Spanish Muslims ask to pray in historic mosque

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Spanish Muslims said on Wednesday that they have appealed to Pope Benedict XVI to be allowed to pray in the Cathedral of Cordoba in southern Spain, which was once an ancient mosque. In a letter to the pope, Spain's Islamic Board said senior Spanish Catholic clergy had rejected requests for Muslims to be allowed to pray inside the Cathedral, which was converted into a church in the 13th century. They stressed that Muslims want the mosque to turn into an ecumenical temple, where Christians, Muslims and believers from other faiths might all be worshipping the same God. They wrote a similar letter to Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero earlier this year. "What we wanted was not to take over that holy place, but to create in it, together with you and other faiths, an ecumenical space unique in the world which would have been of great significance in bringing peace to humanity," the letter said.