Spain is a country on Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, including 17 autonomous regions with diverse geography and cultures. Islam in Spain has a remarkable presence although Muslims in Europe in general and Spain, in particular, have always been categorized as immigrants. In recent years, however, there is a notable number of native Spaniards who have converted to Islam in Spain and they are recognized publicly as new Muslims some of whom benefit from Shia centers in Spain.
Islam was a major religion on the Iberian Peninsula, beginning with the Umayyad conquest of Hispania and ending (at least overtly) with its prohibition by the modern Spanish state in the mid-16th century and the expulsion of the Moriscos in the early 17th century.
Dispersion of Shia in the Islamic west is one of the indisputable things in Islamic history and geography. As mentioned in the texts related to the Islamic conquests in Maghreb and Andalusia, the forces of Imam Ali’s relatives associated their names with Shi’ism in the history of Iberian Peninsula been recorded among the Muslims who have settled in Andalusia and have been attended in the incidents. Later some Shia centers in Spain were established by them.
At the end of 2020, there were approximately 2.2 million Muslims in Spain, most of them of Spanish and Moroccan nationality, with upwards of eight hundred thousand believers in both cases. With a Muslim population of more than 607,000 people, Catalonia was home to the largest Muslim community in Spain as of the same date. But just 50,000 of these Muslims are Shias. About 10,000 of these are Iranians and others are Iraqis, Lebanese, and Pakistanis.
Hundreds of Shiite Muslims in Spain each year on Muharram, commemorate the day of Ashura, the anniversary of the martyrdom of the third Shiite Imam, Imam Hussein along with his 72 companions in Spanish Shia centers. This ceremony is held in Spain’s capital, Madrid as well as other cities like Catalonia and Barcelona, where they have some centers as follows:in