Ever since Charles V erected an altar and choir stall in the middle of this city's Great Mosque five centuries ago - clearing out many of the mosque's emblematic red-and-white-striped arches in the process - Córdoba's Mezquita has symbolized Spain's divisive past.

But now, Muslim immigrants and Spanish converts to Islam are requesting the right to pray inside what was once Europe's most spectacular mosque. That right was taken away during the Christian Reconquest in 1236.

In March the Junta Islámica, a Spanish organization, asked the Vatican for permission for Muslims to worship in the Mezquita. The church's 8th-century Moorish heritage still recalls for Muslims a glorious history in the Iberian Peninsula.

But the request has spurred questions over what Spain's religious and cultural underpinnings are and to whom its history belongs.

It is part of a larger debate vexing Europe. Continued immigration has left many countries struggling not only to integrate new and diverse populations, but to redefine what it means to be European.

In France, in an effort to incorporate Muslims into its secular society, the government banned head scarves in public schools and established local training centers for imams - measures that have both proved controversial.

After years of opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church, Greece's new government approved in April construction of Athens' first mosque. Much of Italy's largely Catholic population, meanwhile, has resisted legislation that would remove crucifixes from public classrooms. And the European Union as a whole is debating whether it should acknowledge the Continent's "Christian heritage" in the Constitution it hopes to approve next month.

In Spain the issues are more complicated still. Muslims ruled the Iberian Peninsula for more than 700 years, and Spaniards take pride in what was achieved in Al Andalus, the ancient Moorish kingdom. Today, the relics of that glorious culture, including Córdoba's Mezquita and Granada's Alhambra, are among the most emblematic of Spain's monuments - as well as the most popular of its tourist destinations.

But the country has long distanced itself politically and socially from its Muslim heritage. "Since the conquest of Granada, Spanish identity has been based on a militant sense of difference from Islam," says Simon Doubleday, a professor of medieval Spanish history at Hofstra University in New York.

In the 20th century, dictator Francisco Franco revived the language of "reconquest" to describe his own fight against his political opponents during his rule. His dictatorship demanded conformity in the form of national Catholicism.

But as the nation's economy has grown over the past decade, Spain has faced an unprecedented surge in immigration. Today, an estimated 500,000 Muslims reside in the country, the majority from Morocco. And the country has struggled to meld its increasingly heterogenous population into a unified society, a task that the March 11 terrorist attacks has made more difficult.

Page: 1 | 2