Councillors in Jumilla, Spain are on a collision course with the national government after they voted to ban the hire of municipal facilities for Islamic religious festivities, including the long-running Fiesta del Cordero (Eid al-Adha) celebration.
The initiative, which started with a VOX proposal before being adopted in a diluted form by the local People’s Party (PP), restricted the use of sports halls and similar municipal facilities. No more “cultural, social or religious activities foreign to the city council” will be allowed on such premises, potentially impacting the town’s estimated 1,500 Muslims.
VOX had initially framed the measure as a defence of Spain’s Christian heritage and of “the uses and customs of the Spanish people” against what it described as the advance of Islamism, which it called an extremist ideology hostile to women, homosexuals, and children.
The motion passed with PP support, PSOE and IU-Podemos opposition, and VOX abstention after the PP narrowed the text to fall within municipal legal powers. The national government, however, argues the decision is an affront to freedom of religion, saying “a celebration that has been taking place for years is arbitrarily restricted,” and that the reasons cited for the change are unfounded since current regulations already permit sociocultural use of such venues.
Taking to social media, Canary Islander Ángel Víctor Torres, Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, posted
From the Government of Spain, we sent a request to the City Council of Jumilla, in Murcia, to annul the motion that prevents the celebration of events that the Muslim community had been carrying out for years.
The government has given the council in Jumilla one month to formally respond to its request to scrap the new policy, which could face a legal challenge under Article 16 of Spain’s Constitution, guaranteeing religious freedom.
