Islam versus Europe

Has dhimmi justice returned to Cordoba after centuries? The Muslims taunt Christians by praying in the cathedral, attack security guards and police with a knife and crutches and the judge just dismisses all of the evidence against them, saying the testimony is contradictory, by which he must mean that the Muslims denied it.

The Fifth Criminal Court of Córdoba has acquitted the eight Austrian Muslim tourists who created an altercation inside the Mezquita-Catedral on Holy Wednesday in 2010 for praying inside the place of worship according to the Muslim rite.

The judgement considered it proved that the eight tourists visited various Spanish cities in March 2010 on a cultural trip organised by the Association of Young Muslims of Austria. Specifically, they arrived in Córdoba on 31 March, coinciding with Holy Wednesday. In the afternoon the eight accused as well as the rest of the group visited the Mezquita-Catedral and once inside, in an area not expressly dedicated to the Catholic religion, one of them -Z. E. A., started praying according to the Muslim rite, some of his colleagues following him spontaneously. On noticing them, an assistant with the building’s security service approached the group and asked them to stop praying. After a negative response, another security guard appeared who “angrily” made the same request to the leader of the group, at which moment a struggle began between him and various members of the group who wanted Z.E.A. to stop praying.

The judge concludes that once the leader finished praying he ran out towards the entrance gate. But when he reached it he was detained by the gatekeeper until the security guard appeared again, who grabbed him by the neck and took him to a nearby corner. “Many of the members … swirled around them”, adds the judgement.

His colleagues started to ask the security guard to let Z.E.A. go, some of them even trying to free him by force, an extremity that the security guard prevented.

After the National Police appeared in the Mezquita-Catedral the members of the security service explained to the agents what had occurred “all in a climate in which spirits were very heated”. One of the Austrian tourists, E.G., with one leg in plaster and crutches, started to shout, for which reason the officers subdued him and pulled him to the ground, arresting him.

Regarding this episode, the judge indicates that it had not been proved that the eight accused had previously formed an agreement for criminal purpose or that they had disturbed public order. The recordings, according to the judge, prove that the tourists had not formed a protective cordon around the prayer, as the security guards in the place of worship maintain.

The prosecutor declared that when the security guard grabbed the Muslim leader by the neck there was a moment in which one of the other accused rushed on him and stabbed at him with a pen-knife, an action he was able to avoid, although it resulted in a cut on his left hand.

The judge, however, says that “there is no proof of a knife attack”, based on the declarations of the people involves and a video recording made available to the judge. Besides, he sees it as “implausible” that there was a “forceful struggle” in which the pen-knife of ten centimetres “provoked a slight scratch on the hand of one of those involved”.

The third and last issue examined involved one of the acquitted Muslims raising a crutch to one of the police officers who arrived at the Mezquita. The judge did not substantiate this version based on the “irresolvable contradictions in the testimony” and the “lack of proof” of this action.

In his judgement, the judge declares that it is not his job to assess for punishment “socially reproachable behaviour”, which tarnishes “with intransigent narrow-mindedness, the natural and peaceful convivencia between religions”.

Source: Diario de Cordoba