MADRID, April, 6, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Spanish Muslims expressed shock and outrage at a call to open a debate among Spanish Muslims on the issue of same-sex marriages, stressing such weird proposals only serve efforts to divert attention of Muslim minorities in the West from seeing to their duties in highlighting the Islamic human and civilized values.

The shock was not due to the call itself, but rather to the identity of the caller. Abdel Nour Brado, Secretary of the Islamic Commission of Spain, a body created by the Spanish government in 1991 to be the representative of the country’s Muslim minority, made the controversial call.

“Such weird calls for allowing same-sex marriages run counter to Islamic tenets,” Omar Reibas, Secretary of the Catalonian Association for Islamic Studies, told IslamOnline.net Wednesday, April 6, commenting on Brado’s call.

Brado, on the other hand, defended his call to open a debate around the issue among the Muslim minority in Spain, claiming that the call was a direct result to the Spanish law allowing same-sex marriages in the European country.

He also denied he was calling for same-sex marriages among Muslims. “What I’m aiming for is to open dialogue on the issue.”

“My stance on same-sex marriages is a personal viewpoint and has nothing to do with the Islamic Commission of Spain, whose Secretary General Mansur Escudero is against same-sex marriages,” Brado told IOL.

Reibas also lashed out at Brado’s call, branding it “a means for making financial gains by propagating such ideas”.

“He (Brado) is also known for his hatred to prominent Muslim scholars, such as the moderate scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi,” he said.

“It is like him (Brado) to take weird stances running counter to Islamic tenets such as calling for same-sex marriages and supporting Muslim women to lead prayers.”

On March 18, Amina Wadud led the Friday prayers at the heavily-guarded Synod House at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, after several mosques refused to host it, drawing strong condemnation from Muslim scholars.

The Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America said in a fatwa seen by IOL March 12, that Muslim women cannot take the pulpit or lead Friday prayer; otherwise the prayer is invalid.

In a statement, a copy of which was sent to IOL, the Catalonian Association for Islamic studies also slammed Brado for “propagating lies through his Web site on supporting same-sex marriages”.

Controversy has been heating up in the European country following Brado’s attempts to propagate the idea of same-sex marriages among Spanish Muslims through his Web site.

Such attempts prompted Muslim figures in Spain to urge for reviewing stances taken by the Islamic Commission of Spain to avoid misconception about Islam and Muslims.

Brado, on his part, further defended gay rights, considering it a “shame to persecute gays in the Muslim world”, claiming “gays are born gays and have no choice about it”.

The Spanish law allowing same-sex marriages was adopted after the Socialist government under Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who held the helm of power in March 2004.

The controversial law drew fierce opposition and rebuke from the Spanish rightist opposition parties as well as the Spanish people, according to IOL Correspondent.

The law was also condemned by the Spanish writers and journalists as running counter to the human nature. It also caused deterioration in relations between the ruling Socialist Party and the Catholic Church.

According to IOL Correspondent, Brado's call for allowing the same-sex marriage among the Spanish Muslims was part of efforts of the western governments to support what it names "liberal drives among the European Muslims, or what the mass media term as “European Islam”.

Spain has a Muslim community of about 600,000 people out of a total population of 40 million. Some 94 percent of its population are Christian Catholics.