Riaÿ Tatary Bakry is First Imam of the Islamic Community in Spain. He is President of the Asociación Musulmana de España and the Unión de Comunidades Islámicas de España. He is also the representative of the Islamic Community in Spain before the Advising Committee about Religious Freedom of the Spanish Ministry of Justice since its beginning, the Director of the Seminars of Islamic Formation in Spain and International Advisor of several European Koran Seminars, a founding member of the Sociedad Española de las Ciencias de las Religiones, and Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the Islamic Council of Europe. King Juan Carlos I decorated him with the Grand Cross ofCivil Meritfor his 20 years of efforts promoting religious freedom in Spain.

He was born in Damasco (Siria, 1948), he moved to Spain in the 70’s, and lives now in Madrid. He graduated in Islamic Religious Studies from the Koran Centers of Damasco, obtained a Diploma in Statistics from the Arab University of Beirut (Lebanon), and studied Medicine at the University of Oviedo (Spain).

He is the Director-founder of the religious journal “Islam,” he is also director of a collection of books about Islam (Kitab) and the collection “Cuadernos de Formación Islámica Iqra.” In addition to this, he collaborates with several national and international journals, periodicals, programs and editions about Islamic issues and has published several books.