Spanish town ordered to drop 'shameful' ban 'on Islamic festivals'

A town in Spain has been ordered not to proceed with a ban on religious festivals at public spaces (Image: Getty)

A Spanish town has been ordered to drop a "shameful" ban which would have impacted Islamic festivals by the country's government. The ban had been approved by the conservative local government of Jumilla, a town of 27,000 in southeastern Spain.

It prohibited religious gatherings in public sports centres in a move which would have mostly affected members of the town's Muslim community, who have used the spaces to mark religious occasions such as Eid al-Fitr. Spain’s left-wing national government condemned the measure as discriminatory while some on the right celebrated it as a means to uphold the nation’s Christian culture.

The ban had been proposed by the far-right Vox party before it was amended and approved by the centre-right Popular Party (PP), of which Jumilla's mayor is a member.

Spain's Migration Minister Elma Saiz described the move as "shameful" last week and urged the town's leaders to "take a step back" and apologise to residents.

Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Victor Torres wrote on X on Monday (August 11) that the Spanish government had formally instructed Jumilla to scrap the ban.

He said: "There can be no half-measures when it comes to intolerance. PP and Vox cannot decide who has freedom of worship and who does not. It is a constitutional right."

Ms Saiz last week told Spain's Antena 3 broadcaster that policies such as the ban in Jumilla harmed citizens who have been living for decades in Spain's towns, cities and country, contributing and "perfectly integrated without any problems of coexistence".

The town's mayor, Seve González, previously told Spain's El País newspaper that the measure didn't single out any one group and her government wanted to promote cultural campaigns that "defend" the area's identity.

The ban is the latest controversy surrounding immigration and multi-culturalism in Spain. It follows clashes in July in the southern Murcia region between far-right groups, local residents and migrants.

They erupted after an elderly resident in the town of Torre-Pacheco was beaten up by attackers believed to be of Moroccan origin. It prompted far-right groups to call for retribution on the area's large migrant population.

Right-wing governments elsewhere in Europe have passed measures similar to the ban in Jumilla.

Last year in Monfalcone, a large industrial port city in northeastern Italy with a significant Bangladeshi immigrant population, its far-right mayor, Anna Maria Cisint, banned prayers in a cultural centre.

The move led to protests involving some 8,000 people. The city's Muslim community is appealing against the ban in a regional court.