Islam Arrives in the Basque Country
by Soeren Kern
May 15, 2012 at 5:00 am
May 15, 2012 at 5:00 am
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Muslim
parents are now pressuring local educational authorities to begin teaching
Arabic in public schools. The Islamic Council of the Basque Country says
Basques should view the speread of Islam in their region "not as a
problem, but as an opportunity."
The Basque regional government in northern
Spain is drafting a controversial new Law
on Religious Institutions, which states that mosques and prayer rooms with
a capacity of fewer than 300 people will no longer require the prior local
government approval.
The draft law is generating considerable
opposition from elected officials of all political stripes, who fear the new
measure will encourage the proliferation of mosques throughout the Basque
region.
The mayor of the Basque capital
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Javier
Maroto, said in an interview that the practical effect of the new law will
be that "any fruit and vegetable shop can be converted into a mosque and
there will be nothing we can do about it." He has promised to fight the
new law, which he believes will encourage "mosques to spring up like
mushrooms."
The debate comes as a new survey shows that one
in four Basques reject the idea of having a mosque in their neighborhood, and
according to a new survey commissioned by the Basque regional government in
northern Spain, one in five do not want a Muslim as a neighbor.
The new study, entitled Religious
Diversity, was commissioned by the Basque government as part of an effort
to assess public support for the new law. The survey shows that while nearly
half of all Basques say they have had personal interaction with Muslims, 49%
say they are opposed to the construction of more mosques in the Basque Country.
The Basque Country is home to more than 50,000
Muslims, as well as two dozen officially licensed mosques and hundreds of
unofficial Islamic prayer rooms and cultural centers.
Hailing mostly from Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan
and sub-Saharan Africa, Muslims in the Basque region have become increasingly
assertive in recent years.
In May 2011, for example, more than 2,500
radical Muslims gathered in the Basque town of Trápaga for the third annual Salafist
Congress. The president of the congress, a Moroccan named Jamal Ennaciri,
said the purpose of the meeting was to find ways to live together side-by-side
with Spaniards. He characterized the congress as "intercultural
dialogue."
But Salafism is a branch of radical Islam that
seeks to establish an Islamic empire (Caliphate) across the Middle East, North
Africa and Europe, particularly Spain. The Caliphate would be governed
exclusively by Islamic Sharia law, which would apply both to Muslims and to
non-Muslims. Salafists believe democracy, because it comes from man not from
Allah, is an illegitimate form of government.
In October 2010, residents of the Basque city
of Bilbao found their mailboxes stuffed with flyers in Spanish and Arabic from
the Islamic
Community of Bilbao asking for money to build a 650 square meter (7,000
square feet) mosque costing €550,000 ($735,000).
Up until just recently, the Islamic Community
of Bilbao had the following statement posted on its website: "We were
expelled [from Spain] in 1609, really not that long ago. … The echo of
Al-Andalus still resonates in all the valley of the Ebro [Spain]. We are back
to stay, Insha'Allah
[if Allah wills it]."
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the
parts of Spain ruled by Muslim conquerors from 711 and 1492. Many Muslims
believe that the territories they lost during the Spanish Reconquista still
belong to them, and that they have a right to return and establish their rule
there -- a belief based on the Islamic precept that territories once occupied
by Muslims must forever remain under Muslim domination.
In December 2011, Islamic
Sharia law arrived in the Basque Country when a Chechen immigrant attacked
his 24-year-old son-in-law, a Christian, for marrying his 19-year-old daughter,
a Muslim.
The victim, who goes by the pseudonym Julián
Gómez because of the Islamic "death sentence" against him, said:
"My father-in-law wants to kill me so that he can regain his honor because
I am a Christian and I married his Muslim daughter. According to him, his
daughter should only have married a Chechen Muslim."
The daughter said: "This seems as if it is
a horror movie, but it is not. I have no doubt that my father is capable of
killing my husband to get what he wants. And what he wants is to send me to
Chechnya. All my father wants is that we know our native language and focus on
our Chechen culture and religion. But I am Spanish. I was five years old when I
arrived here. This cannot be."
In November 2011, a Muslim
man stabbed and killed a 65-year-old man and injured six others in the
Bilbao district of Santutxu before being constrained by local residents and
subsequently arrested by local police.
In October 2011, hundreds of residents of
Bilbao protested against the construction
of a new mosque in the Basurto district. Bilbao Mayor Iñaki
Azkuna said there were "enough" mosques in the city and he vowed
to oppose the construction of any new ones. A spokesman for the local Muslim
community, Redouan El Farah, promised a fight: "We are not going to give
up. We are going to continue fighting until this mosque becomes a
reality."
In June 2011, residents of the Basque city of
Vitoria faced off against angry Pakistanis who want to build a mosque
in the Zaramaga district. Pakistanis marched to city hall to demand
"respect for the freedom of religion."
In December 2010, 24 Islamic associations
banded together to form the Islamic
Council of the Basque Country. The Islamic Council, which aims to become
the main interlocutor between Muslims living in the Basque region and the
regional government, has been lobbying for the introduction of special Muslim
menus in Basque public schools, reserved spaces for Muslims in municipal
cemeteries, and the construction
of new mosques.
In July 2010, it emerged that 60% of the 480
public schools in the Basque Country now serve special halal
meals for Muslim students. Muslim parents are now pressuring local
education authorities to begin teaching Arabic in public schools.
Meanwhile, Basque and Spanish counter-terrorism
authorities have arrested dozens of Islamists in terror sweeps throughout the
Basque Country in recent years. One of them, a Moroccan imam by the name of Samir
Ben Abdellah, was directly linked to the train bombings in Madrid in March
2004 that left 191 people dead and 1,800 wounded. Before his arrest, Abdellah
was grooming future Jihadists in mosques throughout the Basque Country.
The Islamic
Council of the Basque Country says Basques should view the spread of Islam
in their region "not as a problem, but as an opportunity. Diversity is
good." To those who remain skeptical about Islam, the group recommends
that they "change their chip."
Soeren
Kern is Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based
Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
Related Topics: Spain
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Kern
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