AR is 28 years old and arrived in Spain from Morocco at the age of 12. A Spanish national, beyond her school years, she has never had problems due to her origin or religion, as revealed by the veil she wears. This was the case until a few days ago, when a collision between her son and another girl over a remote-controlled car gave rise to an Islamophobic attack in two parts: first insults, which were repeated a few days later accompanied by a physical assault that left her with bruises and scratches on one arm.
The events took place in the Sevillian city of Camas and resulted in complaints (to which this newspaper has had access) for what the person concerned considers a hate crime, although the National Police reduced the events to a fight between relatives. From the Consistory Camero, for its part, confirms what happened and attributes it to a “problematic neighbor”, while emphasizing that to date there have been no incidents of this type despite the large Muslim population settled in the municipality.
YA, the victim’s husband, tells the story and apologizes on her behalf because it is difficult for him to remember what happened. Both prefer to give their initials to prevent an event that began with a child from happening to adults, while AR was in a park next to the Camas City Hall with his three-month-old son in his arms. His other child, aged 6, was playing with a remote-controlled car and refused to give it to a little girl of the same age who approached him to ask for it. The little girl’s reaction, very angry, was to kick the toy.
Scratches and bruises from removing the cell phone
AR assures that “out of good manners” he asked the little girl not to kick the car, which led her father to approach and the storm broke out: “You piece of shit mora, go to your country, I’m going to tear off your veil,” “Who do you think you are to talk to my daughter?” “They were insults of all kinds,” says YA, who kept repeating that he was Spanish and that she had to return to her country. “In the end, they had to catch him because he was going to attack her,” which led to an anxiety attack and a complaint to the National Police corroborated by a witness who accompanied them.
The problem, they were told at the police station, was that with the little information they provided, it was very difficult to identify the attacker, which led to the second incident: AR found him on the street three days later and tried to take a picture of him from a distance to take them to the police. But he saw her and “he rushed towards her to take her cell phone”, a struggle during which, between insults, he caused scratches and bruises, injuries certified by a medical report. “Not only did no one help her, but my wife found herself cornered by a group of older women who defended the man and insulted him”, laments YA.
He attributes this situation to the intervention of the aggressor’s wife, who harangued “with lies” some neighbors who, in turn, recommended that he introduce himself as the perpetrator of the attack. In fact, when a police patrol arrived at the scene, only this woman was present, an event following which the victim suffered a new anxiety attack and now “does not want to go out into the street anymore.”
“A dispute between two parents”
The party concerned filed a second complaint with its corresponding medical report, while the Government Sub-delegation confirms that the other party also filed a complaint. In this context, the National Police reduces what happened to “an argument between two parents” that caused “a fight that cannot be considered a hate crime.”
Despite this, both eyewitnesses and the town hall itself confirm that the victim was subjected to “racist and xenophobic insults”. “It happened because she is Muslim”, insists her husband, originally from Jerez, who recalls that they have never had problems of this type in other towns or in Camas, where they have lived for five years. “There is a mosque here and nothing has ever happened, people think what they want, but there have never been any insults”, he adds.
It is ALREADY clear that the origin of the incident is “pure and simple Islamophobia based on prejudice.” And although what happened can be considered a minor problem, he believes that it is a reflection of a growing reality, “a political climate fueled by social networks that sows hatred.” “We have already seen what happened in England, France, the Netherlands, Germany or the United States, it is something global that is now reaching Spain,” and based on “preconceived ideas” that “warm people up”: one of the accusations against his wife was that he was there “for help,” when both have higher education and are independent.
An increasingly frequent case
The local government insists on the absence of incidents in the municipality, although it is also concerned about a “national hate speech” that generates a worrying breeding ground. And one of the imams of the Macarena mosque, Mohammad Idrissi Alcaraz, expresses himself in the same sense, who has been interested in this case and who recognizes that “due to the political environment that exists and the discourse of some media, every time ” We see more cases of this type.
“The bottom line is how a person perceives others” and that is why he advocates making these types of situations known, because “there is a problem and we must set an example”. “We have seen what is happening in other countries close to us, there are no red lines and it has consequences”, which is why he considers “the speeches allowed at the national level worrying”. “We must be positive, but the concern is there and we receive these types of cases more frequently than we would like.”
