Catalonia to Muslims: Support Independence, Get Mega-Mosque
Qatar to Fund Third-Largest Mosque in the World

by Soeren Kern • August 7, 2014 at 5:00 am

The tentative plan calls for the Emir of Qatar to purchase the stadium and cover all costs associated with converting the property into a mosque, which would be the third-largest in the world after those in Mecca and Medina.

The mosque would be accompanied by a towering 300-meter (985-foot) minaret which, if approved, would dominate the Barcelona skyline and overshadow the spectacularly emblematic Sagrada Familia, a Roman Catholic cathedral less than one kilometer away.

The mega-mosque is "not suitable" for Barcelona because the "people and countries" involved in the project may have "values which collide with ours," according to Alberto Fernández Díaz, leader of the Popular Party.

Analysts say that Catalonia, which has the largest concentration of radical Islamists in Europe, is already a main center for Salafi-Jihadism on the continent and has the potential to become one of the top incubators for Islamist terrorism in the West.

"Muslims should vote for pro-independence parties, as they need our votes. But what they do not know is that, once they allow us to vote, we will all vote for Islamic parties ... and as we begin to accumulate power in the Catalan autonomous region, Islam will begin to be implemented." — Abdelwahab Houzi, a Salafi jihadist preacher in Catalonia.

The historic bullfighting stadium "La Monumental" in Barcelona may become the largest mosque outside of Saudi Arabia, under a tentative plan worked out between Catalan nationalists and the Emir or Qatar. (Image source: Sergi Larripa/Wikimedia Commons)

Muslim leaders in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia say they have been promised a mega-mosque in Barcelona if they support independence from Spain in a referendum set for November 9.

Officials from the Catalonia's ruling Convergence and Union Party (CiU) are seeking the ballots of all of the roughly 100,000 Muslims in the region who are eligible to vote. "If you support us in the referendum, there will be a mosque," CiU officials are said to have promised Muslim leaders, according to Spanish media.

The mega-mosque in question is said to involve a 2.2 billion euro ($3 billion) project to convert a historic bullfighting stadium in Barcelona into the third-largest mosque in the world, after those in Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

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