‘Seeking peace’: Why Islam is becoming popular in southern Spain

Spaniard ‘Ali’ Javier Puertas has always had an inquisitive mind growing up in Spain’s arid southern region.

Despite hailing from a typically Christian household in the autonomous region of Andalusia, Puertas says his parents had always allowed him to follow his own path in life.

During adolescence, attracted by festivities, celebrations and folklore, he veered towards Catholicism, attending bible classes.

But his curiosity to question things, he says, led to him being kicked out of his bible class once, after the teacher told him: “You come here to believe, not to ask”.

“So years passed, I went to university at 22 years old and I made friends with a Moroccan Muslim lad,” Puertas tells TRT World.

Both in their early 20s, Puetras and Alal, his Moroccan Muslim friend, would compete against one another, particularly when it came to their law exams.

In the second year Alal suggested that Puertas would likely outperform him, as his energies were focussed on Ramadan.

Despite knowing nothing about Islam’s holy month of fasting, Puertas wanted to even up the playing field so he said he would undertake Ramadan with Alal.

“That was my first Ramadan. We undertook the exams, we both passed,” says Puertas.

Afterwards Alal invited Puertas to his home to break the fast and from there the Spainard’s interest in Islam grew.

It culminated in visiting the local Mosque in Granada and attending the Madrasa - where he was encouraged to speak and raise any questions that he may have about Islam.

Despite his initial reluctance caused by his past experiences of being scolded for questioning some aspects of Christianity, his curiosity about the idea of God encouraged him to read the Quran.

“It was as if a switch was clicked,” explains Puertas, who says it offered him a new way “to reflect”.

After reading the Spanish translation of the Quran, Puertas’ life would take a new path, describing it as his “discovery” and “inflection point”.

Puertas continued becoming more acquainted with Islam and continuing his research about the religion.

Finally at 25 years old Puertas undertook the Shahadah or the Islamic oath which forms one of the five pillars of the religion.

Since that moment from initially being “closed off” to fully-embracing a new community, Puertas says his journey into Islam has helped to connect with others,

Today Puertas is one of a growing number of converts to embrace Islam in Spain.

According to the Islamic Commission of Spain, there are 2.5 million Muslims in Spain, which is about 5.32 percent of the population of 47 million Spaniards. The number of converts, as per the commission, has increased to an estimated 10 times in the past three decades.

“Now in Granada there are 36,000 Muslims, with 3,800 being converts as a third generation,” Spanish Islamic Society Association and Granada Great Mosque Foundation President Umar del Pozo tells TRT World.

He says a similar trend is taking place across Andalusia in cities such as Jaen, Marbella and Girola.

In Granada, Pozo who was born into a Muslim-convert family, says there are Shahadahs performed most Fridays among Spaniards and other nationalities, such as the English population living in the region.

Typically he says people visit the city and stop off at the Mosque where their interest is sparked after discussing Islam with staff.

Afterwards he says many gain new insight about the religion which he suggests is counteracting Islam’s negative portrayal in the media, as many decide to accept the faith into their lives.

Pozo says among other factors the pandemic lockdown drove a “state of reflection” for people to seek answers to fundamental questions about their own lives and identity.

“When the lockdown was lifted, they came directly to the Mosque and they undertook Shahada,” says Pozo.

In the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Pozo says historically the converts also played a fundamental role in the construction of Granada's Grand Mosque, located in an old Arab quarter called Al Baicin. Paved streets lead up to the Mosque that lies opposite to one of the most famous monuments in Islamic architecture - the historic Alhambra.

The reddish palace and fortress once formed part of the Nasrid dynasty - the last Muslim rulers across what today forms the Iberian Peninsula from 1238 until 1492, after the Reconquista movement, which killed and expelled both Muslims and Jews in the name of "rechristianisation" of these territories.

"The history of the Mosque is enthralling because everything stems from when Abdalqadir as-Sufi told us to carry out the Eid prayer at the mosque in Cordoba because that’s where the community began," says Pozo.

The community of largely Muslim converts in the early 80s, followed Sheikh or leader as-Sufi’s instruction to seek permission to worship in the area from the Church authorities. However the large numbers, notably with many Pakistani Muslims who worked in the mines at the time in Cordoba he alleges, resulted in issues in the community.

As such the Muslim community relocated to Granada in a bid to gain a plot of land to construct their own mosque.

The Mosque project took 20 years to come to fruition, aided by Morroco’s King Hasan II.

Pozo says the discovery of an “old Iberian Wall” stonewalled its construction amid pushback from some locals and leading to a 13 years legal battle.

“It’s important to mention that the community of Muslim converts never stopped working,” says Pozo, underscoring their “patience” to see the dream of a mosque come to fruition - with many seeking help from abroad.

After Morocco's King Hasan II passed away, further assistance came from the Emir of Sharjah in the UAE, Shaikh Ben Muhammad al Kassimi put in a reported $4.5 million while Brunei and Malaysia also contributed.

Pozo says there were two visits by then mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, today’s President of Türkiye, who helped drive the construction. On one occasion, Erdogan came with his wife, investing in calligraphy works to aid part of the mosque’s interior.

In 2003 after around 5 centuries without a mosque, Granada finally opened its first mosque in the city that was once home to the last Arab Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula - with the help of the Emir of Sharjah in the UAE, Shaikh Ben Muhammad al Kassimi.

Today Pozo says on Fridays 350 people are welcomed to the mosque, while it also offers prayers, outside gardens, a range of activities, a public library, the Quran and Arabic classes.

But it is not just locals visiting the religious site, the mosque is also attracting growing interest from overseas visitors -particularly Indonesia and Malaysia and an increasing number of converts that Pozo describes as a diverse and united community in Granada.

He says they pray together with members from Morocco, Pakistan, Spain and England. If the locals face issues around rent, food or at difficult moments for families such as death and burials he says they are supported by community members of the mosque.

As more people are converting to Islam in Spain, Pozo says they are finding their path in life.

“People are seeking peace in their heart. Islam is something that provides this,” he tells TRT World.