Islamic 'influencers' are gaining popularity among young Muslims in Catalonia

Dossier The imams in Catalonia: who they are, what they do, where they come from 3 articles

• The imams in Catalonia: who they are, what they do, where they come from
• This is how other European countries manage Islam
• Islamic 'influencers' are gaining popularity among young Muslims in Catalonia

Mataró / Rueda de TerThese are not videos cheapskatesOn the contrary. thirst It's meticulously crafted, the editing is impeccable, and the sound quality is high. The podcast is called Return to the truthand has no less than 46,800 followers on Instagram. "A man needs his wife to be willing when he wants to be with her. And it is forbidden [in Islam] for her to refuse, unless she has a legitimate reason: menstruation, if she is going through a difficult time… (…) Even if she is cooking, she must stop cooking and go," says Sheikh Yusuf Soldado in one of the influencer The Islamic influencer Aleksandar Petrov is even more popular. Petrov has 508,000 followers on Instagram.

Both are associated with a look Typical of the Gulf countries—white robes, turbans, and long, thick beards—they speak perfect Spanish and live in Catalonia. And most importantly: they are excellent orators. Their podcast is captivating.

"The wife has the obligation to obey the husband in everything except..." haram“There are two possibilities: either the man is telling you this for your protection because perhaps he sees something you don’t and you must obey him. Or he may be an oppressive man, and in this case, you are still obligated to obey him, and Allah will hold him accountable,” Petrov says at another point in the podcast, while Soldado nods.

The Islamic Congress

The 16th Islamic Congress of Catalonia and the 4th Congress of Young Muslims, scheduled to take place in El Prat de Llobregat from December 19th to 21st, were to feature Yusuf Soldado as a speaker. However, in late October, several media outlets reported that both Soldado and another speaker at the congress, Taoufik Cheddadi, had ties to jihadism. This, coupled with the fact that the Union of Islamic Communities of Catalonia (UCIDCAT), the event's organizer, initially advertised it using a logo from the Catalan government (Generalitat), led Vox and Aliança Catalana to bring the matter before the Catalan Parliament and demand the congress's cancellation. The General Directorate of Religious Affairs of the Generalitat has since clarified that it is not funding the event, despite its logo appearing on the initial poster. And UCIDCAT maintains that the final program for the congress is not yet complete and has denounced one of the media outlets that published "falsehoods." Be that as it may, and beyond the controversy, what is undeniable is that Soldado is a resounding success among young people.

"Yusuf Soldado explains Islam very well in simple terms," says Houssam Eddine, 27, one of the young people who founded the Ar-Rissala cultural association last year in Roda de Ter (Osona). His parents are from Morocco, but he was born here. He speaks Catalan with a Vic accent and says he doesn't understand half of what the imam of the mosque he attends says because he speaks in Classical Arabic. He is not the only young Muslim with this problem. Most imams in Catalonia are foreigners. In contrast, Yusuf Soldado is perfectly understood.

The Ar-Rissala association invited Yusuf Soldado to an event in Roda de Ter last July. "If you bring him, you'll fill the room," Houssam says. But what he didn't expect was that the Town Hall would deny them a municipal space at the last minute to hold the event, forcing them to scramble to find an alternative. "We wanted to give a talk about coexistence in which the whole town could participate and where people could ask questions," says the young man, who doesn't understand the council's sudden change of heart. The event ended up taking place in a room at the parish. "We had doubts about the kind of speech this person might give," explains the mayor of Roda de Ter, Toni Mas, of the ERC party, justifying the change of decision. "There are municipalities that are lost on this issue and don't know what to do. We would need support in cultural mediation," he adds. Social and pastoral work

Yusuf Solado is not only an excellent speaker, but he also presides over the Islamic association Iqra in Mataró, which carries out social and pastoral work. For example, they offer Arabic classes and tutoring, officiate weddings, organize trips to Mecca, and distribute food to families in need. "We've had up to eighty families," he says. He also admits that mosques often ask him to give talks to young people, and that he started the podcast a couple of years ago because he realized there was hardly any content about Islam in Spanish on social media. He is an affable and approachable person. He readily answered any of ARA's questions.

Doesn't what you say about women go against the law of consent and individual freedoms? "Only a sick mind, ignorant of Islam, could interpret that it is permissible to force a woman (...). What we are saying is that if she does not want to have relations with her husband without a valid excuse, she will be committing a sin against Allah," he replies.

"I don't know why we're so surprised. The Catholic Church's canon law states practically the same thing about conjugal debt," points out Dr. Miren Ortubay, a lawyer. "The problem is that those who profess to be Catholic are aware of this and comply with it, just as they divorce even though marriage is theoretically indissoluble, because the Church no longer has the influence it once did," she adds. And therein lies the crux of the matter.

According to the study The religiosity of Catalan youthAccording to a report published by the Catalan government last September, young Muslims frequent places of worship far more than Catholics, their economic situation is more precarious, and they have a much lower level of education. Specifically, 46.5% have primary education or less, compared to 10.9% of the young Catholic population and 17.5% of the Protestant population.

The figures

"We can't preach the same thing here as in Saudi Arabia, nor offer the same interpretation of the Quran, because the context is different," says the head of a Muslim association in Mataró who disagrees with Yusuf Soldado's views and prefers to remain anonymous. Meanwhile, the secretary general of the Islamic Council Federation of Catalonia, Mohamed Halhoul, laments that the teaching of Islamic religion in public and private schools remains a pilot program with hardly any teachers. In other words, instruction is delegated to mosques or, worse still, to the internet.

Meanwhile, the young people of the Ar-Rissala association in Roda de Ter feel discriminated against. They don't understand why they face so many obstacles. "We work and have been educated here. We are Catalans too."

Dossier The imams in Catalonia: who they are, what they do, where they come from 3 articles

• The imams in Catalonia: who they are, what they do, where they come from
• This is how other European countries manage Islam
• Islamic 'influencers' are gaining popularity among young Muslims in Catalonia