Portugal (10th June :National Day)

(Dr Sajid Khakwani, Islamabad)

 In the Name of Allah The Almighty

Republic of Portugal, country lying along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is bordered on the east and north by Spain and on the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean. Occupying about 16 percent of the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal has a total area of 35,672 square miles. Despite its small size, the country displays a great diversity of geographic features. As a member of the European Community (EC) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Portugal plays a greater role in both European and world affairs than its size would suggest. Nonetheless, it is one of the poorest countries in western Europe.

The landscapes of mainland Portugal are the result of human activity since prehistoric times. Inhabited caves and rock shelters, some with rock art, indicate occupation in the Upper Paleolithic Period. Many of Portugal's urban centers date from Roman times. Subsequently the Romans, Suebi, Visigoths, Moors, and Jews exerted influence on the territory. Portugal's situation at the western extremity of Europe made it a gathering place for invaders by land, and its long coastline invited settlement by seafarers. Its name derives from “Portus Cale”, a pre-Roman or Roman settlement. They were subdued by the Visigoths, whose state was overthrown by Muslim invasions in the 8th century. A Christian territory of Portugal was constituted in 868. Portugal became an independent monarchy in 1139.

Although formed of such different elements, the population of Portugal is one of the most homogeneous in Europe, having physical characteristics common to circum-Mediterranean peoples. For example, the Portuguese in general have brown eyes, dark wavy hair, and pallid or brunet skin. The vast majority of Portuguese (some 95 percent) are Roman Catholic. Regular attendance at mass, however, has declined in the cities and larger towns, particularly those in the south. Less than 1 percent of the population is Protestant. The Jewish population of Portugal has remained small since the late 15th-century Inquisition, which forced Jews to convert or emigrate. In the main, rural settlement is dispersed, the inhabitants living in small villages under a system of open-field farming. Fishing, one of the earliest enterprises of the Portuguese, still plays an important role in coastal settlements.

At the height of its colonial endeavors in Asia, Africa, and South America, Portugal was the richest nation in the world. Because this wealth was not used to develop domestic industrial infrastructure, however, the country gradually became, over the 19th and 20th centuries, one of the poorest in western Europe. After the 1974 revolution, the Portuguese economy was disconnected from Portugal's remaining overseas possessions in Africa and reoriented toward Europe. Portugal joined the European Community (EC) on Jan. 1, 1986, since which time the economy has grown steadily.

In Portugal Summer temperatures near sea level may average up to 24° C but are rather lower at higher, exposed altitudes. Winter temperatures average 3° to 4° C. Annual rainfall averages more than 40 inches. One-third of Portugal is wooded. Most of the mountainous areas are well suited to forestry, and forest products like cork, resins, and pine and eucalyptus timber, the market value of which has increased, find a growing demand in industry. The thickest forests in Portugal are found in the province of Beira Alta, where cultivation is limited to less than a quarter of the area. The wild goat, wild pig, and deer are found in the Portuguese countryside. The wolf survives in the remote parts of the Serra da Estrela, and the lynx in Alentejo. The fox, rabbit, and Iberian hare are ubiquitous.

The main crops grown in Portugal are cereals (wheat, barley, corn [maize], and rice), potatoes, grapes (for wine), olives, and tomatoes. Portugal is the world's largest exporter of tomato paste and a leading exporter of wines. These exports help offset the cost of imported wheat and meat. The fishing industry has prospered, and its products are exported all over the world. The fishing industry is not able to feed the population; a quarter of the fish consumed in Portugal must be imported, mainly from Iceland (stockfish), Norway (dried cod), and Russia (sardines).For a country its size, Portugal has a large foreign trade. Total imports like primarily food and beverages, wheat, crude oil, machinery, automobiles, and raw materials have been greater than total exports of which the most important are textiles, clothing, footwear, paper pulp, wine, cork, and tomato paste. Britain, Germany, France, and other EC countries are Portugal's principal trading partners.

Portugal has been a republic since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1910. Its status as a democratic state began with the Revolution of the Carnations on April 25, 1974. The decolonization process that took place after the revolution .According to the post revolutionary constitution of 1976, Portugal's chief of state is the president of the republic, who is directly elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term. The president represents the nation; serves as chief commander of the armed forces; appoints the prime minister, with due consideration to the results of parliamentary elections; appoints and dismisses other members of the government at the proposal of the prime minister; sends messages to parliament and convenes or dissolves it as necessary; and sets dates of elections after consultation with the Council of State.

The constitution designates the Council of Ministers or the Cabinet, as Portugal's chief policy-making body. The Cabinet consists of the prime minister, who presides over its meetings; the ministers of government departments; and some secretaries of state. The prime minister is simultaneously responsible to the president (regarding the overall functioning of governmental institutions) and to parliament (regarding the content of public policy). The prime minister directs, coordinates, and implements government policy. By tradition, the prime minister is the head of the civil service.

The parliament is the unicameral Assembly of the Republic. It has 250 deputies, elected for four-year terms under a system of proportional representation. Among its duties are discussing and voting upon legislation, authorizing the government to raise revenues, and approving the laws passed by the legislatures of the autonomous regions.

The role of the military as the watchdog of the 1974 revolution and the subsequent transition to democracy was enshrined by the 1976 constitution in the Council of the Revolution. A constitutional committee operated in conjunction with the Council of the Revolution, which pronounced on the constitutionality of laws submitted to it. Revisions made to the constitution in 1982 abolished the Council of the Revolution and the constitutional committee and replaced them with a Council of State and a Constitutional Tribunal. Members of the Council of State are the president of the republic, who presides; the president of the parliament; the prime minister; the president of the Constitutional Tribunal; the attorney general; the presidents of the governments of the autonomous regions; certain former presidents of the republic; five persons appointed by the president; and five persons selected by the parliament. The Constitutional Tribunal has 13 justices appointed by parliament.

Portugal has three tiers of government below the national level. The lowest tier comprises the parishes, of which there are about 4,000. Each has a directly elected parish assembly, which appoints its own executive body, the parish board. The second tier consists of the municipalities, which number 305. Municipalities include rural and urban areas within their territorial limits. Each municipality has a municipal assembly, made up of the presidents of the boards of the constituent parishes and an equal number plus one of directly elected members; a municipal chamber, which is the executive of the municipality; and a municipal council, a consultative organ through which the views of social, cultural, professional, and economic organizations within the municipality are transmitted to the municipal chamber. The Portuguese police are divided into three categories. Under the control of the Ministry of Internal Administration are the Public Security Police and the Republican National Guard, includes the road police and has jurisdiction over rural areas. The PSP patrols urban areas and directs city traffic. Under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance is the Fiscal Guard, which is stationed at frontier crossings and points of entry and is responsible for collecting import duties and investigating smuggling and other violations of border regulations.

Private schools supplement the state schools that provide free education for the majority of people. The Portuguese welfare system is composed of several types of institutions that insure workers against sickness, disability, and old age and provide for the payment of pensions and family allowances. Compulsory insurance by employers is in force in most sectors of business and industry, the employee paying into the fund as well. Many large companies conduct their own welfare and sick benefit schemes and pensions for their employees. Portugal has both public and private hospitals. Regional hospitals are located in the main provincial centers and sub regional hospitals in smaller centers. Charity hospitals give free treatment to the underprivileged. The civil hospitals, mainly run by the municipalities with state support and funds from welfare and social organizations, charge according to the means of the patient. All over the country there are dispensaries and clinics serving mothers and infants.

according to the 2008 Census, 15000 Muslims in Portugal. Most of the Muslim population originates from the former Portuguese overseas provinces of Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique, most of the latter having their origin in the Indian subcontinent.For several centuries, from 711 to 1249, much of the territory of what is now Portugal was under Muslim control, and was a muslim country under the name Al-Andalus. This presence has left a significant cultural heritage in Portugal, notably in the form of islamic art. The Portuguese language has also been influenced, with many words borrowed from the Arabic language. In Mértola is the only mosque that partially survives, having been converted to a Catholic Church after the Reconquista.

Iberian Peninsula, after the fall of the Roman Empire, was divided in several nations, some larger with almost constant war among themselves. It happens that a Christian Prince, in war against another, being in risk of losing the war, asked for help to an Arab and Muslim Prince Mussa-bin-Nusair, in 708, who came to Iberian Peninsula to aid the king in trouble. Mussa bin Nusair triumphed over the enemy Rodrigo, the Visigoths’ king, and stayed over as a conqueror.

People were free to follow or not the religion in which they had been educated, voluntarily many people changed their creed. Many landlords made agreements and established "capitulation" with the winners. The most famous capitulation became of the noble Teodomiro, that in 713, signed the treaty, as follows, with the Prince of Murcia, Abd-al-Aziz, son of the conqueror Mussa:

" In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful. Grant a contract between Abd-al-Aziz bin Mussa bin Nussay and Teodomiro bin Gobdux: the latter’s capitulation will be done with the condition that any domination will be imposed nor to him nor to anyone of his family; they will be coerced or deprived of his properties; they will not be killed or held captives, they will be separated from each others nor from their wives or sons, they will not forced in their religion and their churches will not be burned; they will not be deprived of his properties. As long as the latter is faithful and sincere and accomplished all what was stipulated with him.; his capitulation extended to seven towns which are Orihuela, Valentilo, Alicante, Mula, Bigastro, Eyyo And Lorca. He will not give shelter to deserters nor to enemies; will not intimidate those who live under our protection; nor he will hide news that he may have from our enemies. he and his own will pay each year one dinar, and four measures of wheat, four of burley, four pitchers of sodden wine and four of vinegar, two of honey and two of olive oil; but the serfs will pay only half".

The Muslim Arabs dominated Portugal was until 1249. and the South of Iberian Peninsula until 1492.
The expansion of Muslim Arab Civilization in Iberian Peninsula, was, more or less, like this. The Peninsula was completely conquered but people weren't submitted as they had been by the militarists Roman invaders. With the entrance of the Arab Muslims in the Peninsula, Islam penetrated Europe on its Western side. In spite of the long permanence of the Muslim Arabs in the Peninsula, about eight centuries, Islam wasn't much implanted.
The Muslim Arab rule benefited the people of the Iberian Peninsula, due to the influence of a superior culture that they brought with them such as Science, as it ‘s defined in the present days in terms of theory and practice, transmitted to people that had long lost their historical past caused by the slavery and military subjugation to the Romans.

No doubt that the intermingling between the Muslim Arabs and the people of Peninsula was beneficial to the latter, despite the religious wars prepared and instigated by the Catholic Church against the Muslims. After the Christian conquest a large number of Muslims stayed over in the Portuguese territory. The first foral was conceded in 1170 by the first Portuguese king Afonso Henriques benefiting the Muslim communes of Lisbon, Almada, Palmela and Alenquer and served as a model to be applied to the forais of Tavira, Loulé, Silves and Faro, conceded in 1269. The law conceded the Muslims a special status that recognized the Muslim communes’ religious and cultural identity, allowing freedom to practice Islam, the teaching of Arabic and application of Fiqh, in return of payment of stipulated taxes and fulfilment of certain obligations. It was an adaptation of Shariah when applied to the People of the Book.

In the urban zones, the Muslims lived in separate districts. This was translated in the ownership of public buildings such as Mosques and baths, social centres, markets, butchers and cemeteries. Each commune had its elected judge who exercised administration of justice. The judge was assisted by public notary and the documents were written in Arabic. The Portuguese state even incorporated models of Muslim institutions namely in the military, economic and administrative structures.

From 15th century many restrictive measures against the Muslim minority were slowly brought into effect. The Portuguese king Manuel I, in December 1496, ordered the expulsion of all Muslims and Jews until October of the next year at the peril of confiscation of property and physical elimination, unless these were baptized into Christian faith. It is notable the contribution of the Arab Muslims for the progress in terms of civilization of the Iberian Peninsula, more evident in the gigantic enterprise of the Portuguese done in the Discovery of New Worlds, of which Europe had lost the geographic notion of its existence.

In the long voyages through the dangerous seas, the Portuguese advanced to the places in the East, that the Muslim Arabs sailors and traders had already reached. The famous Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama was the first to note that the population from the shores of Sofala in the Indian Ocean were Muslims due to the Muslim Arab presence. Gama found a flourishing commerce and navigation, religion, science, arts, behaviour in these regions.

1968 - A religious and cultural association is born and was open to all Muslims resident in Portugal, nationals or foreigners, with the name of Islamic Community of Lisbon, whose constitution was approved officially on 25 March 1968.

The Islamic Community of Lisbon (CIL) was founded by 17 Muslims living in Portugal The first president of the board of CIL was Suleiman, until 1985.

1974/78 - A military coup overthrew on 25 April. In Portugal . Due to new found freedom, a new immigration of Muslims coming from the former Portuguese colonies and the help of local Muslim countries’ diplomats, CIL became an important organization, respected by all men and women, independently of their faith. 1979 - The building of the first Mosque in Lisbon is started on a land offered by the local Council - the first since the expulsion of Muslims Arabs in 1492.

1981 - Al-Furqan Islamic magazine is founded by 5 Muslims. The director since then is M. Yiossuf Mohamed Adamgy. It has been a bimonthly and only Portuguese language magazine dedicated to the study, propagation and defence of Islam in Portugal. Al-Furqan has published since over 100 books on Islam, promoted conferences and competitions on Islam, programs on Islam to be shown on TV stations, annual book fairs. Since 1996 has a homepage on the Internet.

1983 - Inaugurated the Mosque of Laranjeiro to serve the religious needs of Muslims residing in the south of Tagus river (south of Lisbon). 1984 - Inaugurated the Mosque of Odivelas to serve the religious needs of Muslims residing in the Loures zone (north-east of Lisbon). 1985 - On Friday 29 March 1985 / 7 Rajab 1405, around 10 am, with the presence of the Portuguese president, the prime-minister, all diplomats of Muslim countries in Portugal, civil and military authorities, a large number of invitees and Muslims in general, the first phase of Lisbon Mosque is inaugurated. The president of Comunidade Islamica de Lisboa, said in his last part of speech: “With a Mosque in Lisbon, we can say that we enriching the cultural patrimony of the country, satisfying the legitimate aspirations of Portuguese Muslims, and at last we are launching the foundations of future relationship of sincere friendship and fraternity between Portugal and the Muslim countries of the World”.

The first phase of Lisbon Mosque, five centuries after the definitive exit of the Muslim Arabs from Portugal, was built with the support of Muslim countries, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Libya, Pakistan, Lebanon, Oman, Egypt, Jordan and Iran.

Dr Sajid Khakwani
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