Spain's Moorish Past Helps Muslims Feel at Home

December 18, 2006

Author: Victoria Burnett

Source: Financial Times

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ed37c9f6-8e3b-11db-ae0e-0000779e2340.html

On a green hillside above the southern city of Granada stands the magnificent Alhambra palace, the last seat of Spain's Muslim rulers and the country's most famous monument to centuries of enlightenment and religious co-existence.

Across the Darro river, perched atop a steep hill stacked with white-washed houses, is Granada's modern beacon of Islam: the first mosque to be built in the city since the collapse of the Moorish Iberian empire, known as al-Andalus, 500 years ago.

The mosque, completed in 2003 with €3m ($4m, £2m) donated mainly by the Gulf Emirate of Sharjah, draws hundreds of visitors every day to its garden of orange, olive and pomegranate trees. Workshops, concerts and seminars on subjects such as Islam's role in Europe are open to all denominations.

Abdulhasib Castañeira, head of the foundation that runs the mosque, believes interaction between religious communities is the key to preventing animosity and extremist violence. "We have to avoid creating ghettos, isolation," he says. "We [Muslims] have to be realistic about the times we live in and communicate our values without causing confrontation."