MADRID, December 18, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The government of the autonomous province of Catalonia in north Spain has appointed 15 Arabic language teachers for immigrant students.

"It is a preemptive step by the government to undermine Islamic radicals," semi-official sources, who requested anonymity, told IslamOnline.net on Sunday, December 18.

They said the government fears that "radicals" would use Arabic teaching centers nationwide to spread their extremist ideologies.

"These fears have further driven the government to put Islam on the curricula of some schools," added the sources.

The teachers attended a month-long training course in November, co-organized with Morocco, on how to teach Arabic to young students.

They had also been provided with basic information on the Spanish curricula in general.

Spain has a Muslim minority ranging from 750,000 to one million people out of a total population of 40 million.

Moroccans constitute the majority of the Muslim population, especially in Catalonia, one of the seventeen autonomous communities that constitute Spain.

The director of the education upgrading department of the Catalonian government said the appointments were aimed at helping Arab and Muslim minorities integrate further into Spanish society.

He hoped, in press statements, that the government would give the go-ahead soon for state schools to teach Spaniards Arabic.

The increasing number of students of immigrant origin and the lack of Arab teachers have led to the mushrooming of Arabic teaching centers.

Arabic teaching is also booming in Muslim-populated provinces such as Galicia, Almer and Madrid.

Official Moroccan sources estimate that some 4,000 students of immigrant origin are learning Arabic across Spain.

Integration is the preoccupation of Muslims in Catalonia, who repeatedly urged the government to give them full rights and put them on equal footing with the natives.