one according to the civil rite and one with a cohabitation certificate. Ahmed Abdelila Abdeslam, the son of the imam of one of the mosques of Ceuta, in prison on the charges of a crime and inducing a murder, was authorised to meet only the wife he is married to with the civil rite. He deems this decision a violation of his religious rights, as practising Muslim and person.

The Catalan government denounced the Muslim leader of Sabadell for apologia of the Holocaust. In an interview given by Abdelilah el Aroua, an imam originally from Morocco, the president of the Arrisala Association and leader of the mosque of Can Puigjaner in Sabadell, his hatred towards the Jews was manifest, with statements such as “a world without Jews would be like heaven”. The government of Catalonia decided to denounce him upon charges of apologia of racism. The imam is married and has two daughters, he is a man of worship and he is known as tolerant. Abdelilah el Aroua has worked for years for the integration of the Muslim community in Catalonia. That is why the interview was such a surprise.

The imams of Barcelona (Catalonia) asked the State for monthly wages, like the ones enjoyed by Catholic priests. It was revealed by imam Najem Alhassam, 55 years old, the responsible for the Islamic Centre and the Al-Iman Muslim Community. Most of the religious leaders share his opinion.

Alhassam said that in Catalonia there about 200 thousand Muslims requiring dignified religious services. The imam of the mosque on avenida de la Meridiana, the most ancient in Barcelona, says: “Maintaining mosques and courses of Arab language and culture is very expensive. We go on thanks to the generosity of the believers, but we do need official help”. And he adds: “Muslims living in Spain pay taxes. We therefore have the right to receive help”.

In Barcelona, the Catholic Church offered a room in the parish to the believers of the Camino del Coran mosque, on calle Arc del Theatre, to pray to Allah.

The Muslims in Cordoba recently asked to return to pray in the area surrounding the cathedral built inside the famous mosque dating back to the IX century. Michael Fitzgerald, president of the pontifical Commission for interreligious dialogue remarked that the “Vatican has always been very careful not to ask for similar rights with regard to mosques which once were churches”. A paladin of the legitimacy of this request, Mansur Escudero, the president of FEERI, prepared and sent a petition on behalf of the CIE for the joint use of the Mosque-Cathedral and started the dispute with Archbishop Fitzgerald.

The sleeping, contraception-loving Spanish "Catholics" had better wake up- and soon.

Wherever Christians becomes apathetic, secularized and non-practising, Islam is more than happy to fill the vacuum.

See Great Britain, France etc., for excellent case studies.

They invaded like cockroaches and threaten to destroy another culture. We should bar it from the West as if it were an airborne plague (pun semi-intended).

I used to work for a Spanish company. The cultural divide in Spain is similar to that here. There is a very decadent popular culture, with a very religious subculture underneath. After the death of Franco, the government has tried to promote the former, while trying to ignore the latter.

Since the 311 attacks, it appears the appeasers have won. Remember, the Spanish government reserves the right to meddle in religion, which I think is why the RCC in Spain "allowed" the muslims to pray in a church.

Sadly for the West, the mohammadan plague is not only airborne, but transmitted by sea and land as well. Western Europe itself has become "the sick man of Europe", and I question its ability to withstand such a contagion when the native Christian population is in bad shape culturally, morally and demographically.

Knowing both sides, just like you but from a spanish perspective, I have always wondered if for an american working for a spanish company some things are not just too surrealistic sometimes...

You know, sometimes we don't even understand ourselves.

There are so much things in the collective spirit of the country that no one wants to talk about that when sometimes I eventually see them I get scared.

Anyway, as I always say when I write to this forums, we can be difficult to understand and sometimes look lost but we are not bad people and if you take a look at the evolution of the country in the last 30 years it seems we take good decisions too, at least from time to time.

To be honest, sometimes I would like to feel less insulted when reading this posts (I'm talking about other posters, not you of course).

My former coworkers also expressed amazement with trying to understand Americians. They were used to seeing the more upper class (the company head offices were in Sevile and Cartagana), and my former boss was rather surprised to have to deal with a number of Midwestern engineers. The culture shock went both ways.

I found that I got along best with the gentlemen from the rural parts of Spain (Galcia and such) more than those from the cities. Maybe because our experiences were similar.

One thing that surprised me is that many in Spain seem to think of themselves more as Basque or Castlian than Spanish. I guess we have the same thing here in the US though.

Ah, well, I was a History major in my misspent youth and made a special study of the Civil War. I especially admired the Requetes of the North and their fierce Christian faith. I also enjoyed knocking my professors out of their birkenstocks with my research papers concluding that in 1936-1939 Spain, thank God, the good guys won. Viva Espana!

I also enjoyed knocking my professors out of their birkenstocks with my research papers concluding that in 1936-1939 Spain, thank God, the good guys won. Viva Espana!

LOL! Yes, the better side won. Franco had his faults, and plenty of them! The alternative was much worse though.

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