The Muslim party ‘signs up’ a Christian woman as their leader in Catalonia

PRUNE (Partido Renacimiento y Unión de España) has elected a Christian woman as a leader in Catalonia. PRUNE is a political party lead by Mostafa Bakkach, a Spaniard with Moroccan origins. PRUNE members have a different type of political ideology; with different religious skills and they are open to considering everyone who wishes to participate in this new project based on Islam for moral and ethical regeneration of the Spanish society. The party is working on the expansion of their ideas with a high participation of women in its leadership. PRUNE is particularly focused on the reform of public administration to avoid corruption and as well as limiting the banking interests’ rates.

The reorganization of Muslim associations in Catalonia

The article is an overview of the system of representation for Muslim communities in Catalonia. The most important Muslim federation in Catalonia is the CICC (The Islamic and Cultural Council of Catalonia). The CICC was created in 2001 and currently is the principal Muslim liason with the Catalan government. There are other Islamic associations too, some of which are critical of the work being done by the CICC.

Recently the CICC has created a controversial travel agency which organizes annual pilgrimages to Mecca. Critics of the CICC see this agency as a private business and not a religious organization.

Currently there are two other Muslim federations; one is still in the project stages having broken off from the CICC and the other, the UCIC, is a part of UCIDE. The fragmentation of Muslim communities, combined with other factors, such as the influence of the Moroccan government makes it difficult to have only one federation as the privileged liason with the Catalan government.