Residents in Seville have hung ham bones and cuts of pork on the fence surrounding the plot where a mosque and Islamic cultural centre are due to be built, in an attempt to stop the scheme.
The remains appeared alongside cardboard signs reading “no mosque” and drawings of crosses. Spanish outlets reported that those involved chose the symbol because pork is forbidden under Islamic law.
The most recent pieces went up on July 27 during a protest outside the site in Polígono Sur, hours before the city’s planning authority granted the building permit. No serious disturbances were reported though National Police officers were deployed.
Members of Núcleo Nacional, a fringe group Spanish media have described as neo-Nazi, joined the demonstration after urging supporters to attend on social media.
Right-wing Vox, which called the mobilisation, has fought the project since the licence was pulled from the planning committee agenda in July at the party’s request. Its municipal spokesman Gonzalo García de Polavieja said Vox would not permit the “islamisation” of the city’s districts.
The complex is a private initiative of the Fundación Mezquita de Sevilla, built on land the foundation bought from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It would cost about €10 million and take roughly three years, with work due to start before the end of 2026.
Designed by the Sevillian architect Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra, the building would be faced with an Andalusi lattice echoing the brickwork of the Giralda. The prayer hall would cover some 400 square metres and hold up to 500 people.
Foundation spokesman Jalid Nieto told Diario de Sevilla on August 4 that worship would account for just over a quarter of the complex, the rest going to study rooms, medical consultations and cultural activities. He rejected the label “macromosque” and offered to meet Vox leader Santiago Abascal.
Nieto, who was raised in the Bellavista district, said the foundation’s board rather than its imam ran the centre and that any preacher straying from its line would be replaced.
Seville has 14 registered Muslim places of worship and the province 34, according to the Ministry of the Presidency directory. The foundation estimates that between 11,000 and 12,000 Muslims live in the city, and 24,000 in the province.
The tactic has worked before. Militants of the Democracia Nacional party buried a pig on a plot in the San Jerónimo district in 2010 and the mosque planned there was dropped.
Earlier attempts in Los Bermejales, Santa Bárbara and Pino Montano also came to nothing, the first after years of neighbourhood opposition and litigation.
