Spanish Priest Faces Imprisonment For Criticizing Islamism

A Catholic priest from Barcelona faces a three-year prison term and an eight-year ban from preaching for allegedly making “Islamophobic” remarks during a televised discussion and for authoring an article addressing the Islamist persecution of Christians.

"I’ve criticized the criticizable aspects of Islam, but I’ve also praised its positive aspects," he wrote.

Fr. Custodio Ballester Bielsa’s trial began on October 1 after the Spanish campaign group Muslims Against Islamophobia (MCI) accused the priest of incitement to hatred under Article 510 of the Spanish Penal Code, which prohibits “discrimination related to the ideology, religion, or beliefs.”

The trial raises concerns about Spain’s laws restricting freedom of speech and permitting Islamists to prosecute Christians or secularists who criticize Islam—or even Islamism—as jihadi ideology remains a threat, especially among younger people in Spain.

“Their [the prosecution’s] intention is to deter, to make people understand that for this crime you have to censor yourself,” the cleric lamented. If Ballester is found guilty, it would be the first case of a priest imprisoned for expressing an “Islamophobic” opinion.

The prosecutor in the First Section of the Provincial Court of Málaga argued that the priest’s words “far from being an exercise in press freedom, fall under the category of hate crimes.”

Remarks Against Radical Jihadism Not All Muslims

Ironically, while Ballester has emphatically stated that his comments were directed at radical Islam and has said that his article was a call for the renunciation of Islamist violence, the MCI has itself been accused of praising the Taliban. According to the Spanish news outlet, Libertad Digital, a spokesman for MCI celebrated the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan stating, “We are in favor of a people freeing themselves from the yoke of American and Western imperialism.”

In court, Ballester explained that his remarks focused on “radical jihadism” and were not a generalization of all Muslims. “They’re (MCI) the same people who support the Taliban and have said that the Catholic religion is ‘shit.’ I’ve never said that about Islam,” he insisted.

“I didn’t speak about individual Muslims, but rather about the threat of radical Islam, and that is the absolute truth,” Ballester told InfoVaticana. “I’ve criticized the criticizable aspects of Islam, but I’ve also praised its positive aspects,” he told El Debate a day before the trial.

“I’m very grateful to the Prosecutor’s Office: if we were in Pakistan, they’d ask for the death penalty, instead of a few years in prison!” the priest quipped. “Everyone understands I wasn’t referring to all Muslims in the world” but to “Muslims who want to impose their worldview through violence, supported by verses from the Qur’an.”

Ballester’s trial at the first section of the Provincial Court of Málaga is the culmination of a campaign against the priest that has been brewing since February 2017, after he appeared in a panel discussion on the program La Ratonera (The Mousetrap) on Alerta Digital TV.

In an interview with Zenit (France), Ballester said he told the television audience that “radical Islam does indeed intend to destroy Europe and thus annihilate the West.”

“I also assumed that, in this Islamist milieu, not everyone is capable of committing violent acts, but that, unfortunately, those who immolate themselves and take with them those they consider ‘infidels’ are considered saints,” the priest said.
The MCI complaint also names José Armando Robles Valenzuela, the program’s host and director of the media outlet, and charges Fr. Fabio Jesús María Calvo Pérez with writing two unsigned op-eds on alertadigital.com in June and July 2017, which it claims are “Islamophobic” and antisemitic.

Ballester’s televised remarks describe Islam as “a religion of violence that has spread by the sword.” He claims that mosques are preaching “the destruction and extermination of the infidel” and that the priest called Muslims in the West “termites,” a “predatory blob that spreads and destroys,” and suggested that they should be “stopped, without violence, if possible, but firmly,” the MCI noted.

Priest’s Article Counters Archbishop on Islam

The priest’s December 2016 article “The impossible dialogue with Islam” is one of the key planks of the prosecution. Ballester says he wrote the piece in response to the archbishop of Barcelona, Juan José Omella’s article titled “The Necessary Dialogue with Islam.”

“In countries where Muslims hold power, Christians are brutally persecuted and murdered. What dialogue are we talking about, then?” Ballester asks.

In his column, Ballester criticized liberal Catholic hierarchs like Pope Francis for capitulating to radical Islam, especially when Islamists are persecuting Christians. The priest also praises conservative pontiffs like Pope Benedict XVI for “denouncing what so many then and now want to silence or gloss over: the fierce persecution of Christians in Muslim countries.”

“Islam does not allow for dialogue. You either believe or you are an infidel who must be subdued one way or another,” Ballester wrote. He cites Surah 9:29 from the Qur’an, which commands Muslims to “fight against those who have been given the Scripture and do not believe in Allah or the Last Day” until they pay the jizya (tax).

The priest describes how the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, Ahmad Al-Tayeb, responded negatively to Pope Benedict XVI when the pontiff spoke up against the jihadi car bombing in the 2011 Coptic Cathedral in Alexandria, which left 21 dead and 70 injured among the faithful attending New Year’s Mass. The same Grand Imam who harshly criticized Benedict XVI “will come and embrace Pope Francis,” he noted.

Christians in Muslim territories are dhimmi if they pay tribute to Islamic power by paying the jizya, and “Christian minorities in Muslim-majority countries like Syria or Iraq are forced to pay the jizya to avoid being killed or enslaved,” he wrote. “If one continues to say that ‘Islam is a religion of peace,’ one only creates confusion and perplexity.”

Islamist Influence on Muslims Against Islamophobia

Calvo, meanwhile, is alleged to have labelled Muslims as “the Trojan horse that infects, erodes, and degenerates the European race” and “a serious threat to the Christian continent and its traditional values.”

In its analysis of the trial, El Debate reported that the prosecution’s 23-page document indicting Ballester transcribes only three lines of the priest’s article. It earlier warned that “Islamists” linked to the party of the extreme left-wing radical Ada Colau, former mayor of Barcelona, are seeking to imprison the priest for a hate crime.

El Debate explained that the MCI is led by Ibrahim Miguel Ángel Pérez, a convert who has always boasted of being a close friend of Colau. MCI also includes Moroccan-born lawyer Zoubida Barik Edidi, who wore a hijab during an Islamist terrorist trial in 2009 despite being ordered by the President of the Court to wear headgear appropriate to the court. Edidi challenged the order in the European Court of Human Rights.

In comments to Focus on Western Islamism (FWI), the Rev. Duane Alexander Miller, Ph.D., an Islamic scholar and professor at the Evangelical Faculty of Theology in Spain, explained what “Islamophobia” had come to mean in a European context:

As soon as you see the word Islamophobia, you know something is wrong. What does it mean? It should mean “an irrational fear of Islam.” But when you see it in the European press, it signifies the conviction that no one ever, in any way, should be critical of Islam or Muslims. This word represents the European error that Muslims should be exempt from any and all scrutiny.

Focus on Western Islamism contacted MCI for comment, but did not receive a response. Over 29,000 Spaniards have signed an online petition launched by the Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers as the trial continues.

Fr. Custodio’s nightmare began after he made statements in which he claimed that “radical Islam wanted to destroy Christian civilization and wipe out the entire West,” the petition notes. “If we tolerate this injustice being committed against Fr. Custodio, we will be setting a fatal precedent.”

Jules Gomes is a veteran journalist who writes for Middle East Forum.

See other coverage here: Catholic News Agency