Muslims in Spain: Blurring past and present Moors

While following the general European trend of Islamophobia,2 the construal of Muslims as a problematic group in Spain is based on a revival of the centuries-old discourse of Maurophobia (phobia of the Moors). This chapter will argue that the historical construction of Spanish national identity in opposition to the Moor is crucial in order to understand the difficulties of public recognition of ‘new’ Muslim minorities (especially Moroccan immigrants). In spite of the extensive legal rights granted for religious freedom, Spanish society has been reluctant to make a place for Muslims in the public sphere, and to incorporate Islam within its secular – though culturally speaking Catholic – identity.