To Die In Spain As a Muslim
 Fernando Berlín the author of this blog, is the director of Radiocable.com and participates in various media in Spain.
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It has turned out that some of the mayors from the Popular Party in the coastland are getting in contact, discretely, with secular associations to question how Muslims should be buried. They say that they did not dare to ask openly to city council to avoid turmoil. The question makes sense.
After building a new cemetery one must anticipate how those who born and die in Spain should be buried after professing different religions, something that happens occasionally considering those who are given birth by immigrants. It could be simplified if the cemetery, or some niches of it, could be oriented towards the Mecca, since their coffins must be. The rest of us have never questioned the positioned geography of that niche?but of course, in this tiny country, so closed up, so narrow, how can one dare to ask publicly such thing.
It is foreseen that this year the new Law for Religious Liberty will be enforced and with consciousness as Vice President, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, announced. The vigorous law is more than 20 years old and portrayed as a reality that frankly, does not exist anymore in Spain. When that law was signed, religions were just legalized in this country. It was not that long ago that professing any other religion than the Roman Catholic was an offense.
The new one has to consolidate the plurality of our country, in which other religions coexist, and freely circulates citizens of the European countries, one that embraces new forms to understand life in the entire planet. It must be anticipated to the world so that its validity is not limited. It is being studied and there is a possibility that it incorporates secular and atheist associations in the distribution of the subsidization. It will be a very delicate subject but of certain logic, since they will be the only ones to be able to give the right response to the coexistence that they are also part of.
Another example. When a Public Institution assigns an announcement to a newspaper, this tends to be crowned with a Christian cross. Nobody asks if the deceased is catholic. The secretary assigns the announcement and between her and the person from the newspaper, with good intentions, come into an agreement about the text. Meaning, Spain not only lacks ground rules but also institutional processes to know the operations under these situations.
While discussing these topics one notices that it provokes a bit of friction. This is why, before the law is enforced, there is a need to do a pedagogic labor between the citizens. There is so much to learn to become good neighbors.
Fernando Berlín
