Imams of the Torre Pacheco Mosque appeal to young people

Ten imams from the Torre Pacheco mosque in Murcia, Spain, met with dozens of young Moroccans in the early hours of Tuesday to ask them to stay at home to avoid further riots in the streets , in which ten people have already been arrested.

This situation occurred a few minutes after 10 pm on Monday on one of the main streets of Torre Pacheco, in the San Antonio neighborhood, the scene of the riots of the last few nights , without incident and with a large media presence.

Two spokespeople for the imams asked journalists not to record that improvised assembly, for which they had requested authorization from the Guardia Civil, and stressed that the conflict in Torre Pacheco arose due to the arrival of people from outside, because in that Spanish city people from North Africa and Spaniards “have always gotten along very well” .

“We, the older ones, are trying to calm the kids [referring to the young people] so that nothing happens and that the violence stops for now,” said one of the spokespersons, who also called for the avoidance of “racism” .

"We want peace, and we want the Guardia Civil and the police to do their job, because we're fed up with criminals. We don't want them, we don't want people who attack elderly people ," he emphasized.

Furthermore, he explained that, following the attack on his 68-year-old neighbor last Wednesday, the Moroccans received serious threats "from people outside Torre Pacheco," which is why they insisted that people from outside the city not come here for the sake of "peace and quiet."

When asked about a demonstration called on social media for this Tuesday, at 10 pm, by far-right groups, he insisted on the idea that, for the peace of mind of the population, the arrival of agitators from abroad should be avoided .

And he gave as an example the possible presence of the leader of the Desokupa group, which they fear could, among other things, foment a conflict “more typical of Syria and Iraq than of a lost city in Murcia”.

Since Friday, the day the riots began in Torre Pacheco, a city in southeastern Spain, ten people have been arrested following the anti-immigrant riots, three of them linked to the attack on a pensioner that sparked the violence, authorities announced Tuesday.

"So far, ten people have been arrested ," said Mariola Guevara, central government delegate for the Murcia region, on X, giving an update on the violence that has shaken this city of 40,000 inhabitants in recent days.

Guevara said that three of the people arrested had been detained as part of the investigation into the attack on a pensioner in Torre Pacheco last Wednesday.

The arrest of two immigrants who did not reside in Torre Pacheco had already been reported. A third person was detained in the Basque Country, in the north of the country, while heading to France.

The other seven people, one Moroccan citizen and six Spaniards, were arrested for their participation in the ensuing clashes. They are being prosecuted for the crimes of "disturbing the peace," "hate speech," and "intentional wounding," he added.

According to the government delegate, around 80 people who participated in the clashes were also identified, "many of them have a history of violence" and "most of them are not from Torre Pacheco."

The violence was sparked by a street attack on a 68-year-old resident named Domingo. Domingo, with his face swollen, told Spanish media that he had been attacked for no apparent reason by three young men of North African descent.

The attack led far-right groups to gather in the city's streets to attack people of African descent, despite the deployment of large security forces.

“Yesterday, we had already deployed 90 members of the Guardia Civil” and “their number will be increased tomorrow and in the coming days,” explained Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

According to the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), 920,000 Moroccans lived in Spain on January 1, 2024, the largest diaspora in Spain.