from HyScience:
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The evolution of the number of Salafists praying rooms in Catalonia is the best proof of it. In the last four years their number has doubled. In 2004, they had 15, concentrated for the most part in Tarragona, nowadays they control between 27 and 30 mosques and their area of influence has extended itself to Lleida and Girona, according to the authorities. In Barcelona, their presence is still not very important.
Salafists build new mosques or make their way into an already existing one to achieve their expansion goals. Their method is simple. First, they try to convince the imam of letting them organise activities inside the mosque like readings or conferences about Islam. If he is not very favourable to that, they discredit him before the rest of the Muslims accusing him of not knowing correctly Islamic doctrine. They tell the believers that the Quram states the obligation of chaging the imam if he is not the adequate one, because if not, the praying is void.
Salafists themselves state that they control much more mosques than 30. "There are more than 50 salafist mosques in Catalonia", Said Hamduni says. He is the coordinator of the Reus mosque and one of the most active leaders of this "trend" in Catalonia. "I'm Salafist", he admits with pride and insists that "Salafism is the true Islam". "We follow literally Mahoma's teachings. If something is not written in the Quram or in the Hadiths, we don't consider it as valid", Hamduni explains.
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Source: HyScience, translated from El Periodico (Spanish)
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The evolution of the number of Salafists praying rooms in Catalonia is the best proof of it. In the last four years their number has doubled. In 2004, they had 15, concentrated for the most part in Tarragona, nowadays they control between 27 and 30 mosques and their area of influence has extended itself to Lleida and Girona, according to the authorities. In Barcelona, their presence is still not very important.
Salafists build new mosques or make their way into an already existing one to achieve their expansion goals. Their method is simple. First, they try to convince the imam of letting them organise activities inside the mosque like readings or conferences about Islam. If he is not very favourable to that, they discredit him before the rest of the Muslims accusing him of not knowing correctly Islamic doctrine. They tell the believers that the Quram states the obligation of chaging the imam if he is not the adequate one, because if not, the praying is void.
Salafists themselves state that they control much more mosques than 30. "There are more than 50 salafist mosques in Catalonia", Said Hamduni says. He is the coordinator of the Reus mosque and one of the most active leaders of this "trend" in Catalonia. "I'm Salafist", he admits with pride and insists that "Salafism is the true Islam". "We follow literally Mahoma's teachings. If something is not written in the Quram or in the Hadiths, we don't consider it as valid", Hamduni explains.
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Source: HyScience, translated from El Periodico (Spanish)
