Islamic Commission of Spain President Dies from COVID-19 at 72

According to the Spanish media, he had been hospitalized for several days, after being declared positive for the new coronavirus. At the announcement of his death, moving tributes are pouring in on the web.

"The government deeply regrets the death of the president of the Islamic Commission of Spain, Riay Tatary Bakry, and extends its condolences to the Muslim community of our country. Our recognition and tribute to his figure and his fight for coexistence in Spain," tweets the Spanish government. The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain pays tribute to the memory of a man of peace and dialogue. "Our sincere condolences to the Muslim community of Spain for the death of its president, Riay Tatary, a man of peace and dialogue," it writes.

Riay Tatary was born in Damascus, Syria in 1948. He emigrated to Spain in the 1970s where he studied medicine until he obtained his doctorate.

On the religious side, the deceased was one of those who participated in the 1980s in the construction of the first modern mosque in Madrid, the Abu Bakr mosque, nicknamed "the Strait Mosque". The mosque houses the headquarters of the Islamic Commission of Spain, responsible for representing the 2 million Muslims residing in the country.

Riay Tatary is also one of the architects of the 1992 Agreement, signed between the Muslim communities of Spain and the State.