Catalonia: Imam charged with harassment of fellow Muslim

Catalonia: Imam charged with harassment of fellow Muslim


As T&P points out, Catalonia has a serious problem with Salafists.

See related stories:

* Catalonia: Woman abducted, sentenced by Sharia court
* Catalonia: Salafists taking over mosques
* Catalonia: Muslim 'Moral police'
* Catalonia: Imam suspected of enocuraging early marriages
* Spain: Today's Islamist Radicalization


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The prosecutors are seeking a five-year jail sentence for Mohammed Benbrahim, a Moroccan, on charges of slander, coercion and menacing behaviour against fellow Moroccan Muslim Fatima Ghailan. The two live in Cunit, a town in Catalonia, a region with a sizable Muslim population.


The court filed similar charges against the president of the Islamic Association in Cunit and lesser ones against Mr Benbrahim's wife and his daughter.
 

In a statement to the court in the nearby town of Vendrells, Mrs Ghailan, 31, said Benbrahim had harassed her and campaigned to have her removed from her job in the town hall's cultural department purely because she had a job, dressed in a Western style, drove a car and associated with non-Muslims.


She said the imam and his supporters also pressured her husband and children.


Mrs Ghailan filed a complaint in December, 2008, after she said she and her husband were accosted in the street by the imam, who told them they would be run out of the town.


Mr Benbrahim was quoted by the Spanish daily El Pais as denying the charges and claiming Mrs Ghailan concocted the story. He said he simply felt the woman was not suitable for the job.


But the prosecutors' office said the judge investigating the case had found the woman's account credible and decided to press charges.


(more)

Source: Daily Telegraph (English)

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