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