Representatives from the Spanish Muslim community have reportedly appealed to Pope Benedict XVI to allow Muslims prostrate themselves in worship in Cordoba Cathedral, which was built as a mosque during Spain’s centuries of Islamic rule, and converted into a church in the 13th century, according to Reuters.

“What we wanted was not to take over that holy place, but to create in it, together with you and other faiths, an ecumenical space unique in the world which would have been of great significance in bringing peace to humanity,” the Spain’s Islamic Board, said in the letter.

But senior Spanish Catholic clergy rejected the Muslims requests.

Spain’s Catholic Bishops Conference argues it’s not prepared to negotiate the building’s shared use with followers of other faiths.

Muslim worshippers are usually stopped by security guards who prevent from praying inside the old Mosque.

“There are reactionary elements within the Catholic Church, and when they hear about the construction of a mosque, or Muslim teachings in state schools, or about veils, they see it as a sign that we are growing and they oppose it,” said the board’s general secretary, Mansur Escudero.

Cordoba’s Cathedral, known as the Cathedral-Mosque, was built when much of Spain was the Moorish territory of Al-Andalus, a major centre of Islamic thought and architecture.

Córdoba, now the only provincial capital in Spain where the city government is controlled by a leftist coalition named Izquierda Unida, whose main component is the Communist Party of Spain, was taken by the Christians from the Muslims as part of the Reconquista in 1236.

It later became a center of activity against in remaining Islamic regions.