Signature Campaign: Protest the Attack against Carlos the Jackal

I AM A MUSLIM BUT MY CULTURAL BACKGROUND IS SPANISH

I have never denied my identity.

Now, while I am speaking here, there is an African friend in front of me. A Muslim who is wearing traditional clothes of the region he comes from. If I imitate him or another Muslim coming from a different region, it will be a kind of caricatural look.

I am the man of ideals, principles. It is not a superficial or formal issue. For instance, I did never wear like Che Guevera at my young age when I struggled for Communism, even in the period when I was a young communist leader in my country. I never did that. Indeed I had a beret during the OPEC operation, but it was an exceptional situation to prevent the police from recognizing me and hide my face with this aim. It was not a formal pretension.

I believe that I am only me and my identity is coming from that. I have a culture and I never deny it. I have traditions in terms of clothes and other qualifications, I never ignore the tradition where I am coming from, rather I am embracing it.

However, there is a thing I am totally opposed to; certain kinds of clothes, certain kind of dining, certain kind of living and a lifestyle described on this way which is imposed by the Western media - especially the USA media. I basically refuse this lifestyle. The reason is not the fact that I am a Muslim, I have already refused it before.

Yes, I have never drifted away from my roots, Spanish culture; on the contrary, I always respect my past, my regional culture and traditions, greatly and I embrace them. In other words, I did not have a new culture, civilization or lifestyle in this sense after I became Muslim; no, not that one.

In my opinion, everybody has to support their roots, homelands, family traditions and should be “original” so as to say “authentic”. In other words, today in Islamic countries, one cannot be a “mujahid” by some communities’ or a leader’s clothing. Such kind of thing does not make you a “mujahid”.