More than 500 years aftr the end of Muslim rule in Spain, Islam is returning to the country once known as Al-Andalus. The number of Muslims has doubled and more than 100 new mosques have been opened in just eight years and 25 new Islamic Associations were registered in 1997 alone, according to figures quoted by the daily El-Mundo. Spain officially counts around 300,000 Muslims but some estimates put the number at upto 500,000.

There are now mosques in all of Spain's 17 autonomous regions, the total number being around 200, according to El-Mundo. Around 100 Islamic Associations have been officially registered, but the real number could be twice that many, officials said.

The Andalusian City of Granada, the last bastion of Muslim Spain to fall to the Christian reconquest in1492, is again becoming a centre for Islam.

Home to around 2,000 Muslims, the city has streets with a distinctly Islamic atmosphere. Muslim ... perfume shops to furniture factories are proliferating, women wear headscarves and bearded men walk in the streets ...

Around 3-5,000 Spaniards are estimated to have embraced Islam, but the biggest growth factor is immigration from North Africa ... Spain ... has some of the world's foremost historic Islamic sites, such as the Alhambra Palace in Granada and the huge mosque and Medina Azzahara Palace in Cordoba.

The Muslim revival in Granada has its roots already in the 19 and early 20 centuries when' writers such as Federico Garcia Lorca and Blas Infante began pointing out the richness of Spain's lost Islamic heritage ... Source: The Radiance Viewsweekly, 18-24 October, 1998)