NEWS STORY: Nine Months After Madrid Bombings, Life Remains Hard for Spain’s Muslims

c. 2004 Religion News Service MADRID, Spain _ The Sunday crowd flows slow as molasses through El Rastro flea market, past towering piles of cheap North African pottery and secondhand clothes. Past bakeries where Madrilenos line up for steaming loaves, and the corner of Ribera de Curtidores street where an Algerian band plays rousing Berber […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

MADRID, Spain _ The Sunday crowd flows slow as molasses through El Rastro flea market, past towering piles of cheap North African pottery and secondhand clothes.

Past bakeries where Madrilenos line up for steaming loaves, and the corner of Ribera de Curtidores street where an Algerian band plays rousing Berber melodies. Past the stall where carpet salesman Mohammed Assal keeps a sharp eye out for customers on a chilly day, as he judges the longer-term climate for Muslims in Spain.


“Some people have bad ideas about Moroccans and Arabs,” the stocky 48-year-old Moroccan said in passable Spanish. “But generally we live well here. Even after Sept. 11.”

“And,” Assal added, “March 11.”

Spain’s worst terrorist attack in history has cast an uneasy spotlight on the country’s estimated 800,000 to 1 million Muslims. The Madrid train bombings killed nearly 200 people and injured hundreds more. Like the September 2001 strikes in the United States, the March 11 attacks in Madrid have been blamed on Islamist radicals.

But nine months later, life appears to have returned to normal for Muslims like Assal. There appears to be no spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes. And Spain’s new Socialist government _ thrust into power in a post-bombing backlash against the ruling conservatives _ is scoring points for building bridges with the Islamic community.

“Generally the Spanish society reacted in a civilized and responsible manner,” said Mustapha El M’Rabet, president of the Madrid-based Association of Moroccan Workers and Immigrants in Spain, echoing the assessment of other experts here. “There was some provocation, a few isolated attacks. But nothing like what happened to Muslims in the United States after Sept. 11.”

That does not mean all is well for immigrants in Spain _ a country once virtually cut off from the world during the 36-year dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Until recently, “foreigner” often meant a Spaniard from another region.

Just a few years ago, Spain exported rather than imported cheap labor. But an economic boom helped lure hundreds of thousands of immigrants here. Many are from Latin America, and share the same language and Roman Catholic faith as their adopted country. It is Muslim newcomers, flocking by plane or flimsy boat across the narrow Strait of Gibraltar, who draw the most hostility.

“The Islamic people have a lot of rights, but they don’t pay for them,” said 36-year-old construction worker Jesus Lopez. “If we don’t curtail their liberties, they’ll end up oppressing us.”


Such sentiments are not uncommon, experts say. “The problem of racism and xenophobia is a big issue in Spain, as it is in other European countries,” said Virginia Alvarez, an immigration specialist at Amnesty International in Madrid. “The population is not against the Muslim people because of March 11. This has been a long process.”

Outside the city’s main mosque, a soaring, Saudi-financed, white-marbled confection, 21-year-old Aziz Abdul Aziz summed up his two years in Madrid as a story of bitter failure. Down to his last euros, the slender, 21-year-old youth now contemplates returning to his home village in central Morocco.

“You can’t get legal papers here because people are racist and anti-Moroccan,” Aziz said. “And without papers, you can’t work.”

Suspicion, if not downright hostility against Muslims, runs deep in Spain, where memories of Moorish occupation still linger centuries later. Muslims, Jews and Protestants were later persecuted during the Spanish Inquisition. Only in 1990 did the government agree to officially end legal discrimination against the three minority faiths.

“Historically in Spain, Muslims were seen as the enemy,” said Yusuf Fernandez Ordonez, spokesman for the Federation of Islamic Organizations, one of two large Muslim groupings in Spain. “Some people still have these negative ideas. But others are now more tolerant of other religions.”

A onetime Roman Catholic, Fernandez is a case in point. Like thousands of other native Spaniards in recent years, he converted to Islam. Indeed, today, the ancient Moorish stronghold of Granada is the hub of a new Islamic revival, drawing hundreds of moderate-minded converts from across Europe.


“Spain needs its Muslim immigrants,” Fernandez said. “It has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe. Spaniards and Europeans must be prepared to accept more Muslim workers in their midst.”

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

That message appears to have resonated with the new Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero. Even as it arrested dozens of suspected Muslim radicals and announced new plans to survey mosques and questionable imams after the Madrid bombings, the government took steps to improve ties with ordinary Muslims.

In late October, it announced plans to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including many from North Africa. The same month, it created a foundation to help Islam and other non-Catholic religions better integrate into Spanish society.

Zapatero’s decision to withdraw Spain’s 1,300 troops from Iraq and his calls for building bridges between the West and Islamic countries have also drawn praise from community leaders like Mohamed el Afifi Mohamed.

“We appreciate this tone of dialogue and communication,” said Mohamed, the white-haired, urbane spokesman of Madrid’s main mosque. “The government is trying to persuade Spaniards that Muslims aren’t dangerous. That the majority of Muslims are peaceful people.”

KRE/PH END RNS

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