SPAIN: SPEAKING WITH MUSLIM LEADERS ABOUT

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 002648

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/11/2015
TAGS: KISL KPAO PREL PTER SP
SUBJECT: SPAIN: SPEAKING WITH MUSLIM LEADERS ABOUT
TERRORIST ACTS.

REF: SECSTATE 121758

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission J Robert Manzanares for reasons
1.4
(b) and (d).


1. (U) Though not an action addressee on reftel, post wished
to share the following points.


2. (U) Embassy Madrid's Muslim Outreach Committee has been
active in reaching out to the Muslim Community in Spain in
the past year. Embassy officers have made visits to the M-30
mosque, the largest mosque in Spain, and visited the Islamic
Cultural Center. Post has established contacts with the
leaders of the Islamic Commission of Spain and held a
breakfast for Muslim leaders and diplomats from Arab
countries. Madrid also hosted the Department's first citizen
diplomat, Abdulwahab Alkebsi, Program Officer for the Middle
East at the National Endowment for Democracy, for a speaking
tour of Spain.


3. (C) Newly arrived Ambassador Aguirre has made Muslim
Outreach one of his priorities, and he will soon meet with
leaders of the Muslim community in Spain. In response to
reftel, post will use these opportunities to underscore the
importance of public statements condemning terrorist
violence, in addition to reiterating the Embassy's commitment
to engaging the community.


4. (C) Spanish Muslim leaders have consistently been vocal in
their condemnation of terrorism, particularly in the wake of
the Madrid train bombings of March 11, 2004. One of the
reftel examples of positive statements made by Muslim leaders
was the fatwa against Osama bin Laden issued by the Islamic
Commission of Spain on the anniversary of the bombings in
March 2005.


5. (C) In addition, immediately after the London bombings on
July 7, Commission Secretary General Mansur Escudero
denounced the attacks, saying, "if the authors of the attacks
in London are Muslim, then they are expelled from Islam, for
trying to legitimize what God considers illegitimate, for
killing innocents and increasing the suffering of Muslims by
casting suspicion on all of them." On behalf of the
Commission, he also expressed "absolute condemnation of the
attacks and our solidarity with the victims..."


6. (SBU) The Mission Muslim Outreach Committee will next meet
on August 2 to put together the Embassy outreach strategy to
increase engagement with the Spanish Muslim community in the
coming months. Post will report on events as they happen.
AGUIRRE