Muslim Fundamentalists Imposing Religion In Spanish Prison: Report

A group of 110 Muslim fundamenalists are imposing their religious customs in a Spanish prison and their calls to prayer have led to protests from other prisoners thus disturbed, El Mundo daily reported Thursday.

A spokesman for Topas prison near the eastern city of Salamanca, contacted by AFP, refused to comment on the report, which quoted prison officials as saying Muslim inmates had converted a lecture theatre into a mosque.

The officials said other prisoners avoided the area for fear of reprisals following the complaints by other inmates, who say they are disturbed by five daily muezzin calls to prayer, including just before midnight and six o'clock in the morning.

According to the report prison guards have asked the group to try to keep the noise down.

Of 1,512 inmates, 806 are non-Spaniards, though their nationalities were not revealed in El Mundo's report.

The friction between the Muslims and remaining prisoners has, the paper added, forced prison authorities to separate them into different groups.

One of those held at the jail is Moroccan Khalid Oulad Akcha, the brother of two of the seven members of a group suspected of carrying out the March 11 bombings in Madrid and who blew themselves up on April 3 during a police raid.

Khalid Oulad Akcha was questioned over the March 11 attacks but judged to have had no connection to Spain's worst terror attack.

He is serving time for robbery and grievous bodily harm.