Trouble broke out when the muslim visitors knelt to pray in the building, a former mosque turned into a Christian cathedral in the 13th century, where a local bishop, Demetrio Fernández, recently insisted that a ban on Muslim prayers must remain.
Half a dozen members of a group of more than 100 Muslims from Austria had started praying among the marble columns and coloured arches of the vast building when security guards ordered them to stop.
“They provoked in a pre-planned fashion what was a deplorable episode of violence,” the bishop’s office said in a statement.
Cathedral authorities said the guards had invited the visitors to continue viewing the inside of a 24,000 sq metre building that was once the world’s second biggest mosque, but without praying.
“They replied by attacking the security guards, two of whom suffered serious injuries,” the bishop’s office said.
Tillader muslimer kristne at bede i moskeer, der er tidligere kristne kirker?