Councillors representing Spain’s centre-right People’s Party (PP) have backed a motion to stop the rental of municipal sports facilities for Muslim festivals, including Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, in the town of Jumilla, Murcia.
The move was originally proposed by the right-wing party VOX, but after the People’s Party (PP) amended it to limit its scope to local legal powers, VOX abstained and the Left voted against it.
The motion stated that “municipal sports facilities cannot be used for religious, cultural or social activities alien to our identity unless organised by the local authority.” According to Jumilla’s deputy mayor, the change aims to reserve these venues for sporting or municipal events only—regardless of religion or nationality.
Locally, VOX supporters posted on X, formerly Twitter, to say:
Thanks to Vox the first measure to ban Islamic festivals in Spain’s public spaces has been passed. Spain is and will be forever the land of Christian people.
Jumilla (pop. 27,000) has around 7.5% of its residents from majority Muslim countries, some of whom see this as persecution. Spanish Federation of Islamic Organisations president Mounir Benjelloun Andaloussi Azhar described the ban as “Islamophobic.” It may yet face legal challenges, drawing on Spain’s constitutional commitment—enshrined in Article 16—to freedom of religion.
