The Nascent Islamicization of Spain

Several years ago several AoSHQers and I were arguing with a liberal fellow from Spain, who laughed away all our concerns over Islamic encroachments in Spain. It would never happen, he said, there are too few of them. We tried to wake him up, but he shrugged off all of our cautions.

Today Spiegel Online talks about the growing Muslim influence in Granada, the former seat of the Moorish empire in Spain:

…many even see Granada as the future Islamic capital of Europe. Others fear that Andalusia could once again become the gateway for a “reconquista” — this time under the green banner of the Prophet

Since that discussion, liberalized immigration laws increased the Muslim population by some 50%:

Today, some 1.5 million Muslims live in Spain, including roughly 650,000 Moroccans with residence permits. In 2004, the left-wing, Socialist government launched the largest legalization initiative to date for foreign workers in the country. The move prompted half a million Muslim women to come to Spain to join their spouses. This has also meant, though, that many women are often confined to their homes by their husbands and have to live according to a stricter interpretation of the religion than in their home countries.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with large-scale Muslim immigration, as long as they integrate reasonably well with the native society and its religions. But with every large-scale immigration, the extreme factions come as well, embedded with the moderates. And so it is in Spain:

All across Spain the faithful throng to the country’s 427 registered mosques and countless unofficial smaller houses of worship to attend Friday prayers. The vast majority adhere to the relatively liberal Maliki-Sunni branch of Islam. But with the large sums of money that Saudi oil barons have been generously distributing, the fundamentalist Wahhabi creed of Islam is gaining influence among Spanish Muslims.

I hope that Spanish lib is paying attention to the writing on the wall.