Moroccan Immigrant Workers to Ask Govt to Monitor Mosques to Combat "Extremists"

April 8, 2004

Source: Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/95E243E9-E73F-4B2D-BF66-9DDBA3C9E960.htm

On April 8, 2004 Al-Jazeera reported, "The head of an association of Moroccan migrant workers has said that Spain needs a council to oversee mosques and Muslim clerics as a solution to combat 'extremists'...'All mosques in Spain should be transparent; we are not talking about private homes, but places of worship,' [said Mustafa Mirabat, the head of the Association of Moroccan Immigrant Workers]...Mirabat said his association will ask the incoming Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to set up an Islamic Council on the model of the controversial French Council of the Muslim Faith founded in 2003, to improve communication between Muslim leaders and the state. The French body is derided�by many Muslims in the country as an organ of the state. A spokesman for the Socialist Party declined to comment on the proposal. Among the tasks that this council would have, Mirabat said, would be the supervision of the mosques and the appointment of Imams."