 I know most of you may have heard about the Alhambra Palace in Granada, the great mass of Kordoba and the Kirada Tower in Seville, which are all in present-day Spain, but are some of the most famous examples of Islamic architecture in the European nation. The Spanish language also contains many words of Arabic origin. Other traditional music and dance of Andalusia have been influenced by Islamic culture. Last week I made a video about the growth of Islam in Japan. I was thrilled when I took a look at the recent statistics released by the Pew Research Center. It estimated that there were 185,000 Muslims in Japan in 2010. However, nine years later in 2019, it was estimated that the numbers rose to 230,000, with the Japanese converts accounted for over 50,000. And then stumbled on this video of an entire Spanish community accepting Islam. First, we have to recognize that the issue of Spanish people coming to Islam enlightened numbers is a rare situation in modern times. However, this decline reminds us precisely of the history of the country itself. There was a time when Moorish Muslims ruled Andalusia, part of what is known as Spain today. So, Islam in Spain dates back to 711 AD, when the Muslim armies of North Africa, led by Tariq bin Zayed, conquered the Iberian Peninsula. Under Muslim rule, which lasted nearly 800 years, Spain witnessed the period of great cultural, scientific and economic development known as Andalus. The Omayyad Caliphate established the Emirate of Cordoba in the 8th century, who drew into it powerful Caliphate in the 10th century. Unlike many Muslim kingdoms today, the Caliphate of Cordoba was known for its tolerance towards different religions and cultures, and it attracted scholars and artistes from all over the Muslim world. Sadly, the golden age of Andalus came to an end in the late 11th century, when the Christian kingdoms in the north began the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula. The fall of the last Muslim stronghold, Granada, in 1492 marked the end of Muslim rule in Spain. So, this video today paints a true picture of what it means to be a Muslim in modern agnostic Spain, where the media has so far deluded the image of Islam in the acid of lies and mass confusion. Asalaamu alaikum brothers and sisters, we are back with another episode of the Open Minded Thinker Show. Please like and share this video to let YouTube show you two other interested brothers and sisters, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Don't forget, we depend on your subscription to grow, so do click the subscription button to help us grow bigger. What attracted you to Spain? It's enchanting, it has something about it. It has a pull because we're Muslims, we have a heritage that we can create nowadays. It's fantastic, it's beautiful, it's like the kind of the height of the Muslim reign here in Europe, because I also live among lots of Muslim women and their mothers and they study and they travel and they work and I find it also now easy to talk about my religion. Now I live here among people who are the same as me, for lots of Muslim friends and Muslim acquaintances, and it's easier now to be able to reach out to people because I feel more confident about it. Now what is the role that women play in the mosque and in the community? I mean without women there wouldn't be a community, the men are into politics with the women doing the real stuff, the real work at home. There's a great warmth between the sisters because when we said our prayers yesterday in the mosque everybody turned to each other and they kissed each other, like the Spanish. Is that Spanish? I think it went to your family, no? Yeah, I think it's the Spanish habit between women to kiss each other. Or is it luck on Viviencia? I don't know, I mean I suppose it's still left that kind of essence in a way, I think. Do you know it's like in any small village we are like a village inside Granada, so the cove events is sometimes, we love each other, sometimes we fight, like in every human group. We are different personalities, different backgrounds, we are in the same place because we are Muslim and after 30 years you love the people who are around you. Have you converted to Islam or were you born into Islam? What's your story? I converted, I'm one of them. Well I was born because my parents converted. My parents are Malaysian origin so my great-grandparents are Muslim and I'm Muslim too. I was converted to Islam 30 years ago because at that moment they were very very few Muslim in Spain. It was like something very strange. Many years, many people tell me that I speak very well Spanish and when I try to say yes I am Spanish, I am from Valladolid, the place where they speak the best Spanish. The people don't understand, no? Now they are to know that there are many Spanish Muslims, but before it was something impossible. As a Muslim I feel sometimes foreigner in Spain, foreigner in the Muslim. Are there many converts to Islam? Yes I think and in the last years, here in the most every week is people who converted every week. The government in Spain they say they tried to make that convivance between different communities, but when you hear the news in the TV or in the newspaper about Muslim it's all about terrorism and things like this so that makes it difficult. But I can say that at the beginning of living here in Granada the people of the city they were very incontinent to know. With us that couldn't stand. They wouldn't let us, if we were scarfed they wouldn't rent houses. They used to be. I love the highlight of the intrinsic value of community being explained by the lady with the Spanish accent. This ultimately is one of the selling points of the religion in the world. Come to think of it, in the world where individualism and loneliness take precedence it is not surprising to see people embrace the warmth of a cordial family. A family that is large and diverse yet abhors any figment of racism and racial preferences. These are beautiful people. We have to bring it up. So what are your comments? I think that the hijab came for the Muslim women to be respected. So this is the mission of the hijab. So in the moment that suppose any other thing you can do is up to you, the situation where you live, you know. And when we wear the hijab we are always making a political statement. And I sometimes don't have the strength, I don't feel strong enough to make that political statement. I just want to go across the street and buy the bread. Hijab is a very sort of personal thing at the moment because as Ramonita says you like making a statement, especially in this era, if it's going to be a problem and if it's going to bring you problems, the most important thing is to dress modestly because there's a lot of people who walk around in hijab and then there's nothing. The most important is the intention and the intention. So you know it's a bit of a balanced thing. Well I started wearing a scarf when I was 18, 19 and I really felt it and I felt empowered and strong and I came to Spain and I fell apart. I really did. I had some terrible comments with quite older generations, Spanish older generation in Córdoba and I remember feeling so awful thinking this is completely, this is the opposite of what I wanted you know. It makes them feel bad, it makes them remind them of something that they obviously don't understand and I stopped wearing it and I don't wear a scarf on a daily basis. Some people say that European identity and Islamic identity are incompatible. What do you think about that? For me, Islam is like a falter you know. It's a way to falter in the good or bad, to falter in the good and to keep out the bad. In every society there are good and bad things you know and Islam is just the fault of the good and the bad. And I think the term is European Muslims. Yes, I agree with this sister. There are apparently European Muslims, not Muslims in Europe. However, discrimination against Muslims is a serious issue in modern Spain. That's by the country's you know historical legacy of coexistence between different religions and cultures. The rise of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiments in recent years have led to various forms of discrimination against the Muslim community. These discrimination can manifest itself in multiple ways including hate speech, physical attacks, you know exclusion from employment opportunities and limited access to social services. Being Muslim in Spain it's often hard to escape the ghetto. Harder still to figure out where exactly you fit in. Low wages, education and racism are common obstacles to integrating Moroccan immigrant families to Spanish society but in terraza this industrial town 45 minutes drive from Barcelona community organizers say loss of identity is fueling radicalization among youngsters. They don't fuel Moroccan nor Catalan nor Spanish so when there are cases of terrorism that's the problem. They neither belong here or outside they're lost in the middle and if you're lost in the middle anybody can play with your head. 21 year old Muhammad al-Gham came to Spain when he was six since graduating from high school he says he's picked up regular work paid his taxes but he still feels he's living in limbo. I studied here and grew up here. I asked for citizenship three years ago and never got a reply. I never had any problems with the police but they always tell you to wait a bit longer and so you wait and wait. What can you do? Around the corner this young Moroccan invested modest savings to open his own fruit shop three months ago. Growing up in Spain has been tough but he's focused on building a future. Many times when I played football they called me Arab and in school even before I could speak Spanish they called me the Arab but I've learned to live with that. We know we're different but I can't cope with that. Predictably in the wake of those attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils many ordinary Spaniards are calling on their intelligence services to step up controls on mosques and their imams. Religion in terraza is a public affair fathers with sons neighbors side by side there's little space for secrets at the mosque which is why its leaders say radicalization is forced into shadows they simply do not control. There are many imams who do not come in the form of real people there's imam google imam youtube and imam instagram all those can generate certain types of extremists. The challenge he believes is making Moroccan migrants in Spain feel they have the best of both worlds not outcasts with roots in neither. While I commend the Spanish government for its war against this trend we must recognize that more effort must be made to send a more positive image of Islam to the Spanish public. In this Ramadan we can share and distribute love and compassion to non-Muslim Spanish citizens. Through this means we can write a better script of Islamic culture and values in the country and indeed the entirety of Europe. Well let's leave it right there guys, please like and share to support the dissemination of this message. Until next time. As-salamu alaykum