Spanish Church accuses Qatar of meddling in bitter fight over Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba
A BATTLE over the ownership of the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba has erupted in bitter accusations of Qatari meddling, Islamist ambitions and Church greed as a special commission last week began to investigate who owns the World Heritage site.
A unique architectural symbol of the meeting of East and West, the Unesco landmark has for years been at the centre of a fierce ownership battle, pitting the Catholic Church against an alliance of Muslim groups, secularists and regional officials who insist it should belong to the people.
But while the Church and its allies point to the hand of Qatar in what it paints as the “Muslim dream to recover their temple”, campaigners claim priests are whipping up Islamophobia to distract from a vast land grab they describe as “the biggest real estate scandal in history”.
At a meeting this month at Washington DC’s Hudson Institute, diplomatic sources close to the Church claimed that Qatar was financing the campaign with a view to opening it up to Muslim worship. They said Doha – facing allegations from Arab states that it is sponsoring terrorism – was funnelling money to the principal Spanish campaign group, the Plataforma Mezquita Catedral, via a law firm with offices in London, Madrid and the Qatari capital.
One of the sources later said the allegation was based on Spanish intelligence. Monsignor Manuel Pérez Moya, head of the Cordoba Cathedral Council, told The Telegraph that while the Church itself did not have incontrovertible evidence of Qatari financing, there was much to support the suspicion. “One has to bear in mind this is a symbolic temple for the Muslim world.”
The allegations are denied by both the Plataforma Mezquita Catedral and the law firm in question. The Coordinadora Recuperando, a public group working on the issue, says the MosqueCathedral is among 44,000 properties which the Church quietly registered in its name under a law allowing it to self-
‘It is not a religious question but an illegal expropriation of public heritage generating huge undeclared profits’
certify untitled properties. Antonio Manuel Rodriguez, the group’s spokesman, said for a €30 fee the Church took possession of a site which yielded €15million in tax-free entry ”donations”. He said: “It is not a religious question. It’s an illegal expropriation of public heritage generating huge profits that are not declared.”
Miguel Santiago, spokesman for the Plataforma Mezquita Catedral, insisted the group had no religious position or outside funding. The director of the law firm, Leon Fernando del Canto, said he only represented international companies in Qatar and received no fees from the government.