Spain’s Congress Backs Restoring Muslim Surnames in Ceuta

Marrakech – Spain’s Congressional Justice Committee voted Tuesday to urge the government to facilitate the restoration of original Muslim surnames for thousands of families in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on Morocco’s northern coast.

The non-binding proposition, registered in February 2025 by Ceuta Ya! through Podemos, passed with 19 votes in favor, three against, and 15 abstentions.

It calls on the government to prioritize amendments to Civil Registry regulations and establish an extraordinary procedure – collective, accessible, and free – allowing affected families to reclaim surnames altered during nationalization processes in the 1980s.

Martina Velarde, a Podemos lawmaker representing Granada, defended the initiative before the committee and requested that it be voted on without amendments.

All parliamentary groups except Vox expressed support for the proposal’s core premise, which Ceuta’s local Assembly had unanimously endorsed a decade ago. The only point of contention was a clause calling on the state to “publicly recognize the historic error” committed during the nationalization process.

The Socialist Party voted in favor but noted the text was not drafted in the terms it would have chosen. The conservative Popular Party, through Ceuta lawmaker Javier Celaya, also backed the measure, calling it “a sensitive issue we will continue to support.”

However, Celaya distanced himself from the “historic error” language. Sumar’s Enrique Santiago voiced full agreement, describing the initiative as historic justice for a community subjected to discrimination four decades ago.

Vox was the sole dissenting voice. Spokesperson Carlos Flores dismissed the proposal as an attempt to “find a problem for every solution,” calling it neither urgent nor grave.

The Basque Nationalist Party agreed on substance but expressed reservations. Lawmaker Mikel Legarda questioned the “historic error” framing and argued that the right to change surnames should be exercised individually rather than collectively.

Mohamed Mustafa, secretary general of Ceuta Ya!, had expressed confidence ahead of the vote. He described the measure as “an act of historic justice toward a community that has suffered structural discrimination for decades.” Mustafa, whose own real surname is El Hisho, said thousands of residents in Ceuta “continue to see a part of their identity amputated.”

The proposition also includes a formal acknowledgment by the Spanish state of the administrative error. Mustafa called for an institutional apology, describing it as essential to restoring the community’s dignity.

Ceuta Ya! had expected the measure to advance, pointing to a 2016 vote in Ceuta’s local Assembly where all political groups – including the Popular Party and the Socialist Party – backed a similar initiative.

Mustafa argued it would be “an inexplicable contradiction” for those same parties to oppose the measure at the national level.

The party had also framed the debate within a broader political context, saying the current moment demands action against what it called “a reactionary and racist wave,” urging lawmakers to respond with measures that “recognize rights for those whom reactionaries seek to exclude and stigmatize.”

Muslims in Ceuta make up roughly 40 to nearly half of the occupied city’s population, forming one of two major ethno-religious communities alongside Christians. The community, predominantly of Moroccan and Spanish origin, maintains around 42 mosques and observes officially recognized holidays, including Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

Tuesday’s vote marks a significant step for a proposal that affects thousands of families whose surnames were changed without consent over four decades ago. The government must now decide whether to act on the committee’s recommendation.