Splitting the soul: Spanish conservatives, anti-secularism and the ‘enemizing’ of Islam

As elsewhere, perceptions of Muslims and Islam suffered a negative impact in Spain as a consequence of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. This trend was particularly noticeable among the conservatives, who traditionally combined the support for Catholic hegemony with an exceptionally warm approach towards Islam and the Arab world. By focusing on the image of Muslims as constructed by the traditionalist newspaper ABC, this article exposes the dynamics underlying the dramatic shift in the perception of Islam among Spanish conservatives at the turn of the twenty-first century, in the context of changing domestic and global scenarios.