THREE arrests were made at Palma's main mosque in calle de Joan Mestre at midnight on Tuesday after police tailed a North African suspect there.
He was apprehended along with the President of the Muslim Defence League and the mosque caretaker, both of whom reportedly tried to stop the police from entering, saying that the sanctuary of a mosque should be upheld in the same way as that of churches and synagogues. The Muslims claimed that the police had become violent and had used their truncheons to make the arrests.
The police, with a very different story meanwhile, said they were following a man who had failed to stop when they flagged down his motorcyle for a roadside control and had taken refuge in the mosque.
On hearing of the incident some 150 angry local Muslims protested outside the police station saying that relations between the Islamic community and the security forces were at an all-time low because their holy site had not been respected.