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Viewing cable 09BARCELONA154, MUSLIM PARLIAMENTARIAN DISCUSSES ISLAM IN SPAIN

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09BARCELONA154 2009-11-06 14:19 2011-08-24 16:30 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate Barcelona
VZCZCXRO1316
RR RUEHLA
DE RUEHLA #0154/01 3101419
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061419Z NOV 09
FM AMCONSUL BARCELONA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1228
INFO RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 1189
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 0001
RUEHLA/AMCONSUL BARCELONA 1415
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BARCELONA 000154 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/WE MCKNIGHT AND ZERDECKI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PINR SMIG SOCI SP MO
SUBJECT: MUSLIM PARLIAMENTARIAN DISCUSSES ISLAM IN SPAIN 
 
1.      (U) SUMMARY:   Spain's first Muslim Parliamentarian 
discussed with POLOFF Muslim relations in Spain and stressed the 
importance of grassroots activism to integrate Muslims into 
Spanish society.  Noting the vast increase of Muslim immigrants 
into Spain in recent years, Mohammed Chaib cautioned against 
radical and fundamentalist trends in the country.  In addition 
to xenophobic political attitudes, Chaib faulted the lack of 
unity within the Muslim community as a barrier to developing a 
more positive role for Muslims in Spain.  He also criticized the 
divided Muslim leadership for not collaborating to build an 
official mosque in Catalonia, which has more Muslims than any 
other region in Spain.  On a positive note, he said that the 
Arab world has high hopes for President Obama.  END SUMMARY 
 
 
 
2.      (U) POLOFF met on October 29 with Mohammed Chaib, a 
socialist party deputy elected to the Catalan Parliament in 2003 
and, more notably, the first Muslim Parliamentarian in Spain.  A 
Moroccan born immigrant whose family moved to Barcelona when he 
was a small child, Chaib shared his views on the state of Islam 
in Spain, and stressed the importance of immigrants integrating 
into Spanish society.  He said that the high rate of Muslim 
immigration into Spain has greatly changed the Islamic community 
over the past 15 years, and noted that more Muslims live in 
Catalonia than in any other region of Spain.  Approximately 1.3 
to 1.5 million Muslims live in Spain, roughly half of whom are 
from Morocco.  The number of Muslims in Spain has nearly tripled 
since 2003, when the population was estimated at only 525,000. 
Less than 30 percent are Spanish citizens, including descendents 
of immigrants and Spanish converts to Islam. 
 
DIVISIONS WITHIN THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY 
 
 
 
3.      (U) The Islamic Commission of Spain (CIE), created in 
1992, is the official entity representing Muslims in Spain. The 
CIE has outlined cooperative agreements on education, prayer in 
the workplace, imams and other policies to help manage Muslim 
relations with Spanish society.  According to Chaib, however, 
these agreements were never fully developed and have been poorly 
implemented.  He said that competing interpretations of Islam, 
coupled with cultural differences between Arab, Pakistani, 
sub-Saharan and Spanish Muslim converts create further 
divisions.  He added that much of the discordance within the 
Muslim community stems from the competing interests of the two 
administrative bodies that comprise CIE - the Federation of 
Islamic Religious Entities of Spain (FEERI) and the Islamic 
Community Union of Spain (UCIDE).  Chaib explained that FEERI 
was originally created to serve Spanish Muslim converts, while 
UCIDE was oriented toward Arab immigrants.  He said that the two 
federations need to unite under one secretary general with a 
common mandate to integrate Muslims into Spanish society. 
Chaib, who participated in a State Department International 
Visitors Leadership Program on immigration in 2002, noted, 
"Islam is the same.  However, the administration of Islam is 
very different." 
 
 
 
4.      (U) Chaib faulted the Islamic institutions for not 
adapting to the changes and rapid growth of the Muslim 
community.   He warned of the "dangers of many different 
religious movements from all over the world" competing for the 
attention of Muslims in Spain, explaining that a unified, 
moderate religious leadership is necessary to fight radical 
views.  Chaib is a staunch proponent of Muslim integration, and 
he said that his primary struggle is "against those Muslims who 
want to stay un-integrated."  He explained that  two types of 
radicalism exist in Spain-political radicalism, which is an 
anti-modernization, fundamentalist movement led by the 
Moroccan-based Justice and Charity group, and religious 
radicalism, which is characterized by Salafists who advocate a 
separatist, strict interpretation of Islam.  Promoting his 
modern, moderate views, he declared, "we are living in the 21st 
century, not in the era of Muhammad." 
 
 
 
5.      (U)  Having grown up in Barcelona, Chaib's first 
languages are Catalan and Spanish, and he said he did not learn 
to speak Arabic until he returned to Morocco to attend high 
school.   He maintains strong ties with Morocco and recently 
traveled there with the mayor of Barcelona on an official visit 
to discuss the Moroccan community in Catalonia.  Adding that 
Moroccans comprise half of the Muslim population in Spain, he 
stressed the importance of Spanish-Moroccan relations to combat 
radicalism and cautioned that Morocco needs to stay vigilant 
against extremism to prevent "what happened in Algeria." 
 
BARCELONA 00000154  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
NO MOSQUE IN CATALONIA 
 
 
 
6.      (U) Although Catalonia has more Muslims than any other 
part of Spain, no proper mosque exists in the region.  Muslims 
in Catalonia congregate in approximately 170 neighborhood prayer 
rooms and oratories, many of which are informal operations run 
out of garages or commercial spaces.  In 2006 a proposed mosque 
in the beachfront Badalona neighborhood of Barcelona was 
defeated by a campaign directed by Partido Popular activists who 
gathered 4,000 voters' signatures against the mosque.  (Note: 
Another ongoing proposal to build a mosque in the city of Lleida 
has faced similar opposition for the past eight years.  End 
Note.)  Chaib also cited the anti-immigration Platform for 
Catalonia party as "racist and anti-Muslim".   Much of the 
blame, he added, stems from the lack of unity within the Muslim 
community as the different factions cannot agree on the 
characteristics of an official mosque. While Chaib did say that 
relations between Moroccans and Pakistanis in Catalonia are 
good, he believes that the Pakistani community resists 
integrating and being more open to Spanish society.  Chaib said 
that his goal is to have a "Muslim community that lives in peace 
within Spanish society, and has a true mosque." 
 
 
 
7.      (U) Chaib said that until several years ago many of the 
imams in the informal prayer centers did not have residency 
permits, and obtaining religious-based visas was difficult.  He 
credited the Spanish government in recent years for recognizing 
the importance of legalizing the immigration status of religious 
leaders, and said that most of the roughly 170 imams in 
Catalonia are now legal residents.  Chaib said that as the 
number of Muslim immigrants increased, traditional fathers 
increasingly voiced their concerns with their daughters 
receiving a westernized education.  As a result, the Spanish 
government recognized the importance of promoting moderate 
religious leaders to explain the role of Islam in a western 
society. 
 
COMMUNITY RELATIONS 
 
 
 
8.      (U) Chaib also stressed the importance of educating 
Muslim youth and Spanish born children of immigrants to be 
politically active and participate in society.  The founder of 
the Ibn Batuta Socio-Cultural Association, a secular 
organization that aims to improve relations between Muslims and 
Spanish society, Chaib is active at both the political and 
grassroots level.  The Ibn Batuta center - named after the famed 
14th century Moroccan explorer - organizes cultural activities, 
neighborhood dialogues, workshops on Islam, and job assistance 
programs.  Chaib said that because of the high number of 
immigrants that typically work in Catalonia's now struggling 
construction industry, the economic crisis has hurt Muslims 
particularly hard.  He added that economic woes and unemployment 
create more tensions than do religious and cultural differences. 
 Noting that Latin American immigrants in Spain can vote in 
municipal elections - unlike most Muslim immigrants- Chaib 
mentioned the importance of the Spanish government signing 
bilateral accords with Morocco, Pakistan and other countries to 
allow non-citizen immigrants to participate in the political 
process. 
 
 
9.      (U) Chaib, who excused himself three times during the 
hour and a half long meeting to vote on different resolutions in 
the Catalan Parliament, spoke highly of his 2002 visit to the 
U.S. and like many interlocutors these days was hopeful that 
President Obama would visit Barcelona next year.  Before 
concluding the meeting with a tour of the Parliament building 
and introductions to several other socialist deputies, Chaib 
said that Arabs have both high hopes and high expectations for 
President Obama, noting "the doors of hope are opening, and it's 
easier to work in that environment. 
CROUCHG