SPAIN: FIRST ISLAMIC PARTY READY FOR ELECTIONS
(by Paola Del Vecchio)
(ANSAmed) - Madrid, NOVEMBER 10 - The first Islamic party in
Spain is getting ready to have representation in the key
municipalities in the administrative elections in 2011.
The Renaissance and Union of Spain Party, promoted by Mustafa
Barrach, a former journalist and Arabic professor in Granada,
is close to Rabat, according to a report today in the ABC
conservative newspaper.
Member of the Al Hegira Muslim community and treasurer of the
Spanish Islamic Council, Barrak aspires to gathering not only
votes from the nearly 1,300,000 Muslim residents in Spain but
also from immigrants who represent 10% of the Spanish
population. Mustafa Bakkach, who has been living in Spain for 15
years, dedicates much of his time to supporting immigrants. The
Islamic Council, an organisation inspired by the Sufi branch of
Islam, is made up of a majority of Spanish converts belonging to
the Yamaa Islamica-Liga Morisca. Moriscos is what the 300,000
Muslims are called who stayed on the Iberian peninsula after the
expulsion of the Catholic kings and were forced to convert to
Christianity and then banished for good in 1609. In the internal
gazette, the organisation expounds a clearly national vocation
not only for consolidation in one area or autonomous region and
considers Islam the base of its principals in political
activities, a determining factor for the moral and ethical
regeneration of Spanish society. However, at the same time, it
respects the Spanish constitution and refuses terrorism as an
instrument of political struggle.
The organisation does not realistically aspire to winning the
municipalities but wants to obtain a discreet number of
councillors in some key Spanish cities. According to ABC, the
government does not hide a certain worry, since there are
currently 1,300,000 resident Muslims in the country including
Spanish converts and immigrants from Islamic countries of which
there are 700,000 from Morocco.
But there could be more than two million if illegal
immigrants are counted. The politicians fears have to do with
the new party eventually lead to the non-integration in urban
area with high Muslim presence and that in cities where they
already have a majority, the Muslims could attempt to impose
their customs through municipal regulations. (ANSAmed).
2009-11-10 20:15