Spain’s Muslims Fear Backlash, Discrimination

“Terrorism is blind, it simply seeks out the weakest people. We’re victims too, and if it turns out to be Al-Qaeda, we’ll be double victims,” Ahmad, a 38-year old Moroccan in Madrid, told Reuters news agency.

The fears came hard on the heels of statements made by Spain’s Interior Minister Angel Acebes, who said Al-Qaeda network has claimed anew responsibility for Madrid’s train blasts in a videotaped message.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, however, told the BBC Sunday that the Basque separatist group ETA remained the prime suspect.

At least 200 people were killed and up to 1500 others wounded in Thursday’s carnage, in which 10 bombs tore through packed morning commuter trains and three railway stations in the southeast of the capital.

“We don’t want it to be Al-Qaeda, just as the Basques don’t want it to be ETA. But what difference does it make, knowing who it was? We’re all affected,” added Ahmad, who declined to give his full name.

Mustafa, a 40-year-old Moroccan living in the multi-racial district of Lavapies resident, said those who carried out the carnage “have no heart”.

“We don’t know who it is, we just have to count the bodies. They attacked the poorest people who were on the train at that time of the morning. Our people were killed too,” Mustafa said.

Asked if life will get worse if al Qaeda was behind Thursday’s killings, Mustafa said: “I hope not…Maybe they’ll come and get me and they might get you too for talking to me”.

Tarnishing The Image

Echoing same fears, Muslims in the northern city of Bilbao gathered after Isha’ prayer, believing that Al-Qaeda specter could tarnish their image in the eyes of the Christian majority in the city, France’s Le Courrier Internationale daily reported Sunday.

“We fear that such a carnage might backlash against us and trigger a hate and racist campaign,” said 40-year-old Javier, who embraced Islam two years ago.

“I am sure many [of the Spaniards] do not know much about our tolerant religion. Not all Basques are ETA members nor all Muslims belong to Al-Qaeda.”

“If it is Al-Qaeda’s work, it will be highly embarrassing. These attacks run counter to the tenets of Islam…It would really hurt me if the perpetrators were Muslims,” he added.

Javier has hardly voiced his fears when two girls passed by the small mosque in Bilbao, describing the Muslim gathering as a “bunch of evildoers”.

Al-Jazeera satellite channel further said that a Spanish policeman had reportedly shot dead an Arab grocer as the latter refused to place a mourning mark on his shop.

Nourdin, an Algerian, said it is disastrous that people here know nothing about Islam.

Ahmad Al-Hanafi, an Egyptian journalist living in Bilbao for eight years, said his heart breaks for those innocent people killed in the train carnage.

But “Al-Qaeda does not represent us and I am profoundly saddened by the attacks,” he stressed.

Hanafi joined Friday, March 12, a rally in a show of solidarity with the families of the victims as part of a nationwide rallies to protest against all forms of terrorism.

World Muslims condemned Saturday, March 13, the Madrid blasts, sending it clear that killing civilians is forbidden in their religion regardless of where or who carry out the attacks.

Some 94 percent of Spain’s 40 million population are Christian Catholics. Islam had been the country’s main religion nearly 800 years until the Catholic monarchs reconquered the southern city of Granada in 1492.