"Clearly Spain forms part of the strategic objectives of global jihad. We are not the only ones but we are in their sights." — Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz.
Radical Muslims in Spain have launched a social media campaign aimed at
generating support for the jihadist group Islamic State [IS].
The campaign involves posters that include images of famous Spanish landmarks
and monuments emblazoned with Arabic slogans such as, "We are all the Islamic
State" and "Long Live the Islamic State."
One poster includes an image of
the medieval Islamic Aljafería Palace in the Spanish city of Zaragoza and the
black flag associated with the IS. Another uses an image of
the famous La Concha beach in the Basque city of San Sebastián. Yet another
includes an image of the statue of Jesus Christ on Monte Urgull in San
Sebastián, with the Arabic words "Al-Andalus Country" instead of "Basque
Country."
The poster campaign comes after IS jihadists produced a video in
which they vow to liberate al-Andalus from non-Muslims and make it part of their
new Islamic Caliphate.Al-Andalus is the Arabic name given to those parts of
Spain, Portugal and France that were occupied by Muslim conquerors (also known
as the Moors) from 711 to 1492. As the Basque Country is surrounded by
mountains, however, the Moors never succeeded in occupying it.
The video shows a jihadist speaking in Spanish with a heavy North African
accent. He says:
"I say to the entire world as a warning: We are living under the Islamic
flag, the Islamic caliphate. We will die for it until we liberate those occupied
lands, from Jakarta to Andalusia. And I declare: Spain is the land of our
forefathers and we are going to take it back with the power of Allah."
Radical Muslims (and many moderate Muslims) believe that all territories
Muslims lost during the Christian Reconquista of Spain still
belong to the realm of Islam. They claim that Islamic law gives them the right
to return there and re-establish Muslim rule.
In recent years, the return of "occupied" Al-Andalus to the fold of Islam has
become an obsession for
Muslims of all stripes, and calls to reconquer al-Andalus have become more
frequent and more strident.
Commenting on the latest video, Spain's Secretary of State for Security,
Francisco Martínez, said Spanish
police were remaining "vigilant" in the face of a "grave" jihadist threat.
Meanwhile, Moroccan authorities have warned Spanish police
that some of the more than 3,000 Moroccan jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq
are beginning to return home, and that many of them are likely to attempt to
infiltrate the Spanish mainland via the North African Spanish exclaves of Ceuta
and Melilla.
The Moroccan Interior Minister, Mohamed Hassad, recently identified 1,221
Moroccan citizens who have joined jihadists groups in Syria and Iraq, as well as
another 2,000 ethnic Moroccans who are citizens of other countries, including
Spain.
Spanish and Moroccan counter-terrorism forces have stepped-up efforts to
break up jihadist cells that have been proliferating in both countries.
On August 14, nine members of a recruitment cell for the IS were arrested in
northern Morocco, not far from the North African Spanish exclave of Ceuta.
The arrests were made in the Moroccan cities of Fez, Tétouan and Fnideq, in
what the Spanish Interior Ministry said was
a joint intelligence operation between Moroccan and Spanish counter-terrorism
police.
All the detainees are Moroccan citizens, several of whom made repeated trips
to Ceuta to recruit jihadists and raise financial support for the IS.
"The jihadists recruited by the cell received instruction in weapons
handling, assembly and placement of explosive devices and car theft, in order to
participate in suicide terrorist attacks or to fight in conflict zones," a statement by
the Spanish Interior Ministry reported.
Some of those recruited by the cell are believed to have participated in
beheadings in Syria and Iraq. Police say they are also examining computers and
data storage devices to determine if there were plans to carry out a terror
attack on Moroccan soil.
On August 4, a 19-year-old Spanish woman and a 14-year-old Spanish girl
were arrested in
Melilla just days before they were due to join the jihad in Syria. They are
first Spanish females to be prevented from becoming jihadists.
"Both were trying to cross the border to Morocco with the aim of contacting
the network that would move them immediately to a conflict zone between Syria
and Iraq," the Spanish Interior Ministry said in
a statement.
The 19-year-old was released after surrendering her passport. The
14-year-old—who police say appeared "completely convinced" that she was doing
the right thing by becoming a jihadist—is currently being held in a juvenile
detention center where she has no access to the Internet. The girl's parents
said she had recently become radicalized after spending time perusing jihadist
websites.
In June, Spanish police in Madrid arrested ten
individuals (eight Moroccans, one Argentine and one Bulgarian) on allegations
that they were members of an international network that recruited jihadists for
the IS.
The ringleader was a 47-year-old Moroccan national named Lahcen Ikassrien,
who was arrested in Afghanistan in 2001, and released after three-and-a-half
years in Guantánamo. In July 2005, the U.S. government handed him over to Spain,
where he faced charges of cooperating with al-Qaeda. In October 2006, the
Spanish High Court acquitted him on the grounds that no firm evidence existed of
his ties to the terrorist group.
Ikassrien, who lives in Madrid, was part of a cell led by Abu Dahdah, a Syrian-born
Spaniard sentenced to a 27-year prison term in Spain for his part in the
September 11, 2001 attacks, and for being one of the founders of al-Qaeda in
Spain. In February 2006, the Spanish Supreme Court reduced the Abu Dahdah's
penalty to 12 years because it said that his participation in the 9/11
conspiracy was not proven. He was released in May 2013.
In May, Spanish police broke
up a cell in Melilla that allegedly recruited 26 jihadists (24 Moroccans and
2 Spaniards) for al-Qaeda groups fighting in Libya and Mali. All six members of
the cell are Spanish citizens. One of them, Benaissa Laghmouchi Baghdadi, is the
first Spanish jihadist known to have returned from the fighting in Mali. Police
say the cell used social media platforms such as "Sharia4Spain" to
recruit jihadists.
In March, police in Spain and Morocco arrested seven
suspected jihadists who belonged to cell operating in the southern Spanish city
of Málaga. Four of the suspects were arrested in Spain and the other three in
Morocco. Spanish officials said the cell was one of the largest of its kind in
Europe and responsible for recruiting more jihadists than any other network
discovered in Spain so far.
The suspected ringleader of the cell is a wheelchair-bound Spanish convert to
Islam named Mustafa Maya Amaya. Maya, 51, was born in Brussels after his Spanish
parents moved to Belgium in the 1960s to look for work there. After converting
to Islam, he changed his given name from Rafael to Mustafa.
Police say Maya—who maintained close ties to jihadist cells in Belgium,
France, Indonesia, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Syria—is suspected
of recruiting dozens of volunteer jihadists on the Internet and, after a careful
selection process, sending them to join terrorist organizations in the Middle
East and North Africa.
The sting operation was conducted on March 14, just three days after Spain
marked the 10th anniversary of the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed 191
people and wounded nearly 2,000. Since then, more than 470 suspected Islamic
extremists have been arrested in Spain, according to
Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz.
"Clearly Spain forms part of the strategic objectives of global jihad,"
Fernández Díaz said on the eve of the anniversary. "We are not the only ones but
we are in their sights."
Soeren Kern is a Senior
Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He
is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de
Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.