Three women fulfill their obligations as Muslims, passing seven times around the Kaaba, the most sacred symbol of Islam, inside the Grand Mosque in Mecca. But their names are not Laila or Fatima or Aisha, just as their native tongue is not Arabic. <\/p>\n
They are Mara Antonia, ngeles and Consuelo, three Spaniards who converted to Islam and traveled to the holy city with help from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, which each year pays for travel and lodging expenses (around 4,000 euros) for several people like this group of women. <\/p>\n
In October, a group of 15 Muslim Spaniards from Madrid, Granada and Crdoba performed Hajj in Saudi Arabia on the invitation of a foundation from the UAE. \"The trip was a gift from God,\" says ngeles Crespo, a 49-year-old former school teacher from Madrid. <\/p>\n
\"It was an adventure, an experience and an emotional feeling,\" adds Consuelo, 51, who is from Zamora. <\/p>\n
These are very expensive trips that you cannot easily afford\" <\/p>\n
\"It helped us learn a lot about the history of this religion and we were able to visit the holy places,\" says Mara Antonia Garca, 56, from Extremadura. All three women are back in Spain, wearing their veils, as they recount their journey near the women's oratory at Madrid's Central Mosque. But their journey really began with their own conversion to Islam. <\/p>\n
Garca was a Christian who married a Palestinian man, with whom she had five children. \"When they were born, I began wondering which of the two religions we had at home would bring more to my children,\" she says. \"They started going to Islamic religion school, and I would go with them, and I slowly began to be interested. I realized that I felt really good about it, and I started going deeper into it.\" That was over 20 years ago. <\/p>\n
Consuelo, who married an Arabic man over two decades ago, has a similar story to tell. \"I used to be a Christian, but a lot of things didn't make sense, while Islam made complete sense to me,\" she says. <\/p>\n
For Crespo, conversion from her initial agnosticism was more recent: \"Three years ago I began a relationship with a Moroccan person, and at the same time I began reading books on Islam. I was suffering from depression at the time, but ever since I came into contact with this religion I have found great peace.\" <\/p>\n
There are 1,732,000 Muslims in Spain, of which 1,163,000 are foreign nationals mainly from Morocco and Algeria, as well as other Arab countries. There are also 568,000 Spaniards who profess the faith of Islam, which includes foreigners who were nationalized Spanish, the children of mixed couples and native Spanish converts (21,000), according to the latest data from December 2013 provided by the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain. <\/p>\n
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\nSpanish pilgrims of Muslim charity<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"