Catalonia has been a land of integration since the Phoenicians arrived in Empúries and came across the Iberians already living here, followed by the Greeks, and then the Romans, the Franks, the Goths, and then the Occitans, the Spanish, and now the Africans, the Latin-Americans or the Asians. Immigration is part of the of the Catalan DNA. However, we can’t deny that tensions and conflicts always appear when any country in the world has to deal with newcomers that produces an increase of 20 per cent of the population in less than a decade. Fear of difference is a natural reaction in human beings. That means that an extra effort is needed when our neighbourhood changes with the arrival of people who dress differently, speak differently, who eat differently, and who even pray to a different Lord.
Local authorities around Catalonia are facing the demand of the Muslim community for permission to build mosques and prayer centres. In almost every case, politicians do not want to pay the electoral cost of allowing the construction of a mosque, while tiny xenophobic and racist parties try to make the most of the tension, blaming immigrants for any robbery, any increase in unemployment or, it sometimes seems, a change in the weather.
These people are residents of Catalonia, they are Catalans now, and they have the right to their own temple, as does any other confession in the country. If a local authority denies them this fundamental right, they should also close churches and other temples. There is a saying in Catalonia that fits perfectly in this situation: O tots moros, o tots cristiansNo historical or cultural reasons could be argued to sustain the idea that one religion has more rights than another in a free and democratic country.
