¡Mezquita no! (2005)

• 70%
• 2005
• Documentary
• Alberto Aranda
• Guillermo Cruz

"No mosque!" is a 30 minute documentary about the conflict which took place in the city of Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona, Spain) in October and November 2004. The installation of an oratory in the ground floors of a block of flats led to the protesting of the neighbors who complaint about the place not having the conditions to accommodate a place of worship. The Muslim community had been given a provisional license by the Town Council so that they could celebrate Ramadan and then move somewhere else. But the neighbors complaint because they had been deceived by the Town Council: they had been protesting for months against the opening of this oratory. Some people from the Cultural Center Ateneu in Santa Coloma intervened in this conflict between the neighbors, the Town Council and the Muslim community. They asked for respect for those who were praying , defending in that way the constitutional right of freedom of worship. But the protests hardened with demonstrations which got noisier and noisier right in front of the oratory and a passive intervention of the local police became necessary. Once the conflict ended with the relocation of the oratory in a waste ground outside Santa Coloma, "No mosque!" tries to be a documentary about dialogue and reflection, about the facts, reasons and consequences of a case which is neither the first nor the last of this nature and which is more and more common in the European society, recipient of a great number of immigrants.