For many in Spain, the New Muslims' pleasing discourse about al-Andalus has begun to seem insufficient to justify their privileged position. The
group's liberal efforts have failed, for example, to persuade some critics that converts are not involved in broader attempts to radicalize Islam in Europe, especially since three British converts were found among those charged in the London airline bombing plot in 2006. Indeed, two prominent members of Spanish society have published books warning of the dangers converts pose. Gustavo de Aristegui, a congressman with the conservative Popular Party and the author of La Yihad en Espana (Jihad in Spain), argues that converts represent an effective means of spreading extremist ideas.
"Jihadist groups were once suspicious of converts because they feared that they were intelligence agents trying to infiltrate their
cells," he writes. "But someone with European looks and a Western last name raises fewer suspicions, so the jihadists are realizing that they can be effective cannon fodder for suicide missions. They are almost impossible to detect, especially if they have not revealed their conversion to their
family." Aristegui admits the number of converts who are active jihadists is small
(Yusuf Galan is the only convert among the 200 Muslims arrested in Spain in conjunction with 9/11 and 3/11; he was later released).
"But," he notes, "the number who support the ideals that feed terrorism is much
greater."
Rosa Maria Rodriguez Magda, a member of the Valencia Council for Culture, worries less about terrorism than about the
converts' position in the debate about democratic values in Spain. She blames converts for seeking rights that contradict democratic values. She is also concerned that converts may be an unwitting Trojan Horse through which a more conservative Islam will take hold in Spain. And she calls special attention to what she views as a slippery slope between
converts' claims of descent from al-Andalus and Islamist demands to reclaim the historic kingdom.
Her anxiety is shared by many. In December 2006, the conservative newspaper abc reported, with notable distress, on plans for large mosques in Seville and at Medina Azahara, the site of a caliphal palace once located outside Cordoba, and tied the proposed construction to Muslim efforts
"to reclaim al-Andalus," observing that the groups backing the construction "are comprised mainly of
converts."
Despite these fears, many New Muslims find themselves increasingly at odds with foreign-born Muslims. Part of this tension is likely due to the natural sense of displacement felt by converts as more immigrant Muslims arrive and become comfortable in their adopted country. But the friction also confirms the tension between the version of Islam preached by the Junta and other convert groups and the version propagated by
"old" Muslims. Says Castineira of those he calls "Arab" fundamentalists, "They
don't have a problem with our vision of Islam. They have a problem with how we implement our vision of
Islam."
Many old Muslims are reluctant to air their differences with converts. Mohamed El Afifi, spokesperson for
Madrid's Islamic cultural centre, for example, goes no further than to diplomatically acknowledge certain distinctions.
"Those of us who are born Muslim have one kind of defined life," he says. "Those who convert to Islam have another. The faith is enriched by
both." As to the disagreements between the Junta Islamica and other Muslim organizations, he demurs.
"We don't like to get involved in that kind of muddle."
Kamal Mekhelef, secretary of the Cordoba Muslim Association and former director of a small mosque that Franco built there for his Muslim Moroccan soldiers, is more direct.
"Some converts do play the role of mediator. They were born here, and they know the country and its
culture," he says. "But they're not all the same. Some know Islam well; they've studied it for years... others are still
learning." And Mekhelef plainly disagrees with some of the Junta's actions. "I
don't defend the fatwa [against bin Laden], not at all," he says. "To condemn an act of terrorism
- as we all should - is one thing. But a fatwa is a much more serious thing, issued only by those with a great deal of education and preparation. I
don't think that those who declared it against bin Laden had that kind of education. I would never do such a
thing."
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The clearest sign of this conflict came early in 2006, when Escudero was ousted from the leadership position he had held in the Islamic Commission since the
organization's founding. The move surprised Escudero and provoked concern among many New Muslims about the direction Islam might take in Spain. Abdennur Prado, head of the Catalan Junta Islamica, notes that
"Arab culture cannot offer the model for Islam's integration into lay society. We are the ones who have broken the monopoly that certain foreign groups have in western
Europe." Many saw in Escudero's expulsion a disapproval of the Junta's actions, especially the bin Laden fatwa. Others considered it a referendum on the
Junta's more liberal interpretations of the faith. Although the Islamic
Commission's new secretary general, Felix Herrero, is a convert himself, many liberal Muslims and non-Muslims accuse him of being controlled by powerful Saudi interests, and police have conducted an investigation related to terrorism at his mosque in Malaga.
At Granada's mosque, Abdulhasib Castineira speaks about some recent visitors, Norwegian theologians.
"They were Protestants, and we had a very good, very probing conversation about our
religions," he recounts. "At the end, one of them turned to me and asked, 'But given immigration and the birth rates,
aren't Muslims going to take over Europe one of these days?' I answered, 'If you have two groups, and one of them scorns marriage and has a high rate of divorce and
doesn't want to bring children into the world, and the other one has strong families with lots of children, well,
what's wrong with that?'"
Castineira's story may not comfort many Westerners, but no one can deny his conviction that his faith, his Islam, supports the things that matter
- or should matter - to Europeans, whether they be Enlightenment values or strong families. At a time when European society grapples with the outrage provoked by cartoons of Muhammad, debates the propriety of head scarves in public, and feels threatened both by Islamist terrorism and, too often, by government responses to it as well, Castineira promises a way out of a clash of civilizations.
"Just look at this mosque," he says. "When it was being built, some extremist residents protested, saying that we were trying to reclaim al-Andalus. But then the mosque opened, and there
hasn't been a single problem. They've realized that we're an important part of the
city."
Geoff Pingree and Lisa Abend,
professors at Oberlin College, write regularly on the politics and culture of
Spain and northern Africa.
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