Spain: Catalonia Now One of the Focal Points of Jihad in Europe

La Vanguardia December 24, 2013

The Pyrenees: The perfect place for rape, bombing, beheading, child marriage, obsessive foot-washing and whatever other weirdness Muslims are involved in.
The Pyrenees: The perfect place for rape, bombing, beheading, child marriage, obsessive public foot-washing and whatever other weirdness Muslims are involved in.

The Spanish State Security Agency has deployed a huge number of agents all over Catalonia who have built up an unprecedented stealth preventive alert system in order to detect and neutralize the terrorist threat posed by radical islamist groups who have turned the Catalan province into the focal point of the expansion of Salafi-Wahhabi extremism into all of Europe. According to fully reliable antiterrorist sources, some Salafist “congresses” that took place on Catalan soil in 2013 confirm the growing importance of Catalonia with regard to an extremism which deeply worries all western security agencies.

This surveillance network, which is being operated from Madrid, is part of a silent and unnoticeable struggle, in which attacks in and outside of Spain have been thwarted, and which has facilitated the expulsion of (terrorist) activists posing a security threat.
Camouflaged among the large peaceful group of Muslims resident in Catalonia, which represents more than 26% of those registered in Spain, the extremists have created different “bases” from which they engage in the most extreme proselytism and communicate with other groups who have come from outside. For this reaason the security deployment set up by the state constitutes an expensive, dense and discreet observation and information network composed of specialised agents from the intelligence services of the National Police, the Guardia Civil, the Natonal Intelligence Service (CNI) and also the Mossos d’Esquadra.

The general situation is as follows: Although there have not been terrorist attacks in Spain in recent times, the danger posed by extremists has not disappeared. Just the contrary, the jihadi influence is growing, most especially in Catalonia. Sources claim that in the Barcelona area alone there may be some 100 extremists ready to engage in pre-planned violent actions, or those of the “self-radicalization” or “sudden terrorist” type (the mis-named “lonely wolves”, who by now are by no means alone) like those in London, Boston or Paris. To appreciate this figure, recall that the September 11th and Madrid bomb attacks were the work of about 20 persons in each case, counting the perpetrators and accomplices.

The fruit of this preventive monitoring network, of which it is obviously not possible to reveal data that would betray its operations, is a portrait of the establishment of Islamist extremism in Catalonia which emerges as the principal focus of radicalism in Spain and, therefore, in Europe.

There is also an Islamist presence, although not so intense, in Madrid, Ceuta, Melilla, Guipúzcoa and the so-called Mediterranean corridor. It is a travel zone in which extremist may spend some time occasionally, but not a place to stay for long. In this way, the Catalan issue transcends frontiers to such an extent that areas like Tarragona and Girona are now considered by European Intelligence Services to be alarming focuses of radicalism in the EU. This means that according to the mentioned sources, Catalonia has turned into a universal reference point thanks to the already mentioned “congresses” which are attended by Islamic law scholars from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar or the UAE as well as activists coming from all of Europe and other places in Spain.

The main element of this whole issue is money, and the surveillance agents have detected in Tarragona, but especially in Torredembrada, the arrival of huge amounts of money coming from the Gulf States for the financing of Wahabbism and radical Islamic discourse. The Kuwait-based NGO “Revival of Islamic Heritage Society” (RIHS) is considered to be the main channel through which money flows to the most fundamentalist sectors of the Islamic community in Tarragona. This NGO, which is included among the organizations having links to Al Qaeda on the list of the US Treasury Department, may have financed the Salafist meetings and the building of a madrassa worth 2 million euros.

The investigators have also discovered that RIHS is broadening its influence in Spain and Europe; some Islamic associations have already made arrangements to obtain funds from this institution.

As for the town of Reus, two Salafist associations have been detected that have been in dispute with one another since 2010. But Reus has become noted for hosting these Islamic training meetings called by these groups in what is considered to be an attempt to gain control of Salafism from their zones of influence. Much the same happens in Vilanova i la Geltrú, where a radical leader had been jailed for leading a cell of jihadists and suicide bombers. He served his prison term and has returned to this town.

Another extreme hotspot is Salt (Girona), a place to which special attention is paid by the security network previouslly discussed, for, among other reasons, of the boost which (to radicals) the building of a great mosque and Islamic center, considered radical, could provide, and which is the headquarters of a federation focused on gathering Muslim communities around the postulates defended by well-known extreme salafists and jihadists who see holy war as the reason for their existence.

The sources already mentioned know about problems with the financing of this mosque, the total cost of which could be nearly €6 million. But everything suggests that this problem could be in the process of being solved thanks to help from Morocco. It is worth recalling that, as regards the project of this mosque/Islamic center, a prominent figure from the (Muslim) community in Salt was expelled from Spain some months ago following a complaint from the National Intelligence Service for “jeopardizing the state security”.

In Lleida, a principal focus of radicalization is found in a Mosque whose Imam and other identified radicals are the promoters of Wahhabism, that is, the rigorous application of the Sharia or Islamic law. It has been shown that this imam commands a group of people who are said to impose strict compliance with sharia on the rest of the Muslim community, even forcing girls to abandon their studies after having reached puberty.

Apart from this, this group of radicals, who have been turned into fanatics by the imam, limits relations between Muslims and Catalan society to a strict minimum, having even threatened or used violence against those breaking their rules. The imam openly asks his followers not to integrate into Spanish society or the West in general, and he supports the radical extremist fighters in Syria and other conflicts.

Another focus of intense and deep anti-western activity is developing in Mollerussa, where this very year the agents (of the surveillance network) succeeded in expelling one of the most extremist leaders. But in spite of this, Salafist proselytism keeps continues in Molerussa thanks to a discourse so radical that those who maintain it disparage the official Islamic law scholars and spread their views with blatant animosity towards the regimes of Muslim countries, which they accuse of having abandoned the true path. There is another focal point in Mollet del Vallés. The main activist has links to a mosque which in turn has connections to the Catalan Islamic Cultural Center, which is considered to be one of the vehicles of expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Barcelona is not an exception when it comes to the phenomenon we are now describing.

Hot spots for radicalization have arisen among the wide Muslim community in the Catalan capital. In some cases, terrorist cells (already neutralized) and groups offering logistic support for terrorism have developed. The latter has been frequently observed also in other Catalan cities. Recently there have been detected some zones of intense activity regarding the spreading of ideas extremely opposed to the rule of law in which special attention is dedicated to indoctrinating children.

According to the investigators, two of these hot spots are located in El Raval, and a third in Besós Mar. These mosques are characterized by belonging to the pacifist movement “Tabligh”, which is especially followed by Pakistanis. However, extremists have infiltrated and they make use of its infrastructure for pursuing activities which in the end result in terrorism.

Investigators indicate that two of these focal points are in El Raval and a third in Besós Mar. These mosques are noted for being part of the peaceful tabligh movement, especially popular among the Pakistani community. However, extremists have infiltrated it and take advantage of the infrastructure of this current within Islam to cover activities that veer towards terrorism.

In this regard, it is worth remembering that in January 2008 a Pakistani terrorist group was detained in Barcelona, having planned to carry out a terrorist attack against the city subway and a mosque.

The study carried out by Fernando Reinares y Carola García-Calvo at the Real Instituto Elcano provides information about the social and person profile of the extremists discussed here. In their work, based on sentences handed down in the legal system, both investigators concluded that jihadists in Spain are males between 25 and 39, although the average tends to be increasingly lower. Most of them are married and have children. 8 out of 10 are foreigners, mainly nationals from Algeria, Morocco and Pakistan, because, up until now, just 4.8% of those prosecuted were born in Spain.

The surveillance plan we are reporting about here is closely linked to the communiqué issued on December 10 by the US Embassy in Madrid, in which the chief of the FBI, James Comey offered an assessment of police cooperation between the two countries. Comey revealed that the bilateral coordination had already thwarted many terrorist attacks planned in both countries, among them an Al Qaeda plan to use remote control planes (drones) to deliver explosives to Spain. Comey said that the coordination regarding the terrorist issue had been “essential” in order to hinder many attacks in the last 10 years in USA, Spain, the Middle East and Asia.

Translation via Islam Versus Europe.