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§ "Evicted five centuries ago by crusading Christians, the
Arabs are back in Spain, using their oil dollars to buy land that was seized
from their ancestors by the sword". — James M. Markham, The New
York Times, 1981.
§ The Madrid daily ABC wrote that 800 mosques in
Spain are out of control. The Spanish daily La Razon charged
that Gulf donors, such as Qatar, were a source of Spain's Islamization. The
Saudis also launched a new Spanish television channel, Córdoba TV, as did Iran.
§ They dream of, and work to, regain the "lost Caliphate"
of Spain. Some Islamists do it with bombs and car-ramming attacks. Others, more
surreptitiously, do it with money and dawa, Islamic propaganda. The
second way may be even more effective than the first.
The ceremony in 2003 was announced with bombastic headlines:
"After a wait of more than 500 years, Spanish Muslims, have finally
succeeded in building a mosque of their own in the shadow of the Alhambra, once
the symbol of Islamic power in Europe". A troupe from al Jazeera was sent
to follow the event: a muezzin climbed to the minaret of the Great Mosque of
Granada to call the faithful to prayer for the first time in five centuries.
From Osama bin Laden to the self-proclaimed Caliph, Abu Bakr Al
Baghdadi, all the leaders of the global jihad -- including the terror cell that
killed 17 people in Barcelona -- have
mentioned Spain among the lands to be conquered by Islam. There is, however,
not only jihad. There is also "the quiet conquest",
as it has been dubbed by the French magazine, Valeurs Actuelles.
The quiet conquest is a sinuous attempt to re-Islamize Spain through cultural
centers, mega-mosques, proselytizing, conversions and financial investments.
This pacific attempt to elicit submission has been underway for some time and
has been backed by a flow of money from countries such as Qatar and Saudi
Arabia. According to a former commander of British forces in Iraq, General Jonathan Shaw,
these two countries in particular have ignited a "time bomb" by
funding the global spread of radical Islam.
The New York Times first
detailed in 1981 that, "evicted five centuries ago by crusading
Christians, the Arabs are back in Spain, using their oil dollars to buy land
that was seized from their ancestors by the sword". Spain back then did
not even recognize the State of Israel, and the Spanish monarchy regularly
visited Saudi Prince Fahd while he was relaxing in the south of Spain. After
that, it was Kuwait's turn:
"During the late 1980's, when Spain was booming, Kuwait came shopping for
corporations and investments".
Since then, the Arab monarchies have targeted Spain with huge
investments. Some emblematic buildings in Madrid and Barcelona, not to
mention the Costa del Sol, are now owned by Arab investment groups, from the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid to
the W Hotel in Barcelona. In Marbella, just a few meters away from the King
Fahd Mosque, there is the Alanda Hotel, which
offers halal food and services to meet the demands of the
Muslim clients. In 2011, the International Petroleum Investment Company,
controlled by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, purchased Cepsa,
the second-largest Spanish company in the oil sector.
Last January, Spain's King Felipe VI visited Saudi Arabia and
announced that Spain would boost economic, trade and investment relations with
the Islamic kingdom. Before that, in 2012, Saudi Aramco awarded
Spanish companies projects worth $700 million. Spain and Qatar are now
discussing the formation a $1 billion joint investment fund that
would help the Gulf state invest in Latin America. The Arab Emirates' mediacalled Spain
"a hotspot for investment from the Arab world". After Qatar, it was
the Oman's turn to invest in the Spanish market: Oman just agreed to invest up
to $120 million in a
uranium mine in Spain, to be used for Omani nuclear energy plants.
Demographically, Muslims are witnessing a shocking population
increase in Spain. In 1990, Muslims in the country numbered 100,000. By 2010,
the number had increased to 1.5 million. In 2017, the number was nearly two million. It is a
growth of 1,900% in 27 years.
Today there are 1,400 mosques in
Spain. According to the Observatory of Religious Pluralism
in Spain (an initiative of the Ministry of Justice), "this
figure represents 21% of all places of worship for all religions present in
Spain".
The most prolific funder of mosques in Spain is Saudi Arabia. In 1985,
using only its own money, the Saudi kingdom opened the Islamic Cultural Center
in Madrid, Europe's largest mosque, followed by the Islamic Center of Malaga,
which the Saudis financed with 22 million euros (today
the Madrid area has 112 mosquesand Islamic
cultural centers). As Gatestone's Soeren Kern detailed,
the Saudis have built mosques everywhere, from Marbella to Fuengirola.
Islamic rogue regimes, such as Iran, have also been able to
infiltrate Spanish political parties. According to an investigation, Tehran
gave money to Podemos, the leftist party which emerged as a new contender in
the Spanish political arena.
The Madrid daily ABC wrote that 800 mosques in
Spain are out of control. The Spanish daily La Razoncharged
that Gulf donors, such as Qatar, were a source of Spain's Islamization. The
Saudis also launched a new Spanish television channel, Córdoba TV, as did Iran.
The details of this religious proliferation are detailed The Spain of Allah,
a book by Ignacio Cembrero. While the number of Catholic churches in Spain has
not undergone much variation for many years, Muslim mosques have been growing
at a rate of 20% percent annually. Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani has
also offered to buy La Monumental Arena in Barcelona to turn it into
Europe's biggest mosque. The United Arab Emirates funded the construction of
the Great Mosque of Granada.
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Qatar's Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al Thani has offered to buy La Monumental Arena in
Barcelona, with its nearly 20,000 seats, to turn it into Europe's biggest
mosque. (Image source: Sergi Larripa/Wikimedia Commons)
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They dream of, and work to, regain the "lost Caliphate"
of Spain. Some Islamists do it with bombs and car-ramming attacks. Others, more
surreptitiously, do it with money and dawa, Islamic propaganda. The
second way may be even more effective than the first.
Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il
Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.