MADRID,
October 20 (IslamOnline.net) - Ramadan has a special Islamic taste in
southern Spain where the scent of good old days of Islam is still
fresh in the last bastions of Muslim Andalusia. Even Spaniards in that
area enjoy different characteristics from the rest of the Spanish
population.
The
Baizin neighborhood in Granada, during Ramadan, is very similar to old
neighborhoods in Damascus, Syria or Casablanca, Morocco. When one
walks through its streets, Ramadan pastries, religious cassettes and
books, along with high numbers of veiled women can not be termed
“out of place.”
In
the Spanish area closer to Morocco known as the Green Island by the
Mediterranean, near Gibraltar, many restaurants owned by Moroccans
tend to serve fasting Muslims.
They
prepare Ramadan specials because that the Island contains the largest
harbor in southern Spain and hundreds of traveling Muslims use it
daily. Many of them are forced to break their fast or to get ready for
next day’s dawn-to-dusk fast by eating sahur there.
Local
Spaniards there are used to the habits of traveling Moroccans more
than anyone else. They can tell Ramadan has come by the smell of
certain meals coming out of restaurants or houses inhabited by
immigrant Muslims.
One
of the Moroccan residents of the Green Island, Ahmed Aznak, told
IslamOnline.net Wednesday, October 20, that Ramadan almost felt the
same on the island as in Morocco.
“I
feel no difference. It’s simple though. If I feel bored, I can just
board a boat and break my fast in Tangier in no more than two hours.
It’s just 14 kilometers.”
City
of Dreams
The
pearl of southern Spain, Marbella, or “City of Dreams” as its
visitors call it, is considered one of the cities where Muslim
immigrants enjoy the best atmosphere of harmony and tranquility during
this holy month.
Its
streets are never free, summer or winter, from Arab visitors. It also
has a big, very elegant mosque. During Ramadan, mawa’id Ar-Rahman
(charitable iftar banquets in the street) are also abundant.
Hameed,
a Moroccan resident of Marbella since the mid 1980s, says: “In the
past, there was too much food during Ramadan carried to mosques by
charitable people. We used to eat little, the rest was usually thrown
away as the next day more fresh food was brought in. I used to resent
this. Ramadan is not a month of food, it’s rather for fasting to
feel what the poor suffer. Thank God such bad habits are decreasing
now.”
North
Less Fortunate
 |
|
Ramadan is mostly felt in southern
Spain
|
Such
Ramadan spirit becomes less visible in northern Spain. In big cities
like Madrid or Barcelona, only mosques and small prayer rooms give the
sense of this holy month.
In
Barcelona city, northeast province of Catalonia, a conference was held
last week, attended by some 200 imams of the regions’ mosques.
The
conferees declared their intention to hold an open day annually in
Catalonia to allow non-Muslim residents to visit mosques of the Muslim
community, seeking better harmony and understanding.
Head
of the Islamic Cultural Center in Catalonia, Ahmed bin Allal, said,
“More than 200 representatives of Muslim communities in the province
declared their commitment to open mosques and prayer rooms that amount
to 180 to the rest of Catalonia residents one day a year.”
The
conferees have not set a certain day for the event, but it is widely
agreed it would be `Eid Al-Fitr (the day that follows the end of
Ramadan).
Big
Mosque
Such
a procedure does not, however, conceal the hardships Catalonia Muslims
face due to the lack of a big mosque where their increasing numbers
can meet, especially in Ramadan.
Islamic
societies in Catalonia took the chance of Ramadan this year to repeat
their demand to the Spanish authorities to facilitate their task of
building a big mosque. Their repeated calls have fallen on deaf ears
during the past years.
Muslims
of Catalonia want nothing from the local government but to facilitate
administrative procedures. As for financing, they say they can handle
everything on their own.
