Letter to Mr. Juan Espadas Cejas, Mayor of Seville Categories: CARTAS

Att. Mr. Juan Espadas Cejas.

His Excellency Mr. Mayor. President of the Hon. Seville City Council.

Seville, April 10, 2018

Subject: “Seville Mosque Foundation”

Kind regards,

First of all, we convey our most sincere greetings to you from the Seville Mosque Foundation and we hope that this letter finds you in the best conditions.

The purpose of this letter is to congratulate you on the excellent management you have been doing since you took office and to briefly inform you of our latest activities and the current situation of the Fundación Mezquita de Sevilla.

We found the awareness campaign with asylum seekers, refugees, stateless persons, vulnerable migrants and Muslim minorities called “What if it were you?” A great success. This type of initiative helps the knowledge between the different communities of Seville and, therefore, a better coexistence for all.

The Seville Mosque Foundation is fully aware of the difficulties that many foreigners face, as well as those of many Spanish citizens, simply because they are foreigners or belong to a minority, in our specific case the Muslim minority. Despite this, we want to convey to you that, as Muslim Spanish citizens, we are very satisfied with the treatment we receive from all the authorities as well as the majority of the population, who, after all, are our fellow citizens.

We also wanted to thank you for the recent and necessary expansion of the Muslim cemetery in Seville, managed by the Ummah Islamic Community, with which we collaborate very closely, and for which we are sure that the presentation of more than 1,200 signatures, through the civic platform for a cemetery in Seville, was of great importance.

Not for this reason, we have stopped working, together with this platform and the rest of the Muslim communities of the city and province, in the project of finding a suitable place for the location of a provincial cemetery for all Muslims in the province of Seville. In this sense, we ask you to consider the different proposals, since it is something of great importance and necessity for the nearly twenty-five thousand Muslims who live in the city and province of Seville.

The Seville Mosque Foundation carries out a great job of representing and promoting the city of Seville abroad, as well as Spain in general, due to the diplomatic work we carry out in different countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey or Emirates, always in collaboration and with excellent relations with the respective embassies.

This work involves the organization of public events, media campaigns, meetings with senior officials of the respective governments and with business people, which leads to a greater perception of Seville, and Spain in general, as a place that welcomes and respect Muslims. Consequently, we are convinced that this has been noticed in an increase in the number of visitors from Muslim countries, which is of great benefit to the city.

According to the purposes of our foundation, we continue with the project of building an Islamic cultural center and mosque in the city of Seville, and in accordance with this, we continue with the search for the ideal place for its location, which will be acquired from privately with the help of different governments, institutions and hundreds of thousands of people around the world through our campaigns.

We are convinced that the establishment of a project like this will have a great positive impact on the city both locally, nationally and internationally.

For this reason we are always open to meet with you, at any time that you deem appropriate, to personally convey our progress in this regard and how we believe that this project will bring great cultural and civic wealth to this city in which we all live, and in which we all want to live in the best way.

We remain at your entire disposal in what you and the Hon. Seville City Council requires our Foundation.

Kind regards,

Luis Hernandez Martinez
President