The organisers of an Islamic congress that was to be held this weekend in Torredembarra (Tarragona) have decided on Tuesday to cancel the meeting, citing security reasons. The Islamic community in the municipality claims that in recent weeks, after the controversy generated by the sexist statements of one of the speakers, Malik Benaisa, ten years ago, they have received “threats and pressure” through social networks, “from far-right groups”.
To the congress, under the title Belief, family and mannersAccording to the organisers, some 600 people from all over Spain were expected to attend, and they have already been informed of the cancellation. “Some people had hotel and flight reservations and they are cancelling them. But they understand. We fear for people’s lives and we can’t do anything else,” Jamal Talhaoui Hamidi, spokesman for the Islamic pastoral community of Tarragonès, said in a telephone conversation with EL PAÍS.
The community regrets that in recent days the pressure on the event, which was to be held at the Torredembarra mosque, has become unbearable. In addition to threats to the speakers who were to participate, the organizers have detected calls on social networks to boycott the event and promote pickets. “The safety of the attendees, among whom there are men, women and children, is and will always be our priority,” reads a statement released on Tuesday. Hamidi assures that they have made the decision of their own free will and that they have not received any instructions from either the Mossos d’Esquadra or the Barcelona City Council. “We cannot guarantee the safety to carry out the congress in the appropriate conditions,” adds the statement.
The noise surrounding the Islamic congress in Torredembarra began when it was made public that one of the speakers is Malik Benaisa, a scholar of Islam who in 2013 said, in a conference in Ceuta, that women who go out in the street wearing perfume in front of men are “fornicators.” Benaisa claims that he made a mistake when translating from Arabic a hadith (sayings) of the prophet Mohammed and has since apologised for that mistake. In a message sent following the controversy, Benaisa regretted that an old controversy is now being used to discredit the Islamic congress. “It was misinterpreted. I have been denouncing religious extremism, terrorist groups and any form of radicalism throughout Spain for over 15 years. Radicalism. Labelling me as something that I denounce is a lie and a slander.”
The organisers say the aim of the congress, which was structured around lectures by experts on Islam, was to promote “family values, peaceful coexistence and mutual respect”. They insist that they “categorically reject any form of radicalism and extremism, as well as misogyny”.
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