‘ISLAMOPHOBIC’: SPANISH TOWN’S BAN ON RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS SPARKS CRITICISM

A ban imposed by a southeastern Spanish town on religious gatherings in public sports centres, which will mainly affect members of the local Muslim community, has sparked criticism from the left-wing government and a United Nations official.

Spain’s Migration Minister Elma Saiz said on Friday that the ban, approved by the conservative local government of Jumilla last week, was “shameful”, urging local leaders to “take a step back” and apologise to residents.

The ban, approved by the mayor’s centre-right Popular Party, would be enacted in sports centres used by local Muslims in recent years to celebrate religious holidays like Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

It was originally proposed by the far-right Vox party, with amendments passed before approval. Earlier this week, Vox’s branch in the Murcia region celebrated the measure, saying on X that “Spain is and always will be a land of Christian roots!”

The town’s mayor, Seve Gonzalez, told Spain’s El Pais newspaper that the measure did not single out any one group and that her government wanted to “promote cultural campaigns that defend our identity”.

But Mohamed El Ghaidouni, secretary of the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain, said it amounted to “institutionalised Islamophobia”, taking issue with the local government’s assertion that the Muslim festivals celebrated in the centres were “foreign to the town’s identity”.

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The ban, he said, “clashes with the institutions of the Spanish state” that protect religious freedom.

Saiz told Spain’s Antena 3 broadcaster that policies like the ban in Jumilla harm “citizens who have been living for decades in our towns, in our cities, in our country, contributing and perfectly integrated without any problems of coexistence”.

Separately, Miguel Moratinos, the UN special envoy to combat Islamophobia, said he was “shocked” by the City Council of Jumilla’s decision and expressed “deep concern about the rise in xenophobic rhetoric and Islamophobic sentiments in some regions in Spain”.