GRANADA, Spain (dpa) – More than five centuries after the end of Moorish rule in Spain, Moslems are returning to Granada, the capital of Spain’s last Islamic kingdom.
Bearded men and women wearing headscarves pass on streets lined with Islamic butcheries and Moroccan craft shops. Arab-style tea shops compete for custom with typical Spanish cafes, and a signboard announces the construction of a large mosque in the old Moorish quarter of the Albaicin.The city of 270,000 now has up to 6,000 Moslems, estimates Malik Abder Rahman Ruiz, president of one of Granada’s Islamic associations. Other estimates put the number at up to 20,000 Moslems.Up to 1,000 of them are Spaniards who are seeking to reclaim their Moorish heritage and have converted to Islam. The rest are mainly Moroccan students and migrant workers.Overlooking Granada is the reddish citadel of the Alhambra, the seat of Moorish sultans whose defeat by Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella put a definitive end to 800 years of Moslem rule in large parts of Spain in 1492.Moorish presence was extinguished when all Moslems were expelled in 1609. Spain’s Moslem heritage was belittled for centuries, and only began to be really appreciated after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, according to many experts.Even if Spain is now one of the most starkly Catholic countries in the world, Islam is a part of its identity, Ruiz says.Many of the Moslems who built the scientifically and artistically refined civilization of Al-Andalus – a name for Moorish Spain – were not Arab conquerors, but Spanish converts to Islam and their descendants, he stresses.Ruiz heads the Islamic Community in Spain, whose members are mostly converted Spaniards and followers of Scottish Islamic leader Abdelkader al-Murabit.The former Beatles collaborator became an exponent of Islamic Sufi mysticism. “We represent a European branch of Islam,” Ruiz says.Spanish Moslems in Granada want to reclaim the rights granted to Moslems, but not put into practice, by Ferdinand and Isabella. The rights would have allowed Moslems to have their own judiciary and partial administration.The followers of al-Murabit school their children at home despite the possibility of getting instruction in Islam at state schools. They coin their own money, the golden dinar and the silver dirham.“We want to have our own financial system, because Islam prohibits usury,” Ruiz explains. The use of the money is extremely limited, and Ruiz admits that the community is having quite a few problems with the authorities.Many Spaniards who convert to Islam are former left-wingers or people disillusioned with Roman Catholicism. Quite a few are women who cover their heads with berets instead of scarves to avoid attracting attention.“Islam filled the spiritual emptiness that I felt,” said Amparo Sanchez, a 47-year-old female commercial representative.The Moslems in Granada as well as in the rest of Spain – numbering up to 600,000 in total – are divided between numerous currents, from liberal to strict Saudi-style Islam.Sources in Granada say that the divisions often correspond to countries financing Islamic activities in Spain. These reportedly include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Syria, Libya, Malaysia and Pakistan.Moslems in Granada have around 10 mosques – located in ordinary houses – and a cemetery. Converts are usually more ardent Moslems than people who were born to embrace Islam.“It would never even occur to Moroccans in Granada to coin their own money,” says Kissami El-Mostapha, Moroccan president of an association of Islamic students in the city.“I am a guest in this country, and would not interfere with its laws,” he adds.The arrests of suspected associates of presumed Saudi terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in Spain have prompted fears of outbreaks of violence in Granada, but they have proven unfounded so far.Some Moslems have complained of increased identity checks by police, but Kissami El-Mostapha dismisses problems as marginal. “The situation is calm in Granada,” he says with a smile.
