No Mohammed effigies

last updated 8 January 2015

Bocairent, Spain

Several Spanish villages have dropped a custom from their annual Reconquista festivals this year: the burning of the head of the Prophet Mohammed. The festivals celebrate the 1492 reconquest of Spain by Catholics, who drove out the Muslim Moors who had ruled for eight centuries. Traditionally, the celebrations end with the lighting of a gunpowder-packed head of a Mohammed effigy, which kicks off a fireworks display. But given the protests earlier this year by Muslims offended at Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed, many local officials decided to cancel the effigy burning. “As it could hurt some people’s feelings,” said Bocairent Mayor Antonio Valdes, “we decided not to do it.”