Escudero dismissed the measure as a breach of religious freedom

MADRID, May 4 (IslamOnline.net) – The Spanish government is planning to monitor imams and censor mosque sermons, a move denounced by several politicians, rights groups and Muslims as a violation of religious freedom, a British daily reported on Tuesday, May 4.

"I'm bewildered. The proposals are just surreal. I never thought that a socialist minister with a progressive attitude and respect for the constitution would launch such an attack on religious freedom," Mansur Escudero, the president of the Islamic Council in Spain, told The Guardian.

He said the move was "a knee-jerk reaction to public concern about terrorism, and demonstrated ignorance of Islamic practice".

The censorship proposal was initially tabled by Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso to control "Islamic radicals".

"I think it is important to know what is being preached on Fridays in the various religious forums that have been growing in Spain in a totally uncontrolled fashion," he had told Spain’s best-selling El País newspaper.

"We need to get to a legal situation in which we can control the imams in small mosques. That is where the Islamic fundamentalism which leads to certain actions is disseminated."

His proposal was later backed by Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, who said Friday sermons should be placed under close scrutiny.

"It is important that we know what is said in the Friday sermon. Mosques have sprung up in Spain in a completely uncontrolled fashion," the top diplomat told Telecinco newspaper.   

Against Constitution

However, Angel Acebes, the former interior minister and now deputy leader of the opposition People’s Party, stressed the move "would be wrong and run counter to constitution".

And he wondered: "Is the interior ministry going to read thousands of sermons from priests and imams each week?"

The opposition figure insisted that the proposal was rash, urging the government to give it a second reading.

Catalonia’s Convergence and Union party (CiU) said the interior minister’s idea demonstrates the government’s "lack of confidence and experience".

It added that in several countries intelligence services are assigned with this task within a democratic framework.

A Spanish legal group, Francisco de Vitoria, warned that the censorship carries grave consequences and breaches religious freedom enshrined in the constitution.

Judges for Democracy, another rights watchdog, said such a move could backfire, charging it violates the basic rights of Muslims in Spain.

The Association of Defending Human Rights, for its part, said Alonso’s statements had contempt for both the constitution and citizens.

Spain has a Muslim community of about 500,000 people out of a total population of 42 million.

Europe has seen recently a wave of expelling imams for allegedly adopting a "radical" religious discourse.

An IOL poll showed that expulsion of imams would further alienate Muslims in European countries.