The Basque regional government in northern Spain is drafting a controversial new Law on Religious Institutions, which states that mosques and prayer rooms with a capacity of fewer than 300 people will no longer require the prior local government approval.
The draft law is generating considerable opposition from elected officials of all political stripes, who fear the new measure will encourage the proliferation of mosques throughout the Basque region.
According to the latest survey of immigrants carriedou by the King Balduino Foundation and the Migration Policy Group, legal immigrants in Spain feel more integrated than those in Northern Europe thanks to the ease with which they can handle bureaucratic matters, like requesting residence permits or family reunification; find work and learn the language.
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Spain takes pride in its universal health care but Europe's debt crisis has spurred tough budget cuts that will bring sometimes life-saving treatment for illegal immigrants to an abrupt end.
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Among illegal immigrants, only children, pregnant women and emergency cases will qualify for free treatment.
"This will only put Spain on a par with other European Union countries," according to Health Minister Ana Mato.
The measure will leave half a million illegal immigrants who have been counting on Spain's health coverage with no safety net, and several organisations have been sounding alarm bells.
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left: Real Madrid logo, right: new logo of the Real Madrid
Nine Islamists accused of planning terrorist attacks aimed at "liberating" Spain for Islam are standing trial in Madrid.
Spanish public prosecutors say the men -- Salafi-Jihadists who belonged to an Islamist cell known as the "Army of the Messiah" (Ansar al-Mahdi) -- sought to "free" the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish enclaves in northern Africa, from Spanish rule and thus begin the Islamic re-conquest of Spain.(source)
An imam in the Catalan city of Terrassa has been arrested for calling upon his followers to "discipline errant women" in their community who do not follow their husband’s orders or strict Islamic law.
In his sermons, the imam, Abdeslam Laaroussi, a Moroccan, would allegedly offer examples on how to beat women and isolate them, and discourage men from having sexual relations with them.
According to police, Laaroussi told his followers that it was best to punch women or use a stick on different parts of their bodies "without breaking their bones or making them bleed".(source)
Foreign Ministers Prince Saud al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, Michael Spindelegger of Austria and Trinidad Jimenez of Spain, from left, pose after signing the agreement for the establishment of the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, KAICID, in Vienna, Austria, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)
A 14-year-old Muslim girl in Spain was kicked out of an exam in her Madrid secondary school after she refused to take off her headscarf, local Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos reported on Tuesday night.
Eivan Khemins Eibar, the girl’s lawyer and a specialist on discrimination cases, sent a report to the school manager saying the student did not do anything wrong in wearing the higab.
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Spanish authorities are investigating the recent deaths by poisoning of more than a dozen dogs in Lérida, a city in the northeastern region of Catalonia that has become ground zero in an intensifying debate over the role of Islam in Spain.
All of the dogs were poisoned in September (local media reports here, here, here, here and here) in Lérida's working class neighbourhoods of Cappont and La Bordeta, districts that are heavily populated by Muslim immigrants and where many dogs have been killed in recent years.
Local residents say Muslim immigrants killed the dogs because according to Islamic teaching dogs are "unclean" animals.
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A small town on the Spanish resort island of Mallorca has banned women from wearing burqas or face-covering Islamic veils in public places, even though only two women living there are known to do so.
Mayor Biel Serra of the town of Sa Pobla said Monday night's vote was not about cultural or religious discrimination but rather an issue of public safety and having people show their faces so they can be identified.(source)
Muslim countries in the Persian Gulf and North Africa are funnelling large sums of money to radical Islamic groups in towns and cities across Spain in a competing effort to exert control over the estimated 1.5 million Muslims in the country.
Police in Spain's Canary Islands Wednesday arrested a Moroccan suspected of "recruiting children for terrorist purposes", the interior ministry said.
Imad El Mouahhid, 25, also had "links with members of terrorist organisations currently serving sentences in Morocco," it said in a statement.
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A MUSLIM woman has reported her husband for forcing her to wear a veil in public in a landmark case which could encourage more oppressed Arab women to fight back.
The Moroccan national, who lives in La Seu d'Urgell (Lleida) says her husband forced her to cover her face in public, and forbade her from speaking Spanish to anyone or looking them directly in the face.
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