{"id":107664,"date":"2025-10-22T05:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T09:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/spanish-priest-acquitted-after-facing-3-years-behind-bars-for-criticizing-radical-islam-107664"},"modified":"2025-10-22T05:00:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T09:00:44","slug":"spanish-priest-acquitted-after-facing-3-years-behind-bars-for-criticizing-radical-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/spanish-priest-acquitted-after-facing-3-years-behind-bars-for-criticizing-radical-islam-107664","title":{"rendered":"Spanish priest acquitted after facing 3 years behind bars for criticizing radical Islam"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Spanish priest who was facing three years in prison for remarks he made in 2016 that were critical of radical Islam was acquitted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I thank God and the Christian people who supported me with their prayers and their presence in court,” Father Custodio Ballester told\u00a0Fox News Digital<\/u><\/a> in a statement Monday of his acquittal, which was published on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ballester, along with another priest, Fr. Jes\u00fas Calvo, and journalist Armando Robles, faced multiple years behind bars for alleged hate-speech violations.<\/p>\n

CHRISTIANS INCREASINGLY PERSECUTED WORLDWIDE AS \u2018MODERN AND HISTORICAL FACTORS CONVERGE\u2019<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

According to Europa Press<\/u><\/a>, “the M\u00e1laga court ruled that the objective and\/or subjective elements required for the hate-speech offence are lacking. In the words of the court: \u2018No matter how despicable or perverse the message may be, or even if the statements may be clearly offensive or unfortunate,\u2019 they do\u00a0not<\/i> in themselves constitute a punishable offence.”<\/p>\n

Ballester said prosecutors were outraged by the ruling and are likely to appeal.<\/p>\n

“My sentence has greatly angered the prosecutor’s office because it halts all proceedings against freedom of expression,” Ballester said. “They are going to appeal to the higher courts. The heads of the hate prosecutor’s office: Miguel \u00c1ngel Aguilar and his deputies, Jes\u00fas Raimundo and Elena Pertusa, do not like defeat. We will continue to fight for freedom.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2016, Ballester wrote an article titled “The Impossible Dialogue with Islam<\/u><\/a>,” which he said was in response\u00a0to a pastoral letter from Cardinal Juan Jos\u00e9 Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona, entitled “The Necessary Dialogue with Islam.”<\/p>\n

In the article, Ballester wrote, “This renewed push for Christian-Muslim dialogue\u2014paralyzed by the supposed \u2018indiscretions\u2019 of the much-missed Benedict XVI\u2014is far from reality. The truth is that Islam does not allow dialogue. Either you believe, or you are an infidel who must be subdued, one way or another.”<\/p>\n

“I felt a moral obligation to speak the truth,” Ballester told Fox News Digital. “One cannot speak of dialogue when, in Islamic countries, Christians are persecuted, murdered, or forced to pay the jizya to survive. Cardinal Omella spoke about the dialogue, but I responded from the reality our persecuted brothers live.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The jizya is a tax paid by non-Muslims to Muslim rulers in areas\u00a0like Egypt<\/u><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ballester said a pro-Muslim organization filed complaints against him, leading to a years-long investigation that he said he learned of in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“My reaction was one of serenity and firmness,” Ballester said. “I was not surprised. In this Spain, corrupted by woke culture, telling the truth about radical Islam is considered a crime. But as a priest, my duty is to Christ and to truth, not to the ideological consensus imposed by the government.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Had he been convicted, Ballester said his “only wish” would have been to “celebrate Mass in prison with the inmates.”<\/p>\n

Ballester said he is concerned that the Spanish government is trying to silence priests and people of faith who speak out on controversial issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PRIEST STABBED IN THE FACE DURING MASS AS RELIGION-BASED HATE CRIME IS ON THE RISE WORLDWIDE<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“The Spanish state has turned the hate crime law into a tool of censorship and social control,” Ballester said. “The penalties are comparable to those for rape or a fight that left someone quadriplegic.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Crime is no longer prosecuted\u2014thought is,” he added. “Your own words are criminalized, and you are held responsible for what someone else might do after hearing you. And if that thought, that word, is Christian, traditional, or critical of Islam, it becomes a hate crime. It is ideological persecution disguised as justice. Hate crime law is one-directional. Offenses against Christian sentiments are labeled freedom of expression. Criticism of Islam is labeled hate crime.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ballester said his case represents a deeper cultural decline in Europe and that Christianity is being pushed out. He contrasted the current situation in Europe with the United States, which he said still understands the cost of liberty.<\/p>\n

“In the\u00a0United States<\/u><\/a>, freedom has a meaning we have lost in Europe,” Ballester said. “When I visited Washington to participate in the March for Life, I saw the Korean War Memorial. There is an inscription that reads: \u2018Freedom is not free.\u2019 So you know that it must be fought for every day.”<\/p>\n

Ballester believes the push to silence religious and conservative voices is part of a broader global movement and warned the United States is not immune to this movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to Miguel \u00c1ngel Aguilar Garc\u00eda,\u00a0prosecutor and coordinator of the Office of the Attorney General against hate crimes and discrimination in Spain, for comment.<\/p>\n

PAM BONDI CLARIFIES ‘HATE SPEECH’ COMMENTS AFTER GETTING BLOWBACK<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source – https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/spanish-priest-acquitted-after-facing-3-years-behind-bars-criticizing-radical-islam <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Spanish priest who was facing three years in prison for remarks he made in 2016 that were critical of radical Islam was acquitted.\u00a0 “I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_2902945987_2902945987":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[16563],"tags":[],"stock_ticker":[],"class_list":["post-107664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSpanish priest acquitted after facing 3 years behind bars for criticizing radical Islam - Wall Street PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/spanish-priest-acquitted-after-facing-3-years-behind-bars-for-criticizing-radical-islam-107664\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spanish priest acquitted after facing 3 years behind bars for criticizing radical Islam - 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