Spanish Town Trying to Protect Its 'Identity' Gets Bad News

A town in Spain has received a mandate from the nation's government: no more bans on religious fests at local sports venues. The crackdown in Jumilla, located in the Murcia region in southeastern Spain, came with a dressing-down against what the central government called a "discriminatory" practice that mainly seems to target the town's 1,500 or so Muslims, among 27,000 residents in total, reports the Guardian. Islamic faithful have for years used Jumilla's sports complexes to gather for Eid, among other religious celebrations.

"In the face of intolerance, there are no half measures," Angel Victor Torres Perez, the nation's minister for territorial policy, wrote on X. He added that the country's right-wing opposition parties "cannot decide who has freedom of worship and who does not." The hard-right Vox party had initially come right out and said it wanted public commemorations like Eid banned altogether, though it later walked that motion back, instead amending it to ban sports facilities from being used for "cultural, social, or religious activities foreign to the City Council." After that tweak, the conservative People's Party also came on board to support the measure.

Jumilla's mayor, Seve Gonzalez, insists to El Pais that the ban isn't directed at any one group in particular and is simply meant to "promote cultural campaigns that defend our identity and protect the values and religious expressions of our country." The leader of a notable Muslim association in Spain, however, has deemed the ban "institutionalized Islamophobia," while Spain's immigration chief, Elma Saiz, calls the motion "shameful." "Foreigners make up 20% of those who contribute to social security in Jumilla," Saiz notes, per the Guardian. "These towns would collapse without them."

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Even the Catholic Church has weighed in, and not on the side of the ban—a stance that Vox leader Santiago Abascal says has "perplexed" him. Euronews reports that the ban comes amid recent clashes that have pitted residents and immigrants in Jumilla against far-right groups. A central government official said on Monday that Jumilla has a month to officially respond to the government's request, at which point the government will look at other options if there's no adequate response.