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Are there more mosques than churches in Catalonia?

Catholic churches make up by far the most places of worship in the region, despite claims to the contrary online that appear to try and stoke Islamophobia.

READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/07/31/are-there-more-mosques-than-churches-in-catalonia

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00:00Are there more mosques than churches in Catalonia?
00:06Claims spread online alleged that the autonomous community of Catalonia in north-eastern Spain
00:12now contains more mosques than churches.
00:15This picture, which appears in posts on X and Instagram, among others,
00:19also says that 120 Catalan schools teach Islam.
00:23The Catalan government's website contains an official religious map of the region,
00:27tracking established places of worship across religions which hold services at least once a year.
00:34Catholic churches are by far the most common type of religious centre in Catalonia,
00:39totalling 5,665 or 78%.
00:43Evangelical or Protestant churches come in second place, with 889 places of worship.
00:49Islam, including mosques, is in third place, with 326 religious centres,
00:54meaning that, no, there aren't more mosques than churches in Catalonia.
00:58The social media posts suggest that the claims originate from Spanish news outlet Eda TV News.
01:04A search of its website takes us to an article about the supposed Islamisation of Catalonia.
01:09It contained a similar quote attributed to Julia Calvet, a politician from the far-right Vox Party.
01:15She says that there are Catalan municipalities with more mosques than churches, such as Salt.
01:20While Salt does have more mosques than Catholic churches,
01:24combining churches from different denominations puts churches on top again.
01:28Calvet also reportedly refers to some 120 schools teaching students an Arabic language and Moroccan culture course.
01:36The programme does exist as per an agreement between Spain and Morocco,
01:39and the Spanish news agency Europa Press reported earlier this year
01:43that 120 public education centres in Catalonia would teach the course between 2024 and 2025.
01:51However, this is a language and culture class,
01:53not an Islam class, as the social media posts claim.

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