Basque Country: Discussions about Muslim cemetery
A job, a better life, live with their relatives… The reasons that brought to Vitoria the 5,000 Muslims that live nowadays in the city are now part of their past. Some of the obstacles that they met when they arrived at the city exist till today. One of those obstacles is the non-existence in Vitoria of a mkbara, or Arab cemetery adapted to the rituals of this community, an space reclaimed for some years now and about what the Major’s office didn’t reach any agreement some years ago. But this autumn its construction will be considered again.
The recent inauguration of a Muslim cemetery in Derio (opened in Oct, 2008 inside the Christian cemetery already built) seems to have given this project the support it needed. “As we suceeded in Bilbao, Vitoria’s Major’s office contacted us to see what we could do here”, the President of the Islamic Communities Union in the Basque Country, Ahmed El Hanafy explains. It seems that some members of this association (they want one person per mosque –the city has five- to attend each meeting) and city representatives will meet again to begin the negotiations related to the new cemetery.
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Source: Tea and Politics, translated from El Correo Digital
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