Spanish bishops who refused to respond to a survey about Muslim immigration are drawing criticism for turning the backs on inter-religious relations. “We feel sad at this silence that we do not understand and which hurts us as Christians,” noted Emilio Galindo Aguilar, the head of the Centre for Hispano-Arabic and Islamic-Christian Research, which conducted the poll. The poll asks about reactions to Muslims in different Catholic dioceses, and was sent to about ninety bishops; the organization received only one response. Isabel Gomez Acebo, a theology professor at the Pontific University of Comillas, said that the bishops’ lack of response shows that for them, “Muslims do not exist.”
