Madrid (EFE).- More than 2.3 million Muslims already reside in Spain, but despite the agreements signed with the different administrations, 90% of Muslim students still lack religion classes and 95% of the communities Islamic do not have a cemetery or “almacbara”.
These are some of the conclusions of the latest “Demographic study of the Muslim population”, prepared by the Andalusian Observatory of the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain, made public this Thursday.
Based on the register and census sources and extrapolating the weight of the different religions in the countries of origin of resident foreigners, the report estimates the number of Muslims in Spain at 2,349,288, almost 100,000 more than a year earlier.
Due to their national origin, 44% of Muslims are Spanish and 56% are immigrants, mainly Moroccan (37%), but the study also highlights Pakistanis in municipalities such as Barcelona, Badalona (Barcelona), Valencia or Logroño; the Senegalese in Salou (Tarragona), Guisona (Lleida), A Coruña and Vigo; and the Algerians in Alicante, Ejea de los Caballeros (Zaragoza) or Lalín (Pontevedra).
By provinces, its presence stands out in Barcelona, Madrid and Murcia; and in percentage, in Ceuta and Melilla.
If you look at the municipalities, El Ejido (Almería), Albuñol (Granada), La Mojonera (Almería), Níjar (Almería), Salt (Gerona), Talayuela (Cáceres) and Torre-Pacheco (Murcia) also appear in prominent places.
In 1996, the content or curriculum of the Islamic Religious Education classes was approved, as well as the agreement for hiring teachers to teach the subject, but only the demand for classes in primary education is met and not in all communities. This demand is still not covered in Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia and Navarra.
90% of Muslim students continue without religion classes, denounces the study.
As he explains, the religious communities of each locality or neighborhood with a sufficient number of faithful constitute their entity by notary for religious purposes and try to open their mosque and their cemetery, but they are not always successful.
95% of the communities do not have a cemetery and 12% lack a mosque and oratory, according to this analysis.
Most of the raudas (Arab cemetery) are plots in municipal cemeteries. In the past, Muslim cemeteries exceeded thirty, many built to bury soldiers killed in the civil war, but in many cases they have fallen into neglect and oblivion, he adds.
The entry How many Muslims are there in Spain? It was first published in EFE Noticias.