CV NEWS FEED // A Spanish priest faces a possible jail sentence for an article he wrote nearly eight years ago that criticised promoting dialogue with radical forms of Islam.
Fr Custodio Ballester received summons from a provincial court in Spain last month to answer for charges of alleged “hate crime” contained in a 2016 article he wrote, titled, “The Impossible Dialogue with Islam.”
The Spanish Court Prosecutor’s Office originally filed charges against Ballester in 2020, claiming the article acted as “incitement to hatred,” according to a BNN report.
“Islam does not admit dialogue,” Ballester wrote in the article at the time. “Either you believe, or you are an infidel who must be subdued in one way or another.”
He continued:
It is one thing that we do not despise people for what they believe and think and do not persecute them for it, and quite another that we have to hibernate our faith so that it does not collide with the progressive dogma and with the ideology that has declared war on our faith.
If convicted, Ballester faces a max prison sentence of five years, and up to $1,600 in fines.
Ballester recently explained to reporters at Catholic News Agency that “In Spain, ‘hate crime’ was invented and is directed at any speech that directly or indirectly refers to discrimination, encouragement of hostility, or inducement to violence.”
He continued:
It doesn’t seem right to be convicted for something I’ve said, but in Spain anything is possible. But if I am convicted, this will no longer be Spain but Pakistan, where you can be killed for blaspheming the Koran or Mohammed […] There is no longer any true right to free speech in Spain.
Ballester also noted that he was not referring to peaceful muslims in the article, but “to those who live Islam in a violent, radical way.”
The post Spanish Priest Faces Jail Sentence Over Criticism of Islam appeared first on CatholicVote org.