Category Archives: Spain

Seville mosque remains costly dream

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Despite years of relentless efforts, the construction of a stately mosque remains a costly dream for Muslims in the southern city of Seville, the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia.

“We are still negotiating with city officials to find a solution for the mosque issue,” Muslim community leader Malik Roueth told IslamOnline.net.

After municipal officials reneged on several promises to allocate a plot of land for the mosque, the sizable Muslim community is left with no other option but buy one. “We need no less than 6 million euros,” said Roueth, citing rocketing land prices in the area.

Plans to build a purpose-based mosque in Seville have been met with fierce oppositions from some locals. A few months ago, authorities froze plans to allocate a plot of land for Muslims to build their mosque after protests. Opponents has left slaughtered pig heads at the location, believing such a move would push Muslims to drop the plans.

In reaction to the protests, the authorities withdraw the land even though by that time Muslims had spent more than 200,000 euros to prepare the land for the mosque construction.

Islam Online, 2 November 2008

Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attitudes seen rising in Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish feelings are rising in several major European countries, according to a worldwide survey released on Wednesday.

The Washington-based Pew Research Centre’s global attitude survey found 46 percent of Spanish, 36 percent of Poles and 34 percent of Russians view Jews unfavourably, while the same was true for 25 percent of Germans, and 20 percent of French.

The figures are all higher than in comparable Pew surveys done in recent years, the report said, and “in a number of countries the increase has been especially notable between 2006 and 2008.”

Opinions of Muslims are also dimming compared to previous years with 52 percent in Spain, 50 percent in Germany, 46 percent in Poland and 38 percent in France having negative attitudes toward them.

Reuters, 17 September 2008

See Inayat Bunglawala’s analysis at Comment is Free, 18 September 2008

Spanish minister under fire for criticizing Islamic headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bibiano AidoSpain’s Equality Minister Bibiana Aido has angered Muslims by criticizing the Islamic headscarf, alleging that it undermines the rights of women, media reported Thursday. Muslim men could dress in Western clothes, Aido said, asking why women wearing loose clothes and headscarves could not do the same.

“Not all cultural practices must be protected and respected,” she said, expressing her opposition to practices “violating human rights and promoting inequality” between the sexes.

Muslim women “wear the veil because they feel like it,” representatives of Spain’s Muslim community responded, advising the minister “not to talk about what she does not know about.”

The Koran advised both men and women to dress modestly, said Mansur Escudero, president of the Islamic Board.

Earth Times, 26 June 2008

Islamophobia began with end of Cold War, OSCE meeting hears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamophobia gathered pace in the West with the end of the Cold War, long before the September 11, 2001 attacks against the US, participants at a two-day OSCE conference that began in Spain Tuesday said.

“After the end of the Cold War, certain people took Muslims and Islam to be the new scapegoat and enemy,” Mustapha Cherif, an expert on Islam at the University of Algiers, told AFP on the sidelines of the gathering. “But after the senseless act of September 11, this has been amplified,” added Cherif, who is known for his commitment to battling religious hatred.

Delegations from the 56 nations that make up the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are taking part in the conference in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba on the topic of intolerance toward Muslims. Spain currently holds the rotating presidency of the OSCE, which promotes human rights, democracy and conflict prevention in Europe, North America and Central Asia.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa told the gathering that after the end of the Cold War, “conservative extremists in certain Western circles” needed to find a new enemy. “We can’t live in stability and security if some are perceived as first class citizens and others second class citizens. This has to disappear,” he added.

Studies by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia have found anti-Muslim behaviour and attitudes have risen since 2001, said Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos. “Without a doubt, international terrorism has fueled this phenomena,” added Moratinos who is chairing the gathering.

Muslims in Europe face discrimination when it comes to employment, education and housing, said Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos, the head of research and data collection at the Vienna-based European Fundamental Rights Agency.

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Experts sound alarm on rising Islamophobia in Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamophobia is on the rise in Europe and governments should do more to protect the continent’s 15 million Muslims from discrimination, experts meeting in Spain said Monday.

“The situation is very serious,” said Mustapha Cherif, an expert on Islam at the University of Algiers who is known for his commitment to battling religious hatred. “Islamophobia is a rising phenomena,” added Jasser Auda of Britain’s Forum Against Racism and Islamophobia, which is made up of representatives of the British Muslim community.

The two were speaking at a meeting in the southern Spanish city of Jaen of some 30 non-governmental organisations from across Europe. The gathering was held ahead of the start on Tuesday in the nearby city of Cordoba of a two-day conference on the issue organised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Spain currently holds the rotating presidency of the OSCE, which promotes human rights, democracy and conflict prevention in Europe, North America and Central Asia.

Participants said there was no easy solution to fighting Islamophobia. Turkish State Minister Meymet Aydın underlined the need to help Western societies undestand Islam.

“It is good to attract the attention of governments on the issue, to increase their level of awareness,” said Aydin Suer, the spokesman for Femyso, a confederation of Muslim youth groups from 22 European nations.

“The problems are complex, the solutions themselves are complex,” said Suer. Muslims could not just blame media stereotypes for the problem, he added. “We Muslims need to question ourselves,” he said.

The non-governmental organisations will present a list of recommendations on how to tackle the problem to delegations from the 56 nations that make up the OSCE, and that are set to take part in the Cordoba conference.

“This will be the message from civil society” to the government representatives gathered in Cordoba, said Spain’s special ambassador for relations with Muslim communities, Jose Maria Ferre.

Cordoba was chosen as the host for the event because for centuries the city was a symbolic centre of coexistence between Christians, Jews and Muslims. The city hosted an OSCE conference on anti-Semitism in 2005.

AFP, 8 October 2007

Spain to host Islamophobia summit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mesquita CordobaSpain will host a two-day international conference to discuss the roots of discrimination and hostility toward Muslims in the West. The conference is held under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the historical city of Cordoba in southern Spain, once the symbol of Islamic civilization in the Iberian peninsula.

High-ranking delegations from the 56 OSCE member states from Europe and Central Asia as well as non-governmental organizations will take part in the conference which focuses on intolerance toward Muslims, its consequences and the role of media, AFP reported. The event is part of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s diplomatic push for an international effort to resolve cultural and religious differences, especially between the Western and Muslim world.

Press TV, 7 October 2007

European mosque plans face protests

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Petitions in London, protests in Cologne, a court case in Marseille and a violent clash in Berlin – Muslims in Europe are meeting resistance to plans for mosques that befit Islam’s status as the continent’s second religion.

Across Europe, Muslims who have long prayed in garages and old factories now face skepticism and concern for wanting to build stately mosques to give proud testimony to the faith and solidity of their Islamic communities.

Some critics reject them as signs of “Islamisation”. Others say minarets would scar their city’s skyline. Given the role some mosques have played as centers for terrorists, others see Muslim houses of worship as potential security threats.

“The increasingly visible presence of Muslims has prompted questions in all European societies,” Tariq Ramadan, one of Europe’s leading Muslim spokesmen, argued when far-right groups proposed this year to ban minarets in his native Switzerland.

The issue hit the headlines in Britain in late July when a petition against a “mega-mosque” next to the 2012 London Olympics site was posted on Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Web site. It attracted more than 275,000 signatures before it was taken down.

In Germany last month, there were anti-mosque protests in Cologne and Berlin and a local council voted against one in Munich. A French far-right group vowed to sue the city of Marseille for a second time for helping build a “grand mosque”.

Bekir Alboga of the Turkish Islamic Union (DITIB) in Cologne said critics who see these new mosques as signs of separatism or of an Islamic colonization of Europe miss the point.

“The desire of Muslims to build a house of worship means they want to feel at home and live in harmony with their religion in a society they have accepted as theirs,” he said.

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Cordoba Cathedral ban continues

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CORDOBA, SPAIN – Mansur Escudero knew the answer before he asked. Approaching the guard at Cordoba’s majestic once-a-mosque, now-a-cathedral, Escudero posed the question: May I say Muslim prayers inside? The slightly startled Spanish guard gave an emphatic no. This is a Catholic church, he said, and as such it is absolutely prohibited to pray in any other faith. Escudero persisted, but the guard was firm. This is a cathedral, the guard repeated, growing more agitated: “A CA-THO-LIC CHURCH.”

Los Angeles Times, 28 March 2007

Spanish bishops fear rebirth of Islamic kingdom

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spain’s bishops are alarmed by ambitious plans to recreate the city of Cordoba – once the heart of the ancient Islamic kingdom of al-Andalus – as a pilgrimage site for Muslims throughout Europe.

Plans include the construction of a half-size replica of Cordoba’s eighth century great mosque, according to the head of Cordoba’s Muslim Association. Funds for the project are being sought from the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, and Muslim organisations in Morocco and Egypt.Other big mosques are reportedly planned for Medina Azahara near Cordoba, Seville and Granada.

The bishops of those cities are alarmed at the construction of ostentatious mosques, fearing that the church’s waning influence may be further eclipsed by resurgent Islam financed from abroad.

Independent, 5 January 2007