Criminal Conviction of Spanish Priest for Criticizing Islam

[Ed. note: On October 17, the Málaga Provincial Court acquitted Fr. Custodio Ballester Bielsa of incitement to hatred along with Fr. Fabio Jesús María Calvo Pérez and journalist José Armando Robles Valenzuela, who were also accused of anti-Islamic “hate speech.”]

The conviction of a Spanish priest for “hate speech” has ignited a national conversation about the boundaries of religious expression and freedom of conscience in Europe. Custodio Ballester, a Barcelona parish priest known for his outspoken views, was found guilty last week of making “Islamophobic” remarks in an article he wrote more than seven years ago.

Ballester wrote an article titled “The Impossible Dialogue with Islam,” where he wrote that “radical Islam wants to destroy Christian civilization and raze the West to the ground.”

Ballester explains: “This reactivation of the Christian-Muslim dialogue, paralyzed by the alleged ‘indiscretions’ of Benedict XVI, is far from becoming a reality. Islam does not allow dialogue. For Islam, either you believe, or you are an infidel who must be subdued one way or another. In countries where Muslims hold power, Christians are persecuted and killed. What kind of dialogue are we talking about? Christians in Muslim territory are tolerated and ‘protected,’ they are dhimmi, that is, if they pay the jizya, a special tax imposed only on Christians.”

In Africa, Islamists impose the jizya on Christian communities: a tax of 40 dollars.

In Europe, it is the magistrates who impose the jizya.

In Islamic countries, apostasy and proselytism toward any religion other than Islam are not permitted and are severely punished by penal codes; new churches are not built and the few that can exist in former colonies like Morocco are desecrated, destroyed, or repurposed. Even our freedom of expression and thought does not exist in their countries, and here they openly limit it with the perverse and insidious excuse of “Islamophobia,” which silences and gags any well-founded opposition to their expansion. We must accept everything without complaining if we do not want to be accused of “racism.”

One can always expect the worst, considering that the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg condemned French journalist Eric Zemmour for “offense to Islam,” that a court tried Michel Houellebecq because in his novel Platform he called Islam “the stupidest religion,” or that in Denmark Lars Hedegaard, director of the Free Press Society, was prosecuted for his criticism of Islam.

When she died, Oriana Fallaci was still on trial in Bergamo. The charge? “Contempt for the Islamic religion.” From Switzerland, an extradition request was also issued.

Imam Malik Ibn Benaisa in a Spanish mosque declared that women “who wear perfume” are “fornicators” seeking to provoke men. Despite the complaint, the prosecutor, zealous guardian of multiculturalism, decided to shelve the case.

The accusation against the Catholic priest and the newspaper’s editor comes from the association “Muslims Against Islamophobia,” led by Ibrahim Miguel Ángel Pérez. This association receives support from the City of Barcelona for organizing events and seminars. Pérez is a convert who was part of “Barcelona en Comú” and has always boasted of a close friendship with former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, who boarded the flotilla for Gaza.

It’s demography, stupid!

Welcome to Salt, “the Spanish city with more mosques than Catholic churches.” A city of 34,000 inhabitants near Girona now has more mosques than Catholic churches, symbolizing profound changes in the religious and social fabric of many parts of Spain. Of the seven known Islamic places of worship in Salt, three belong to Moroccan communities; the others are mainly attended by Muslims from Gambia, Senegal, Mali, and Kenya.

By contrast, there are only two Catholic churches (Sant Jaume and Sant Cugat). There is also an Adventist church and five Evangelical churches, particularly with faithful from Ghana and Nigeria. Comparing Catholic churches with mosques, the ratio is clear: 2 to 7.

The increase in mosque construction in the province of Tarragona over the past twenty years is striking. In 2004, Tarragona was, together with Lerida, the Catalan province with the fewest Islamic places of worship. In two decades, the number rose from 20 to 37, a 90 percent increase. The Islamization of Reus is equally evident: in 2020 there were two mosques, but now there are five.

In Catalonia in ten years mosques have gone from 55 to 292. Forty-two new ones were built between 2020 and 2024. Mohammed is the second most popular name in Catalonia (in Barcelona, Mohammed is extremely common).

In Andalusia, the Muslim population is already 16 percent of the total.

Melilla is the first Spanish city that, since the Reconquista, has surpassed 50 percent Muslim population due to immigration, family reunification, and high birth rate.

Master of the historical novel, Arturo Pérez-Reverte is one of the most important contemporary Spanish writers. He wrote in XL Semanal, the weekly of the newspaper ABC:

“Here lies the main problem of the Old Continent: an insoluble conflict, consequence of European cowardice, greed, and stupidity. All governments, fearing being labeled as Islamophobic or racist, have been making the same mistakes for decades. Almost all of Europe looks the other way in the face of the same atrocities that Islamic oppressors perpetrate in their own countries against freedom of expression, democracy, gender equality, or sexual orientation; and they condemn or prosecute the reproduction of such infamies only very superficially.

“Teachers have been denounced for speaking about the Reconquista, protests have occurred on buses and wherever dogs-an impure animal, according to the Qur’an-are found, against advertising showing naked women or nudity on beaches. To this are added imams explaining how to beat one’s wife without leaving marks, who get away with a course on human rights, who approve of honor killings. History is moving. It will take time, because thirty centuries of civilization will not be erased by the Islamic veil. However, it is interesting to witness the twilight of a world with the lucidity that culture provides.”

For Sánchez’s Spain and the left, “Palestine” is very popular.

They could ask Waleed al Husseini, who avoided the death sentence only thanks to an international mobilization. For “offense to Islam,” Husseini was arrested while in an internet café. He spent ten months in a Palestinian Arab prison. His case was also covered by The New York Times. In prison, Husseini suffered “soft torture,” such as suspension from the ceiling by one arm while standing on one leg. Meanwhile, commentators and social media users incited: “Burn him alive!” Husseini later wrote [in France] a book against the Prisons of Allah.

“Palestine” may not be a state, but, as Lee Smith put it, it is already an “empire”, from Milan to Barcelona, and would like to open the prisons of Allah to priests as well. If it were up to our prosecutors and media, this “Islamophobic” priest would already be in Gaza taking lessons on Islam.

Published originally on October 17, 2025, under the title “Jail Time for Criticizing Islam.”