Spain and Islam. Al-Andalus revisited

Fear of Islamist terror casts shadows on the country that expelled the Moors

ALL of Europe, it seems, is fretting about its Muslim population. Spain's is relatively small - less than a million - yet no country has a more complex relationship with Islam. Until two years ago, the muezzin's cry “Allahu akbar” had not been heard in Granada since the reconquista and the expulsion of the last Moorish king in 1492. But then a mosque was erected in the Albaicin quarter near the Alhambra. For the mainly Spanish converts to Islam who built it, this was the dawn of a new era: as a mosque spokesman put it, “the seeds of Islam were planted long ago, and now they are flourishing once again.”

Although some traditionalists resisted the mosque, it is not the “heritage” strain of Islam that really preys on Spanish minds: it is the new, fundamentalist variety. This was brought home most shockingly after Islamist terrorists bombed the trains in Madrid in March 2004. Now the London bombings have revived fears. Shortly after the Madrid attacks it seemed that Spain might follow France's example by waging war on radical Islam. The interior minister, José Antonio Alonso, announced plans for more police in cities with large Muslim populations, to crack down on mosque-building and jihad-preaching imams. But in keeping with the conciliatory nature of the new Socialist government of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, these plans have been shelved.

Instead, a board has been set up for the Foundation of Pluralism and Peaceful Coexistence, based on accords signed between the government and Islamic, Jewish and Protestant representatives in 1992. Mercedes Rico Carabias, director-general of religious affairs and member of the board, insists that Spain has moved away from the restrictive French model of allowing only state-approved mosques. “It is very important that the Muslim community is not put under suspicion,” she says. Instead, she hopes to give Islam the same status as other religions. “In Spain, the problem is plurality. We have now changed from being a totally Catholic country, and we have to respect that.”

The chief task of the foundation is to bring Islam into mainstream society by such means as paying for social programmes and encouraging imams to learn Spanish. Groups such as the Moroccan Immigrant Workers' Association had complained that financing of mosques was in the hands of Saudi-backed imams who preached radical Islam. The government wants public financing of mosques, but this is against the law. Ms Rico says that “we must find another way, either with private or international money, to finance mosques in the future.” Even secular academics, such as Joan-Francesc Pont Clemente, at Barcelona University, agree. “An absolute separation between church and state would not be useful,” he says. “Above all, since Islam has appeared as an important religion. We cannot close our eyes to Islam and end up letting it be financed entirely by Saudi Arabia or radicals.”

Spain's relationship with Muslims remains loaded with historical baggage. The vision of the country as a bulwark against barbarism, the expulsion of the Moors and the persecution of Muslim Spanish converts by the Inquisition are all cherished by both the right and the Catholic church. Their views were bolstered by the call from al-Qaeda, both before and after the Madrid bombs, for a holy war to “liberate al-Andalus”. José Maria Aznar, the centre-right prime minister whose party was swept from power after the bombings, also calls on history. “There are those who think that the Madrid attacks are related to the support given by the Spanish government to the Iraq war,” he said in a speech in Washington, DC, last year. “The problem with al-Qaeda came from before that - as long ago as 1,300 years.”

Attitudes on both sides remain ambivalent, however. Surveys have repeatedly shown that North Africans top the charts of people that Spaniards most distrust. Last year there were violent protests in at least three towns against the opening of “garage-mosques”. Yet another recent survey, in El Pais, put Moroccan men first as Spanish women's preferred choice of marital partners among foreigners. The admirable al-Andalus notion of convivencia, or peaceful coexistence, is once again challenging Spain.

Feature looks at the complex and long relationship between Spain and Islam.