Spanish Government Orders Jumilla to Scrap Ban on Religious Gatherings
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\nThe Spanish government has formally ordered the city council of Jumilla, Spain, to revoke a ban on religious celebrations in municipal sports centers, arguing that the measure is discriminatory and violates religious freedom, The Guardian reported. The ban, which was approved by the local government, was proposed by the far-right Vox party and backed by the conservative People’s Party (PP).<\/p>\n
The ban stipulated that municipal sports facilities could only be used for athletic activities, effectively preventing Muslim residents from celebrating holidays such as Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha in these spaces, as they have done for years. The measure stems from a PP initiative that modified an earlier Vox motion explicitly seeking to ban Islamic celebrations in the municipality of about 27,000 residents, which has a large Muslim community.<\/p>\n
Spain’s Migration Minister, Elma Saiz, called the ban “shameful” and urged the local leaders to apologize. The national government’s order follows a chorus of criticism from various groups, including a prominent Islamic association that described the ban as “institutionalized Islamophobia” and the country’s Catholic bishops, who stated that it violates fundamental rights. The town has one month to respond to the government’s request to revoke the measure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spanish Government Orders Jumilla to Scrap Ban on Religious Gatherings ———————————- The Spanish government has formally ordered the city council of Jumilla, Spain, to revoke a ban on religious celebrations in municipal sports centers, arguing that the measure is discriminatory and violates religious freedom, The Guardian reported. The ban, which was approved by the local …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[7856],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spain"],"yoast_head":"\n