A proposal from the Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso, to create a "registry of religious activities," supervising who is responsible for the worship services and what type of services are carried out "fills us with an undeniable concern," said Juame Llenas, general secretary of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE).

The majority of Islamic associations present in Spain also repudiated the minister’s declarations. However, Monear Mahmoud, Imam of the Mosque of Madrid, the largest in Europe, said he was in agreement with a law that would monitor Muslim clergy.

The minister’s project forms part of a group of proposals that seek to combat terrorism and is related to the fact that the presumed authors of the March 11 attack were Moroccans and therefore may have been inspired by the Muslim religion.

Llenas, for his part, said he respects the legislative power of the state as well as the duty of Churches and confessions to collaborate and respect its role. However, he added that what the ministry proposes creates a climate of suspicion and the idea that religions are negative or dangerous elements, "which is neither fair nor practical."

The application of this proposal, said Llenas, would be equivalent to regulating and monitoring the activities of each of the political parties because it was discovered that a few politicians had links to terrorism or to contemplate the idea of controlling television programs because one of them is manipulative.

Máximo García Ruiz, executive secretary of the Evangelical Council of Madrid (CEM) said that this project "clearly violates the right to freedom of expression and, of course the right to religious freedom, which is not tolerable and cannot be justified in any way."

If the minister wants to battle against terrorism he should "look for the terrorists where they are, investigate all those suspected of infringing the law, establish as many criminal detection measures as necessary, but he should not forget to do this respecting the right to freedom, including religious freedom," said Garcia Ruiz.

The AEE is a member of the European Evangelical Alliance, an observer in the 10-million member European Union Parliament in Brussels. The AEE is Spain’s longest standing Protestant entity (127 years) and a co-founder of the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain (FEREDE), the legal representative of the Evangelicals before the State, formed in November of 1986 to act on behalf of its constituent churches. It is originally the work of the Comisión de Defensa Evangélica (formed in 1956 to defend the interests of evangelicals nationwide). The following confessions are represented: Adventist, Anglican, Baptist, Brethren, Church of Christ, Pentecostal, Reformed and Salvation Army. The number of active members making up the distinct churches pertaining to FEREDE reaches 65,000. The federation includes 1,300 congregations, 300 pastors and various social institutions associated with the churches.

The president of the Islamic Community, Malik Ruiz recognized that in "Spain there is no requirement to become a preacher of Koran which means that anyone, even an extremist, can use the pulpit in the Mosques to make their call." However, he also proposed that the Muslim centres themselves exercise the control.

The representative of the Federation of Islamic Religious Entities (FEERI), Masur Escudero, said that the initiative is "nonsense."

Mohamed Ahmed Moh, spokesman for the Islamic Commission in the city of Melilla recalled that "there is already control in the Justice Ministry" and that each "year the requirements to access to corresponding registry" are increasingly strict. Moreover, he also requested a meeting with the Interior Minister in order to "seek mechanisms that guarantee the multi-confessional state protected by the Constitution."

The president of the Islamic association "BADR de Melilla", Abdelkader Mohamed Alí, said that the proposal was "Islam-phobic", adding that it was a direct attack against "freedom of expression and worship" and was the result of a "lack of knowledge and lack of reflection" on the part of the minister.