(International Herald Tribune) Renwick McLean - The Spanish government has begun formal discussions on a proposal to subsidize mosques in an effort to make them less dependent on financing from extremist groups abroad, according to government officials. Spanish investigators say the terrorists who blew up trains in Madrid on March 11, killing 191 people, attended mosques that had ties to Wahhabism, a puritanical form of Islam that is the predominate doctrine in Saudi Arabia. Jesus Nunez Villaverde, director of the Institute for the Study of Conflicts and Humanitarian Action, told the Spanish parliament two weeks ago that Spain had "closed its eyes to the implications of Wahhabism as a doctrine, which I insist is fundamentalist, which violates human rights."
2004-07-27 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive