Al-Andalus revisited

摘要

All of Europe, it seems, is fretting about its Muslim population. Spain's is relatively small—less than a million—yet no country has a more complex relationship with Islam. Until two years ago, the muezzin's cry "Allahu akbar" had not been heard in Granada since the reconquista and the expulsion of the last Moorish king in 1492. But then a mosque was erected in the Albaicin quarter near the Alhambra. For the mainly Spanish converts to Islam who built it, this was the dawn of a new era: as a mosque spokesman put it, "the seeds of Islam were planted long ago, and now they are flourishing once again." Although some traditionalists resisted the mosque, it is not the "heritage" strain of Islam that really preys on Spanish minds: it is the new, fundamentalist variety. This was brought home most shockingly after Islamist terrorists bombed the trains in Madrid in March 2004. Now the London bombings have revived fears. Shortly after the Madrid attacks it seemed that Spain might follow France's example by waging war on radical Islam. The interior minister, Jose Antonio Alonso, announced plans for more police in cities with large Muslim populations, to crack down on mosque-building and jihad-preaching imams. But in keeping with the conciliatory nature of the new Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, these plans have been shelved.