Persons in Spanish occupied territories of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco have declared themselves to be enemies of the Spanish state, asking for several demands, including mosques, schools, Islamic professors, and sovereignty of the population. More than 30,000 Muslims live in Ceuta, where they comprise almost half of the population in the Spanish enclave, similar…
Morocco considers that the Royal trip of Don Juan Carlos and Dona Sofia to Ceuta and Melilla as an endangerment to the relations between the two countries. This reaction represents a much higher critique than the one presented to the visit of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in 2006. Moreover, it has opened up bilateral tensions…
MADRID – (AFP) – Spanish Muslims said they were unhappy at Spain’s intention to celebrate Melilla Day on Monday to mark the 510th anniversary of Spanish rule in the north African enclave on the Moroccan coast. “We consider it an attack on the dignity of Muslims,” Abderraman Benyahya, spokesman for the Melilla Islamic Commission (CIM),…
MADRID – Nearly one hundred thousand students wish to receive classes on Islam, according to numbers issued by the Comision Islamica Espanola (CIE). According to a 1992 agreement with the Ministry of Education, instruction in the subject must be provided if at least a tenth of the students request it. To date, 28 teachers of…
By Emma Ross-Thomas MELILLA, Spain (Reuters) – It’s Ramadan in Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla and as tempers fray, a group of shopkeepers argue about how Spanish they are. “I am a Spanish Berber,” one fasting shopkeeper shouts in Spanish, repeating it in the Berber language Tamazight. Mimon Mohamed Amar shouts back: “Come on,…
