The mayor of Seville is willing to submit the cultural centre and mosque project in Polígono Sur to a public consultation, pending the Urban Planning technical report.
The City Council of Seville is considering holding a public consultation on the project for an Islamic cultural centre with a mosque in Polígono Sur, as confirmed by the mayor during the Plenary. The final decision will depend on the technical report from the Urban Planning Management, which will determine its viability and how to carry out the participatory process.
The mayor, when asked by the Vox spokesperson, stated that it will be the technicians who advise whether the consultation is appropriate and how to execute it. "It will have to be the reports from those technicians that advise whether that process is appropriate or not, and if it is appropriate, how it is done," he concluded.
The construction licence, withdrawn for study
The item regarding the construction licence for the mosque on Victoria Domínguez Cerrato Street was withdrawn from the executive committee of the Municipal Urban Planning Management on July 10. The decision was made "to request the technical and legal reports that allow for a serious assessment of the observations presented by Vox," explained the mayor.
The project, promoted by the Mosque Foundation of Seville and designed by architect Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra, includes a minaret and has generated intense political debate. The promoters, who already had a favourable technical report, have denounced that the halt is due to ideological rather than technical criteria.
The promoters defend the project and denounce vandalism
Jadiya Martínez, a board member of the foundation, insisted that licences "are granted based on technical and not ideological criteria." "We have a favourable technical report from the Urban Planning Management and all we expect is to be treated according to the current regulations and legality, like anyone else," she stated at a press conference.
Additionally, the officials reported a break-in at the site where pig legs and ears, an animal prohibited for consumption in Islam, as well as bloodstains, were found. They consider this an act of intimidation towards the Muslim community.
The promoters also denied having used the expression 'Muslim priority' and clarified that the master plan includes health services "open to everyone equally." "It is a fictitious conflict generated to polarise public opinion and gain political advantage," they asserted.
A private project that will not cost public coffers
The foundation has emphasised that the centre will be built on private land and financed with private funds, so it "will not cost public coffers a single euro nor will it detract from any other service for the neighbours." "We are not asking for a favour, we are exercising a right, as enshrined in the Constitution," Martínez added.
The promoters, who claim that a large part of the Muslim community in Seville is native to the city, have requested a meeting with the Vice President of the Junta and leader of Vox in Andalusia, Manuel Gavira, to explain the project. The political party has expressed opposition to the initiative.
To exemplify coexistence, the promoters cited the Great Mosque of Granada, which has been open for 23 years in the Albaicín "and the neighbourhood has not been Islamised," as well as their own experience in Plaza Ponce de León in Seville, where they have been for over 20 years.
The future of the Islamic cultural centre now rests on the technical reports and, possibly, the opinion of the neighbours in Polígono Sur. The mayor has made it clear that "ideologies are not above the laws," although the public consultation could set a precedent in the management of projects with symbolic significance.
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