MOHAMMED IN SPAIN & INDIA, GUY FAWKES IN ENGLAND.

Date: 09 Oct 2006

Comment:

GUY FAWKES IN ENGLAND, MOHAMMED IN SPAIN.

FIESTAS HIT BY FEAR OF OFFENDING MUSLIMS
By Fiona Govan in Madrid.

(Caption under the picture: The festival in the village of Bocairent, Valencia. Organisers dropped the traditional finale of filling the head of the Mahoma, based on the Prophet, with fireworks.) 

SPANISH villages are abandoning the centuries old tradition of burning effigies of the Prophet Mohammed for fear of offending Muslims.

The annual festivals across Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands, feature locals donning medieval costumes to re-enact battles between “Moors and Christians” during the Reconquista (Re-conquest) period.

The fiestas celebrate events in 1492 when the Catholic kings of northern Spain defeated and expelled Muslim forces, ending more than 800 years of Moorish rule in the Iberian Peninsula.

Traditionally the festivities have culminated with the burning of mannequins of the Mahoma, a figure based on the Prophet Mohammed to represent the final defeat of Islam in the region. In some villages the head of the figure was stuffed with gunpowder and detonated with a cigar, while in others the dummy was decapitated and its head flung from the castle walls.

But according to reports, local authorities have toned down the rituals to preserve Muslim sensibilities and avoid a repeat of the furore that followed last year’s publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet.

Organisers of the festival in the Valencian village of Bocairent dropped the custom of filling the head of the Mahoma with fireworks as a climax to the festivities.

“As it could hurt some people’s feelings we decided not to do It.,” Antonio Valdes, the mayor of Bocairent, told El Pais, the daily newspaper.

The festival of Beneixama was also toned down, following a trend to avoid inflaming tensions in Spain, which is, again, home to a growing number of Muslims.
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(NB: Now many people in Britain want to change the custom of burning the effigy of CATHOLIC Guy Fawkes all over the country. He wanted to blow up the Parliament to kill King James I.)

We must not forget that in India the Mohammedan flag over Pakistan (MUSLIM INDIA) calls for similar ANTI MUSLIM demonstrations across the Rest of India on August 15 every year.)
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