Two months have passed. How is Barcelona after the attacks of 17 August?

We are in contact with the Muslim community and with associations working in the fight against discrimination, and so far we have not heard of the aggression that has taken place.

At the Barcelona City Hall you have worked hard for coexistence. How has the attack been affected?

First of all, awareness-raising work is very difficult to measure the scope of the results. But, of course, the work we have done over the years has allowed the response to the attack to differ, to a large extent, from the events in other cities that we have seen in Europe. For example, the Muslim community organized a major demonstration a few days after the attacks, in which tens of thousands of people gathered. The most important thing is that, beyond the Muslim community, a lot of people were added to this quote, which was a magnificent photo of coexistence. He thinks that we now have about 2,000 people trained against discrimination. However, despite the good response, much work remains to be done against the seed of Islamophobia.

Is there a lot of misinformation about Islam?

Islam is not just a religious norm, and that's not known to many people. People simply link Islam to Ramadan. Therefore, there is an unfocused look at this religion in which negative stereotypes multiply without understanding the complexities that all religions have in general and Islam in particular.

The stigma of Islam is rooted. More so than that of Muslim women?

Gender Islamophobia is an excuse. I would say that most of those who defend the discourse for the rights of Muslim women use it only as a means of attacking Islam. And at the same time, gender Islamophobia shows its roots: it is often used through leftist parties, both feminists and lay people. It gives the impression that anyone can talk about Muslim women without talking to them.

Following the attacks, the Barcelona City Hall has already prepared an act of tribute to the victims. Instead of organizing a Mass, you celebrated an act in favor of religious freedom. Why?

The Mossos d'Esquadra sent us the list of dead and wounded victims, and in the light of the origins, it was clear that there were people of different sensibilities and religions. From the outset, therefore, we saw that the tribute had to be as plural as possible. After the attack, our challenge was to achieve as much solidarity as possible in diversity.

Religious diversity is often misplaced. You are working in that direction.

Leftist parties often confuse secularism with secularism. That's the problem. According to secularization, there must be a secularization between political institutions and religious beliefs of conviction. But that does not mean that the fundamental rights of religious freedom cannot be protected. We therefore believe that institutions should not promote religion, but it is our responsibility that believing citizens can realize their beliefs freely. Since Barcelona is a city in favour of rights, all rights, including freedom of religion, must be protected.

In connection with the attack, there was a broad debate on the profile of the aggressors. Do you think they were victims?

Anyone who chooses to immolate himself is a victim, even if it's the cleanse of his brain. What happens is that I find it difficult to victimize anyone who decides to kill others. I find it hard to say firmly that the terrorists on 17 August were victims. But what is clear is that the responsibility lies with everyone: with the institutions and with the citizens, with the indigenous peoples and with the Muslims.

However, the profile of the perpetrators of the Barcelona attacks was very different from that of the European attacks. How can you understand it?

One of the characteristics that normally encourages doing something like this is that young people have suffered exclusion. In this case, their environment made it clear that they were integrated. Therefore, I have two theories: either the environment is wrong and these young people were not integrated, or we are wrong about the characteristics of inclusion. And I will dare to say that I feel closer to the second reading. In other words, marginalization, Catalan friendship, good results in school and the excellent language spoken go further. It is therefore essential to abandon inclusion and start talking about a feeling of adequacy in order not to repeat such events.