The ban was approved last week by the conservative local government of Jumilla, a city of 27,000 people in the southeastern Spanish region of Murcia.
The measure was initially proposed by the far-right Vox party and later amended and approved by the center-right Popular Party (PP), to which Jumilla’s mayor belongs.
The law prohibits the use of municipal sports venues for “cultural, social or religious activities external to the City Council”. The ban will primarily affect the city’s Muslim community.
For centuries, Spain was ruled by Muslims, whose influence is present both in the Spanish language and in many of the country’s most celebrated landmarks, including Granada’s famed Moorish Alhambra Palace. Islamic rule ended in 1492 when the last Arab kingdom in Spain fell to the Catholics.
Right-wing governments elsewhere in Europe have passed measures similar to the ban in Jumilla, striking at the heart of ongoing debates across the continent about nationalism and religious and cultural pluralism.
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 measure led to protests involving some 8,000 people, and the city’s Muslim community is appealing it in a regional court.
