Piera Mosque Barcelona fire: Tommy Robinson amongst many sharing wrong video of suspected arson attack on mosque amid anti-migrant riots in Spain
A suspected arson attack was carried out on a newly built mosque in the town of Piera, located in the province of Barcelona, Spain.
The fire broke out in the early hours of Saturday morning (12 July) shortly after 3 a.m., destroying the mosque just days before its planned official opening. According to local reports, the blaze quickly engulfed the worship space despite efforts by firefighters, rendering the building unusable.
Catalonia’s three main Muslim organizations—UCIDCAT, FCIC, and FIC—jointly denounced the incident as a “cowardly attack” and suggested the act was premeditated, calling it an effort to “fracture social cohesion” in the town. “These acts aim to damage the spirit of understanding that has long defined Piera,” they said.
Piera, a municipality of around 17,500 residents—1,700 of whom are foreign nationals—has recently seen other acts of suspected hate-related violence. In late May, an overnight fire partially damaged a state-run center for unaccompanied minors in the same town. Authorities have not ruled out a link between the two incidents.
Videos have been shared online of the mosque set on fire - but many including far-right activist Tommy Robinson have shared the wrong one. Tommy Robinson mistakenly shared a video of Jami Mosque in North Jakarta, Indonesia, that caught fire and collapsed in 2022.
Unfortunately this video has been shared by many online - thinking it is a video of the Barcelona mosque fire. One user commented on Tommy Robinson’s post saying: “This is Jakarta. 2022. Don’t make s**t up to stir more hatred.”
The incident comes as anti-migrant protests erupted in a Spanish town over the weekend after a 68-year-old pensioner was allegedly assaulted by three Moroccan men. A series of protests took place in Torre Pacheco over the weekend after the attack was captured on film and shared online. Dramatic images from the town showed how groups armed with batons and fireworks clashed with police.
Local media reports claimed protesters were "actively searching" for foreigners. The protests left several people injured.
Spanish police have arrested 10 people after the clashes between far-right groups and North African migrants in Torre Pacheco. Migrants, many of them second-generation, make up about a third of Torre Pacheco's population of about 40,000.The area around the town also hosts large numbers of migrants who work as day labourers in agriculture, one of the pillars of the economy in the Murcia region.