ISLAMONLINE.NET: MADRID — Thousands of Spaniards, especially intellectuals, academics and anti-globalization activists, are finding comfort and solace in Islam.
"Embracing Islam is on the rise despite ferocious Western media campaigns," Abdul-Nour Brado, the head of the Islamic Society of Catalonia, told IslamOnline.net.
Estimates suggest that between 3,000 to 4,000 Catalonians accepted Islam recently.
"The numbers could be much higher than that," Barado believes.
Local media reports have noted that intellectuals, academics and anti-globalization activists make up the bulk of the new Muslim reverts in Spain.
Catalonians first embraced Islam in the 1960s and their numbers were quite few.
Now thousands of Catalonians are believed to have joined the fold of Islam.
The Spanish autonomous province of Catalonia covers an area of 31,950 km² with an official population of 6.3 million, and its capital is Barcelona.
It is home to around 100,000 Moroccan immigrants, which is attributed to the geographical proximity with Morocco.
The southern European country has an estimated Muslim minority of about at 1.5 million out of a total population of 40 million.
Islam is the second religion after Christianity and has been recognized through the law of religious freedom, issued in July 1967. Islam Comforts Spanish Intellectuals >>> By Al-Amin Andalusi, IOL Correspondent | September 25, 2008
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