This sunny little resort on the Mediterranean shore has long been a favourite for weekenders seeking to escape the congestion of nearby Barcelona for a dose of sandy beaches and sea breezes. But Cunit has gained a new distinction: It is famous in Spain as the town where a Moroccan-born Muslim woman with a master's degree says she was threatened by Muslim fundamentalists because she took off her veil.
The treatment of Fatima Ghailan, 31, prompted an investigating magistrate to bring charges against the shaikh of the local mosque, Mohammad Benbrahim, and the head of the Islamic Association, Abdul Rahman Al Osri, the leading figures in Cunit's Muslim community.
The case also generated demands for the resignation of Mayor Judit Alberich, a liberal Socialist who, her political opponents said, catered to her Muslim constituents at the expense of respect for the law.
The conflict roiling Cunit and its 12,000 inhabitants has shown Spaniards that they are not exempt from the growing tensions in Western Europe over Muslim immigrants who seek to preserve their home-country ways and sometimes to impose a conservative strain of Islam — in societies based on secular democracy and Christian tradition.
Referendum
The unease has become a major political issue in France, where the government is trying to find a way to ban Muslim women's full-face veils without violating the constitution.
In Switzerland, voters decided in a recent referendum to ban construction of minarets, and a petition is circulating for a second referendum to mandate expulsion of any immigrant convicted of a crime.
Spain's Muslim population, mostly immigrants from Morocco is about one million in a country of 47 million. It is far smaller than France's Muslim population of more than five million, which is the largest in Europe. As a result, the government in Madrid has not had to confront the tensions as a national issue, as have its counterparts in France and Switzerland.
But the feelings surfacing in Cunit have revealed a quiet resentment among many people who think that traditional European values are being challenged by fundamentalist Muslims.
"This is serious," said Ivan Faccia Serrano, a Cunit city council member. "There is a big part of the population that is not comfortable living with these Moroccans."
By Gulf news
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