The court has ordered the government to guarantee the Islamic religion in schools and accused it of violating a constitutional right.
The TSJIB condemns the inaction of the Education Department, which did not respond to a father's request for his daughter to study the subject.
PalmThe High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB) has recognized the right of a primary school student to receive Islamic education in a public school in Palma. According to the ruling, which ARA Baleares has had access to, the Ministry of Education violated a constitutional right by failing to respond to the request made by her father.
The case arose in June 2024 when the plaintiff requested that Educació allow his daughter to take Islamic religious education. The Ministry did not respond to his request or inform him how to proceed. "The Administration has not provided the appellants with any information regarding the regulatory mechanisms that would allow them to satisfy their legitimate right to religious education," the ruling states. According to the document, "the lack of response and the omission of information constitute a violation of Article 27-3 of the Spanish Constitution," which guarantees parents the right to "have their children receive religious and moral training that is in accordance with their own convictions."
The government has argued that, in fact, the father never formalized the request for his two children to study the Islamic religion. However, the father was part of a collective petition with other parents in identical circumstances, and that, in this case, it only affected his daughter. Therefore, the Court has partially upheld his complaint and concluded that the second procedure—the one concerning the doll—was correct. The ruling states that the government should have pointed out the errors or lack of documentation and information, and set a deadline for their correction.
The defense of the Ministry has argued that the agreement signed in 2019—during Francina Armengol's second term—between Education and the Islamic Commission of Spain to teach the Islamic religion with public funds "expired on September 30, 2023." Since then, "there is no instrument regulating this teaching in public schools in the Balearic Islands." However, it acknowledges that it has continued to teach it in established centers, although it has not identified them or "provided information on the forecasts for the 2025-2026 academic year."
Ignore request
The Court concludes that "the administrative action, consisting of ignoring the appellant's request and failing to provide information or means of accessing Islamic religious education, clearly violates the plaintiff's right." In its words, "the fundamental right does not consist in the fact that this education must be provided in a specific school, but in the applicant's right to make this request and to be attended to in public schools appropriate to their environment and possibilities." The ruling adds that "the Administration must carry out the necessary activities to provide this education in the available public schools" to guarantee "the effective exercise of the right."
The court's decision obliges the Ministry of Education to fulfill its duty to inform and facilitate access to Islamic religious education. It also emphasizes that "the Administration's failure to comply with these obligations constitutes a violation of constitutional rights and must be corrected immediately."
