Spain’s Prime Minister Provides Security for Muslims

Leading members of the Spanish Muslim community issued a statement that said they had received assurances from Christian leaders in addition to the Prime Minister. Muslim leaders countered the news reports that stated the attacks had caused concern among Spain’s 500,000 Muslims, most of whom are Moroccans, by saying, ‘News that we are concerned is not true’.

Spain’s Islamic Union Association President, Riai Tatari Bakri, cursed the attacks. Bakri also said that Zapatero himself had called him on the phone to reassure him. Bakri disclosed that Zapatero had said, ‘No matter who, or what organization did the attacks, I do not think it is related to the whole religion. I want Muslims to be fine.’

Bakri and other Muslim leaders met with Christian leaders, and they received the message, "Do not worry; this incident will not be associated with Islam." Bakri pointed out that no retaliatory incidents against Muslims have been experienced. He said that right after the attacks some people did not send their children to schools; however, everything later returned to normal. He acknowledged that they had greater troubles after September 11th.

Morrocan Laborers and Immigrants Association President Mustafa Al M’Rabet confirmed Bakri’s acknowledgement. Al M’Rabet said that extremely ugly manners were shown to Muslims after September 11th, but that there has been no such backlash after March 11th. Mustafa Al M’Rabet showed his concern about a tendency he had noticed in the press of ‘identifying terror with Islam’. "I say to them, ‘terrorist attacks are organized in other countries as well. When attacks are carried out by Irish terrorist organizations, for example, do you call the perpetrators Christian terrorists?, Why do you identify these incidents only with Islam? Why do you people, who would not label someone a Christian terrorist, have no qualms about calling someone a Muslim terrorist?’"

Terrorist and Muslim are not one and the same

In Madrid, the Islamic Cultural Center’s Secretary Mohammed Salih Al-Ali said center president, Ibrahim Al Zahid, wanted to meet with Zaman and express his opinions. Ibrahim Al Zahid has previously never accepted interview requests from any media institution. During the interview, Al Zahid stated his reason for accepting the request as:

‘I wanted to talk to you since I am familiar with Zaman newspaper and STV’s media understanding and mission.’

Al Zahid expressed his confidence that the Turkish would agree that: "If we do not want to contribute to the attack we need to be more responsible. We should not be trapped by those who want to equate Islam with terrorism. Muslim cannot be synonymous with terrorist and terrorist cannot be synonymous with Muslim."