Spain’s far-right Vox party wants festivities and commemorations that are not in keeping with Spanish traditions to be banned in Santa Cruz and elsewhere in the Canary Islands.
The party has tabled a motion for today’s end-of-June plenary session of the city council and the news immediately sparked reactions in favour and against.
According to Vox, celebrations such as the Muslim community’s Eid should not be allowed as they are at odds with Spain’s cultural traditions. It has called on the corporation to not only halt such celebrations in the city but to petition the regional and national governments to take similar action.
In the motion, Vox spokesman Alejandro Gómez said that celebrations such as Eid al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, are “incompatible with the identity, uses and customs of the Spanish people”.
Eid al-Adha is a major Islamic holiday that commemorates the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. In the festival, Muslims ritually slaughter animals (usually sheep) and share the meat with family, friends and the poor. This act of sacrifice is a symbolic reenactment of Ibrahim’s willingness to obey God’s command.
Due to not having a mosque in the city big enough to accommodate its key events, Santa Cruz’s Muslim community was allowed the use of a publicly-owned sports ground in the García Escámez district for the Eid celebration on 6 June, a decision – coming after the decision to open a local school on a weekend for the Ramadan celebrations in March – that prompted angry reaction from Vox.
The party also wants the city council to make clear its opposition to the holding of such commemorations in public spaces and buildings as they are a “foreign cultural practice” that can impact negatively on social cohesion and erode Spain’s national identity.
