Spanish police raid suspected Islamic fund raising cell
Spanish police arrested three Algerians Thursday on suspicion of belonging to an Islamic terror cell, authorities said.
The arrests were made in Vitoria, capital of the Basque region, and the cell is suspected of distributing CDs and MP3 files containing propaganda calling for the Islamic community to wage jihad, or holy war, Basque police said in a statement.
Police began investigating the suspects in December.
They said the three, each about 30 years old, had police records for minor offenses.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spanish police raid suspected Islamic fund raising cell
Showing posts with label spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spain. Show all posts
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
DAR AL HARB-SPAIN: AL ANDALUS AT A CROSSROADS
Spanish Muslims at crossroads - integration or exclusion?
Madrid - Will Spain have a liberal or conservative type of Islam? Could fundamentalism soar? Will Muslims blend in, or will there be youth riots like in Paris in 2005? Can Spain find a third way between French-style assimilation of immigrants and British multiculturalism?
As the first modern generation of Spanish-born Muslims is coming of age, the country's Islamic communities stand at a crossroads.
The question of the integration of Muslims has come under a heated debate after the opposition conservatives announced they would ban Muslim headscarves in most schools if they win the March 9 elections.
The proposal sparked criticism from the governing Socialists and the far left, which slammed the conservatives as xenophobic racists.
'Immigrants should never become a cheap electoral merchandise,' Kamal Rahmouni, president of the Moroccan immigrants' association Atime, said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Spain needs to develop 'solid elements' to deal with problems related to immigration when they arise, Rahmouni stressed, calling for a 'state pact' between the two main parties.
Spain is estimated to have more than a million Muslims, making Islam the country's second biggest religion after Roman Catholicism.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spanish Muslims at crossroads - integration or exclusion?
Madrid - Will Spain have a liberal or conservative type of Islam? Could fundamentalism soar? Will Muslims blend in, or will there be youth riots like in Paris in 2005? Can Spain find a third way between French-style assimilation of immigrants and British multiculturalism?
As the first modern generation of Spanish-born Muslims is coming of age, the country's Islamic communities stand at a crossroads.
The question of the integration of Muslims has come under a heated debate after the opposition conservatives announced they would ban Muslim headscarves in most schools if they win the March 9 elections.
The proposal sparked criticism from the governing Socialists and the far left, which slammed the conservatives as xenophobic racists.
'Immigrants should never become a cheap electoral merchandise,' Kamal Rahmouni, president of the Moroccan immigrants' association Atime, said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Spain needs to develop 'solid elements' to deal with problems related to immigration when they arise, Rahmouni stressed, calling for a 'state pact' between the two main parties.
Spain is estimated to have more than a million Muslims, making Islam the country's second biggest religion after Roman Catholicism.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spanish Muslims at crossroads - integration or exclusion?
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: FUNDS TO THE CHURCH WILL BE DENIED AFTER THE ELECTIONS - - - ISLAM WILL OF COURSE RECEIVE THEIRS
Government warns church relations will change after election
Madrid, 5 Feb.(AKI) - The deputy leader of Spain's ruling Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), Jose Blanco, has warned that relations between the party and the Catholic church will change after general elections due to take place on March 9.
In an interview with the Spanish daily ABC, Blanco fell short of discussing a review of the 1979 economic accord between the Spanish state and the Vatican, but said "nothing will be the same" following the elections if the PSOE remains in power.
Under the accord, the Spanish government agreed to ensure that the church had "adequate means" for its economic support and provides the church with income drawn from public taxes.
But in the Spanish newspaper, Blanco spoke about definitive steps to make the church "self-funded".
"I admit this is becoming more difficult,[for the Church] because it keeps losing members," he said.
Government sources told ABC that the church could lose 'privileges' not only in relation to finance, but it could include the celebration of State funerals for terrorism victims, and the dominant presence of the Catholic faith in the army.
"The [Church's] ecclesiastical hierarchy is constantly looking for confrontation with the legitimate Spanish government, despite [the government's] efforts to establish dialogue and understanding " said Blanco.
The row began when a 10-point document released by the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) urged voters to endorse politicians who support the sanctity of the family and oppose dialogue with terrorist organisations, such as ETA.
The document fell short of endorsing Spain's Conservative Partido Popular (PP).
Spanish premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero described the church's attitude as "immoral that bishops, as well as the PP use terrorism for their political campaigning."
Dolors Nadal, a candidate for Spain's PP, reacted to Blanco's declarations, calling it "anti-democratic" and a "heavy attack on the church".
Pertinent Links:
1) Government warns church relations will change after election
Madrid, 5 Feb.(AKI) - The deputy leader of Spain's ruling Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), Jose Blanco, has warned that relations between the party and the Catholic church will change after general elections due to take place on March 9.
In an interview with the Spanish daily ABC, Blanco fell short of discussing a review of the 1979 economic accord between the Spanish state and the Vatican, but said "nothing will be the same" following the elections if the PSOE remains in power.
Under the accord, the Spanish government agreed to ensure that the church had "adequate means" for its economic support and provides the church with income drawn from public taxes.
But in the Spanish newspaper, Blanco spoke about definitive steps to make the church "self-funded".
"I admit this is becoming more difficult,[for the Church] because it keeps losing members," he said.
Government sources told ABC that the church could lose 'privileges' not only in relation to finance, but it could include the celebration of State funerals for terrorism victims, and the dominant presence of the Catholic faith in the army.
"The [Church's] ecclesiastical hierarchy is constantly looking for confrontation with the legitimate Spanish government, despite [the government's] efforts to establish dialogue and understanding " said Blanco.
The row began when a 10-point document released by the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) urged voters to endorse politicians who support the sanctity of the family and oppose dialogue with terrorist organisations, such as ETA.
The document fell short of endorsing Spain's Conservative Partido Popular (PP).
Spanish premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero described the church's attitude as "immoral that bishops, as well as the PP use terrorism for their political campaigning."
Dolors Nadal, a candidate for Spain's PP, reacted to Blanco's declarations, calling it "anti-democratic" and a "heavy attack on the church".
Pertinent Links:
1) Government warns church relations will change after election
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: MOSLEM SYRIANS ARRESTED FOR SUSPICION OF LAUNDERING MONEY FOR ISLAMIC JIHADISTS
Spain arrests 2 Syrians accused of laundering money for Islamic extremists
MADRID, Spain: Spanish police have arrested two Syrians on suspicion of laundering money for Islamic extremists, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
It identified them as Bassan Dalati Satut, 48, and Samer Dabbas, 30, both from the Syrian city of Aleppo. They were arrested Tuesday in Madrid.
The men are accused of creating front companies to launder money contributed by members or supporters of radical Islamic organizations, the ministry said in a statement.
They face preliminary charges of collaborating with a terrorist organization, money laundering and fraud.
Police who searched their homes allegedly found €120,000 (US$165,000) in a hidden strong box, and press clippings about Islamic terrorism.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain arrests 2 Syrians accused of laundering money for Islamic extremists
MADRID, Spain: Spanish police have arrested two Syrians on suspicion of laundering money for Islamic extremists, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
It identified them as Bassan Dalati Satut, 48, and Samer Dabbas, 30, both from the Syrian city of Aleppo. They were arrested Tuesday in Madrid.
The men are accused of creating front companies to launder money contributed by members or supporters of radical Islamic organizations, the ministry said in a statement.
They face preliminary charges of collaborating with a terrorist organization, money laundering and fraud.
Police who searched their homes allegedly found €120,000 (US$165,000) in a hidden strong box, and press clippings about Islamic terrorism.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain arrests 2 Syrians accused of laundering money for Islamic extremists
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - SPAIN/LEBANON: SPANISH INTELLIGENCE LAYS BLAME FOR UNIFIL ATTACK ON 3 SEPARATE JIHADIST GROUPS - ALL LINKED TO AL QUEDA
Spain suspects three Islamist groups may have waged attack on UNIFIL troops
Three Al-Qaeda-linked radical Islamic groups may have carried out last month's deadly attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, says a Spanish intelligence report quoted in a newspaper Monday.
In its report to the government, the CNI said the Fatah al-Islam, Jund al-Sham and Usbat al-Ansar groups were all linked to Al-Qaeda, the center-left daily El Pais reported.
The report did not support the theory Hizbullah had been involved, El Pais added.
Fatah al-Islam members have since May 20 been under daily siege from the Lebanese army, which is attempting to dislodge them from the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
The two other groups named in the report were, it said, "much less powerful," but had bases in the Ain el Hilweh refugee camp in South Lebanon.
Usbat al-Ansar has some 100 to 200 activists, according to an El Pais estimate.
It features on a US State Department list of banned terrorist organizations because of its alleged links with Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch.
Usbat al-Ansar is also believed to have recently incorporated another group, Jund al-Sham, into its ranks.
"The target of the attack was to dampen the pressure on the Nahr al-Bared camp by obliging the Lebanese army to switch its troops southwards and attack UN forces, dubbed 'occupying forces' in October by [Al-Qaeda leader] Osama Bin Laden's lieutenant [Ayman] al-Zawahiri," El Pais wrote.
Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso last week attributed the June 24 attack on "a terrorist cell comprising possibly foreign individuals, that is, non-Lebanese."
Six soldiers, part of the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL) serving in Lebanon, were killed in the attack when a car bomb struck their personnel carrier as they patrolled a main road between two towns near the Israeli border.
Three of the victims in the first deadly attack on the UN's peacekeeping force in Lebanon since last year's war with Israel were Spaniards with the other three Colombians serving with Spanish forces in UNIFIL.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain suspects three Islamist groups may have waged attack on UNIFIL troops
Three Al-Qaeda-linked radical Islamic groups may have carried out last month's deadly attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, says a Spanish intelligence report quoted in a newspaper Monday.
In its report to the government, the CNI said the Fatah al-Islam, Jund al-Sham and Usbat al-Ansar groups were all linked to Al-Qaeda, the center-left daily El Pais reported.
The report did not support the theory Hizbullah had been involved, El Pais added.
Fatah al-Islam members have since May 20 been under daily siege from the Lebanese army, which is attempting to dislodge them from the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
The two other groups named in the report were, it said, "much less powerful," but had bases in the Ain el Hilweh refugee camp in South Lebanon.
Usbat al-Ansar has some 100 to 200 activists, according to an El Pais estimate.
It features on a US State Department list of banned terrorist organizations because of its alleged links with Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch.
Usbat al-Ansar is also believed to have recently incorporated another group, Jund al-Sham, into its ranks.
"The target of the attack was to dampen the pressure on the Nahr al-Bared camp by obliging the Lebanese army to switch its troops southwards and attack UN forces, dubbed 'occupying forces' in October by [Al-Qaeda leader] Osama Bin Laden's lieutenant [Ayman] al-Zawahiri," El Pais wrote.
Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso last week attributed the June 24 attack on "a terrorist cell comprising possibly foreign individuals, that is, non-Lebanese."
Six soldiers, part of the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL) serving in Lebanon, were killed in the attack when a car bomb struck their personnel carrier as they patrolled a main road between two towns near the Israeli border.
Three of the victims in the first deadly attack on the UN's peacekeeping force in Lebanon since last year's war with Israel were Spaniards with the other three Colombians serving with Spanish forces in UNIFIL.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain suspects three Islamist groups may have waged attack on UNIFIL troops
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - SPAIN/MOROCCO: WILL CEUTA, IN ITS "PRE-JIHADIST STATE" FALL INTO ISLAMS' HANDS?!?
Al-Qaeda Eyes Spain's 'Lost City'
By LISA ABEND AND GEOFF PINGREE
Every afternoon, tens of thousands of Moroccans — mostly women in djellabas — trudge past the deserted guard posts that separate the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco, which surrounds it on three sides. The bundles of soap, noodles, socks, and oil they carry home for resale in Morocco are not an entirely legal traffic, but the Spanish authorities are less concerned these days about what leaves Ceuta than about what comes in — particularly to the impoverished hillside neighborhood of Príncipe Alfonso, whose unemployed and disaffected youth are a potentially fertile ground for jihadist recruiters. Last December, Al-Qaeda Number 2 Ayman Zawirhi appeared to recognize its potential, when he called for the "liberation" of the Spanish enclave.
But many living in Ceuta insist that they have more important concerns than terrorism. "Our problems are the problems of the Paris banlieue," says Mohamed Laarbi, neighborhood spokesperson, "not of the Casablanca ghettos." He cites a litany of examples of official neglect contributing to the poverty and despair in Príncipe. Still, when a string of suicide bombings struck Casablanca and Algiers this spring, Spain's border police quickly sent extra troops to shore up Ceuta's border with Morocco.
"I would consider Ceuta in a pre-jihadist stage," says Javier Jordan, a terrorism expert at the University of Granada. "But it takes outside recruiters to transform a marginalized area into a real jihadist breeding ground."
Still, there are worrying signs that some locals may be amenable to Zawahiri's message: For one, Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, who spent two years at Guantánamo after his capture in Afghanistan, hails from Ceuta. And in 2006, two pilgrimage sites sacred to most Muslim North Africans but condemned as unorthodox by Qaeda-style Salafists were set afire. At least one local imam is known to have preached extremist messages, while the Spanish army based recently discharged three Muslim soldiers in Ceuta for allegedly holding radical views.
Evidence of radical infiltration was clearest last December, when Spanish police swooped on the neighborhood and arrested 11 men, seven of whom were charged with planning attacks in Ceuta and on the Spanish mainland, and sent to prison. The men were, according to investigating judge Balthazar Garzón, "moving from fanatical discourse to action."
It's not hard to see why Príncipe, home to 12,000 of the Ceuta's 27,000 Muslims, is an easy target for radicals. The neighborhood is sorely lacking in everything from police and sanitation services to job opportunities. But there's no shortage of weapons on the streets — a legacy of Ceuta's days as a drug trafficking center, before a police crackdown — and residents have repeatedly taken out their anger on local law enforcement officers by stoning police cars and torching the area's sole police post.
Locals like Laarbi say the authorities would be better off focusing on the conditions that prevail in Príncipe than on the danger of radical infiltration: "Príncipe's problems are subhuman living conditions, an administration that ignores us, and police who still call us 'moors.'" Says Mohamed Ali, leader of the Ceuti Democratic Union, an opposition political party. "Ceuta is two cities. All of the institutions, and all of the investments go to the center; the Príncipe gets nothing."
Despite the concerns, Spanish government delegate to Ceuta Jenaro Garcia-Arreciado insists the city is safe. "Certainly we're closer to terrorist nuclei, but the threat isn't any greater here than on the mainland. And given all the security forces in Ceuta, we are, paradoxically, one of the safest cities in Spain." He points out that with the help of Morocco, which appoints Ceuta's imams, the city keeps radical messages out of Príncipe's mosques. But Yalila Liazid, director of the Sidi Embarek Koranic school and daughter of Ceuta's most important imam, isn't so sure. "At the official mosques, the imams are well educated, and approved by three different bodies. But there are 'garage mosques' in Príncipe, just as there are in other parts of Spain, where fundamentalism is propagated. Ceuta never had a problem with Salafism before, but now, people are taking advantage of Príncipe's problems."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Al-Qaeda Eyes Spain's 'Lost City'
By LISA ABEND AND GEOFF PINGREE
Every afternoon, tens of thousands of Moroccans — mostly women in djellabas — trudge past the deserted guard posts that separate the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco, which surrounds it on three sides. The bundles of soap, noodles, socks, and oil they carry home for resale in Morocco are not an entirely legal traffic, but the Spanish authorities are less concerned these days about what leaves Ceuta than about what comes in — particularly to the impoverished hillside neighborhood of Príncipe Alfonso, whose unemployed and disaffected youth are a potentially fertile ground for jihadist recruiters. Last December, Al-Qaeda Number 2 Ayman Zawirhi appeared to recognize its potential, when he called for the "liberation" of the Spanish enclave.
But many living in Ceuta insist that they have more important concerns than terrorism. "Our problems are the problems of the Paris banlieue," says Mohamed Laarbi, neighborhood spokesperson, "not of the Casablanca ghettos." He cites a litany of examples of official neglect contributing to the poverty and despair in Príncipe. Still, when a string of suicide bombings struck Casablanca and Algiers this spring, Spain's border police quickly sent extra troops to shore up Ceuta's border with Morocco.
"I would consider Ceuta in a pre-jihadist stage," says Javier Jordan, a terrorism expert at the University of Granada. "But it takes outside recruiters to transform a marginalized area into a real jihadist breeding ground."
Still, there are worrying signs that some locals may be amenable to Zawahiri's message: For one, Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, who spent two years at Guantánamo after his capture in Afghanistan, hails from Ceuta. And in 2006, two pilgrimage sites sacred to most Muslim North Africans but condemned as unorthodox by Qaeda-style Salafists were set afire. At least one local imam is known to have preached extremist messages, while the Spanish army based recently discharged three Muslim soldiers in Ceuta for allegedly holding radical views.
Evidence of radical infiltration was clearest last December, when Spanish police swooped on the neighborhood and arrested 11 men, seven of whom were charged with planning attacks in Ceuta and on the Spanish mainland, and sent to prison. The men were, according to investigating judge Balthazar Garzón, "moving from fanatical discourse to action."
It's not hard to see why Príncipe, home to 12,000 of the Ceuta's 27,000 Muslims, is an easy target for radicals. The neighborhood is sorely lacking in everything from police and sanitation services to job opportunities. But there's no shortage of weapons on the streets — a legacy of Ceuta's days as a drug trafficking center, before a police crackdown — and residents have repeatedly taken out their anger on local law enforcement officers by stoning police cars and torching the area's sole police post.
Locals like Laarbi say the authorities would be better off focusing on the conditions that prevail in Príncipe than on the danger of radical infiltration: "Príncipe's problems are subhuman living conditions, an administration that ignores us, and police who still call us 'moors.'" Says Mohamed Ali, leader of the Ceuti Democratic Union, an opposition political party. "Ceuta is two cities. All of the institutions, and all of the investments go to the center; the Príncipe gets nothing."
Despite the concerns, Spanish government delegate to Ceuta Jenaro Garcia-Arreciado insists the city is safe. "Certainly we're closer to terrorist nuclei, but the threat isn't any greater here than on the mainland. And given all the security forces in Ceuta, we are, paradoxically, one of the safest cities in Spain." He points out that with the help of Morocco, which appoints Ceuta's imams, the city keeps radical messages out of Príncipe's mosques. But Yalila Liazid, director of the Sidi Embarek Koranic school and daughter of Ceuta's most important imam, isn't so sure. "At the official mosques, the imams are well educated, and approved by three different bodies. But there are 'garage mosques' in Príncipe, just as there are in other parts of Spain, where fundamentalism is propagated. Ceuta never had a problem with Salafism before, but now, people are taking advantage of Príncipe's problems."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Al-Qaeda Eyes Spain's 'Lost City'
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: "MODERATE" MOSLEMS IN SPAIN, RECRUITING FOR AL QUEDA
Spanish police arrest 2 on suspicion of recruiting volunteers for al-Qaida
MADRID, Spain: Spanish police have arrested two men on suspicion of having links with al-Qaida, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
The men, named in the statement as Mohamed Laksir, 23, and Moulay Lahoucine Miftah Idrissi, 27, were detained in the northeastern port city of Barcelona on suspicion of belonging to and recruiting volunteers for a terror organization.
Recruits would have been sent for training in terror activities in Africa's dry Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, the statement said.
The two suspects are believed to have belonged to a cell which also promoted radical Islamic precepts, the statement said.
Pertinent Links:
1) Spanish police arrest 2 on suspicion of recruiting volunteers for al-Qaida
MADRID, Spain: Spanish police have arrested two men on suspicion of having links with al-Qaida, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
The men, named in the statement as Mohamed Laksir, 23, and Moulay Lahoucine Miftah Idrissi, 27, were detained in the northeastern port city of Barcelona on suspicion of belonging to and recruiting volunteers for a terror organization.
Recruits would have been sent for training in terror activities in Africa's dry Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, the statement said.
The two suspects are believed to have belonged to a cell which also promoted radical Islamic precepts, the statement said.
Pertinent Links:
1) Spanish police arrest 2 on suspicion of recruiting volunteers for al-Qaida
Thursday, June 21, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: THE "RIGHT OF RETURN" FOR AL ANDALUSIANS LIVING IN NORTHERN AFRICA
Citizenship call from Spain's uneasy Muslim past
By Jason Webb
MADRID, June 21 (Reuters) - A call for descendents of Muslims expelled from Spain in the seventeenth century to be given preferential terms for Spanish citizenship has highlighted the country's uneasy relationship with its Islamic heritage.
The proposal was made at a meeting this week in Cordoba, a city in Andalusia which was the centre of Islamic civilization in the Iberian peninsula during nearly eight centuries of Moorish rule of much of what is now Spain and Portugal.
In 1609, Spain's King Philip III ordered all Muslims to leave his kingdom, leading to the expulsion of about 300,000 people. Their descendents today mainly live in North Africa and still regard themselves as "Andalusians", after the old name for Muslim Spain -- "Al Andalus".
Giving them preferential terms for Spanish citizenship would be an act of symbolic reconciliation, said Mansur Escudero, head of Spain's Islamic Board, the biggest group representing Spanish Muslims.
"The Andalusians who live in North Africa, most of them in Morocco, in Tunisia, in Libya, they're part of those societies and aren't going to want to come to Spain," Escudero said.
"It would be more of an emotional, moral gesture, a recognition of an historic injustice," he told Reuters, adding that some "Andalusian" families still preserved keys to houses they left behind four centuries ago.
...
But many Spaniards, particularly Catholic conservatives, fret about Muslim assertiveness, especially now that immigration has given the country a significant Muslim population -- about one million -- for the first time in 400 years.
The Madrid train bombings, blamed on a group linked to al Qaeda, which killed 192 people in 2004, have deepened suspicions about Islam in sectors of the Spanish political right.
Former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a member of the conservative Popular Party, last year called for Muslims to apologise for invading Spain in the eighth century.
The Popular Party's current foreign affairs spokesman, Gustavo de Arestegui, has also published a book whose subtitle is: "The obsession with reconquering Al Andalus."
Pertinent Links:
1) Citizenship call from Spain's uneasy Muslim past
By Jason Webb
MADRID, June 21 (Reuters) - A call for descendents of Muslims expelled from Spain in the seventeenth century to be given preferential terms for Spanish citizenship has highlighted the country's uneasy relationship with its Islamic heritage.
The proposal was made at a meeting this week in Cordoba, a city in Andalusia which was the centre of Islamic civilization in the Iberian peninsula during nearly eight centuries of Moorish rule of much of what is now Spain and Portugal.
In 1609, Spain's King Philip III ordered all Muslims to leave his kingdom, leading to the expulsion of about 300,000 people. Their descendents today mainly live in North Africa and still regard themselves as "Andalusians", after the old name for Muslim Spain -- "Al Andalus".
Giving them preferential terms for Spanish citizenship would be an act of symbolic reconciliation, said Mansur Escudero, head of Spain's Islamic Board, the biggest group representing Spanish Muslims.
"The Andalusians who live in North Africa, most of them in Morocco, in Tunisia, in Libya, they're part of those societies and aren't going to want to come to Spain," Escudero said.
"It would be more of an emotional, moral gesture, a recognition of an historic injustice," he told Reuters, adding that some "Andalusian" families still preserved keys to houses they left behind four centuries ago.
...
But many Spaniards, particularly Catholic conservatives, fret about Muslim assertiveness, especially now that immigration has given the country a significant Muslim population -- about one million -- for the first time in 400 years.
The Madrid train bombings, blamed on a group linked to al Qaeda, which killed 192 people in 2004, have deepened suspicions about Islam in sectors of the Spanish political right.
Former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a member of the conservative Popular Party, last year called for Muslims to apologise for invading Spain in the eighth century.
The Popular Party's current foreign affairs spokesman, Gustavo de Arestegui, has also published a book whose subtitle is: "The obsession with reconquering Al Andalus."
Pertinent Links:
1) Citizenship call from Spain's uneasy Muslim past
Monday, June 11, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: A DEMOGRAPHIC ICE AGE, FOR SPAIN, BY 2050
Spain to enter demographic ice age by 2050
The Institute for Family Policy warned this week that Spain is immersed in a “demographic winter” that is without precedent. Future projections show that the populace will age at an increasing pace without adequate replacement levels and make Spain the country with the lowest ratio of retired to active workers in all of Europe.
According to the institute, by the middle of this century, “for every three people who are active, two will be in retirement.” At this pace, Spain will surpass the rest of the European countries where the ratio of retired to active is two to one.
The president of the institute, Eduardo Hertfelder, explained that current indicators point to “serious structural problems:” while the number of persons above 65 is 7.3 million, young people under the age of 14 only number 6.2 million, that is, a difference of one 1.1 million people.
Hertfelder said this was a “consequence of a social situation in which the family is not protected or supported beyond a few limited and inadequate measures, mostly consisting of financial aid.” He noted the direct connection between the lack of help for the family and the low birth rate and aging population.
“If this is worrisome, future projections are even more so,” as “the few births that are occurring do not compensate for the continual and intense increase of the adult population, especially among the elderly.”
While Spain is atop of the list of countries with the greatest increase in its elderly population—an increase of 72 percent in the last 23 years—it is at the bottom when it comes to birth rates (1.35 children per woman), Hertfelder pointed out.
According to the institute’s projections, by the year 2032, “there will be one person over 85 for every child under 5,” and by 2050, “for every three persons over 85 there will be only two children under 5.”
“This data should lead society, political parties and the government to take urgent measures to prevent this from occurring,” he warned.
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain to enter demographic ice age by 2050
The Institute for Family Policy warned this week that Spain is immersed in a “demographic winter” that is without precedent. Future projections show that the populace will age at an increasing pace without adequate replacement levels and make Spain the country with the lowest ratio of retired to active workers in all of Europe.
According to the institute, by the middle of this century, “for every three people who are active, two will be in retirement.” At this pace, Spain will surpass the rest of the European countries where the ratio of retired to active is two to one.
The president of the institute, Eduardo Hertfelder, explained that current indicators point to “serious structural problems:” while the number of persons above 65 is 7.3 million, young people under the age of 14 only number 6.2 million, that is, a difference of one 1.1 million people.
Hertfelder said this was a “consequence of a social situation in which the family is not protected or supported beyond a few limited and inadequate measures, mostly consisting of financial aid.” He noted the direct connection between the lack of help for the family and the low birth rate and aging population.
“If this is worrisome, future projections are even more so,” as “the few births that are occurring do not compensate for the continual and intense increase of the adult population, especially among the elderly.”
While Spain is atop of the list of countries with the greatest increase in its elderly population—an increase of 72 percent in the last 23 years—it is at the bottom when it comes to birth rates (1.35 children per woman), Hertfelder pointed out.
According to the institute’s projections, by the year 2032, “there will be one person over 85 for every child under 5,” and by 2050, “for every three persons over 85 there will be only two children under 5.”
“This data should lead society, political parties and the government to take urgent measures to prevent this from occurring,” he warned.
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain to enter demographic ice age by 2050
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: ARABIC ON TV FOR THE GROWING 'MOSLEM MINORITY'
FIRST ARABIC-SUBTITLED TV PROGRAMMES AIRED
Barcelona, 11 June (AKI) - Spain's local state TV-3 channel in the northeastern Catalonia region on Monday began airing one of its most viewed TV dramas, 'El cor de la ciutat (the heart of the city)', which chronicles daily life in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona with Arabic as well as Catalan subtitles. It is the first time that a Spanish TV station has transmitted programmes subtitled in Arabic.
The popular 'Karakia' cookery programme will also be broadcast with Arabic and Catalan subtitles in what is a pilot project aimed at rolling out the channel to the 200,000 North African immigrants registered as resident in the region, daily El Periodico reports. Moroccans are the most numerous nationality among the 800,000 immigrants resident in Catalonia, of whom 300,000 are Latin Americans.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) FIRST ARABIC-SUBTITLED TV PROGRAMMES AIRED
Barcelona, 11 June (AKI) - Spain's local state TV-3 channel in the northeastern Catalonia region on Monday began airing one of its most viewed TV dramas, 'El cor de la ciutat (the heart of the city)', which chronicles daily life in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona with Arabic as well as Catalan subtitles. It is the first time that a Spanish TV station has transmitted programmes subtitled in Arabic.
The popular 'Karakia' cookery programme will also be broadcast with Arabic and Catalan subtitles in what is a pilot project aimed at rolling out the channel to the 200,000 North African immigrants registered as resident in the region, daily El Periodico reports. Moroccans are the most numerous nationality among the 800,000 immigrants resident in Catalonia, of whom 300,000 are Latin Americans.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) FIRST ARABIC-SUBTITLED TV PROGRAMMES AIRED
Monday, May 28, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: 14 MOSLEM JIHADISTS ARRESTED FOR RECRUITMENT OF NEW JIHADISTS
'Jihad recruiters' held in Spain
Spanish police have arrested 14 suspected Islamist militants, mostly in the north-eastern region of Catalonia.
The suspects were allegedly involved in recruiting jihadi volunteers for training in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Police in Catalonia detained 11 in Barcelona and other towns. The others were arrested in Madrid and Malaga.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) 'Jihad recruiters' held in Spain
Spanish police have arrested 14 suspected Islamist militants, mostly in the north-eastern region of Catalonia.
The suspects were allegedly involved in recruiting jihadi volunteers for training in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Police in Catalonia detained 11 in Barcelona and other towns. The others were arrested in Madrid and Malaga.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) 'Jihad recruiters' held in Spain
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
DAR AL HARB - FRANCE: "EARLY DETECTION" OF INDIVIDUALS IN THE GRIP OF "SUDDEN JIHAD SYNDROME"
Radical islamism: 'early detection,' specialized services' new tool'
Report by Jean Chichizola
Whether of the right or of the left, the interior ministers (apart from Francois Baroin) of the G6 (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Poland, and the UK), who met in Venice this weekend, focused their discussions on Islamist terrorism, "the prevention and pursuit of behaviour inciting violence and racial hatred." Franco Frattini, vice president of the European Commission, announced the holding this fall of a conference on the topic, "Youth and Radicalization." A "map of radicalization in the EU," recording extremist prayer halls and sources of funding for this tendency, is due to be drawn up. The Italian delegation wants "to establish mechanisms for sharing information and analysis" about the Tabligh, a re-Islamization movement, and its network of madrasas in Pakistan.
Very young Islamists moving directly from their Paris apartments to the hell in Iraq, a small group from Tours radicalized within the space of a few months by one of their elders and who set off incognito for the jihad, a "small chemist" from Nancy ready to carry out isolated attacks... Against the backdrop of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Islamist terrorism is becoming individualized, and the response is becoming increasingly complex all the time.
Two General Intelligence reports (RG) on "the profile and detection of jihadist cells" set out the response that the intelligence services are putting in place. This method is called "early detection." Under the section on "enhancing awareness and partnership," the RG explains that "activities to enhance awareness of the Islamist phenomenon have been conducted out vis-a-vis other domestic security services," such as the Border Police and Public Security, but also "in the administrations, prisons and public hospitals."
The service envisages "a minimum level of knowledge about the detection of clear pointers (activities, attitudes, rhetoric) within the context of common crime" and of "characteristic cultural, and linguistic" factors "that could alert the specialized services." Last, a "partnership with the business world" has been launched.
"Tiny minority"
According to RG, the identification of "simple signs" such as unauthorized prayer at the workplace or "changes of behaviour with women" sometimes permit "the identification of individuals who could lapse into radicalization." This approach is considered all the more necessary inasmuch as "the profile of recruits (is) changing," the newcomers "increasingly lacking any significant religious or political engagement, usually unknown, and in any case not listed as jihadists." The intelligence services therefore fear the development of "a phenomenon of spontaneous generation of radical Islamists, a potential pool for terrorists."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Radical islamism: 'eaarly detection,' specialized services' new tool'
2) Sudden Jihad Syndrome
Report by Jean Chichizola
Whether of the right or of the left, the interior ministers (apart from Francois Baroin) of the G6 (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Poland, and the UK), who met in Venice this weekend, focused their discussions on Islamist terrorism, "the prevention and pursuit of behaviour inciting violence and racial hatred." Franco Frattini, vice president of the European Commission, announced the holding this fall of a conference on the topic, "Youth and Radicalization." A "map of radicalization in the EU," recording extremist prayer halls and sources of funding for this tendency, is due to be drawn up. The Italian delegation wants "to establish mechanisms for sharing information and analysis" about the Tabligh, a re-Islamization movement, and its network of madrasas in Pakistan.
Very young Islamists moving directly from their Paris apartments to the hell in Iraq, a small group from Tours radicalized within the space of a few months by one of their elders and who set off incognito for the jihad, a "small chemist" from Nancy ready to carry out isolated attacks... Against the backdrop of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Islamist terrorism is becoming individualized, and the response is becoming increasingly complex all the time.
Two General Intelligence reports (RG) on "the profile and detection of jihadist cells" set out the response that the intelligence services are putting in place. This method is called "early detection." Under the section on "enhancing awareness and partnership," the RG explains that "activities to enhance awareness of the Islamist phenomenon have been conducted out vis-a-vis other domestic security services," such as the Border Police and Public Security, but also "in the administrations, prisons and public hospitals."
The service envisages "a minimum level of knowledge about the detection of clear pointers (activities, attitudes, rhetoric) within the context of common crime" and of "characteristic cultural, and linguistic" factors "that could alert the specialized services." Last, a "partnership with the business world" has been launched.
"Tiny minority"
According to RG, the identification of "simple signs" such as unauthorized prayer at the workplace or "changes of behaviour with women" sometimes permit "the identification of individuals who could lapse into radicalization." This approach is considered all the more necessary inasmuch as "the profile of recruits (is) changing," the newcomers "increasingly lacking any significant religious or political engagement, usually unknown, and in any case not listed as jihadists." The intelligence services therefore fear the development of "a phenomenon of spontaneous generation of radical Islamists, a potential pool for terrorists."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Radical islamism: 'eaarly detection,' specialized services' new tool'
2) Sudden Jihad Syndrome
Monday, May 21, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: NO LAND FOR YOUR SATELLITE JIHAD OFFICE
SEVILLE BACKTRACKS ON MOSQUE
Seville, 18 May (AKI) - Spanish muncipal authorities in Seville reversing a previous decision say they will not grant land to the Muslim community for the construction of a mosque in the southern city's Bermejales district, a newspaper reported Friday citing a top official. Seville deputy mayor, Emilio Carillo, told the daily ABC that the request to set aside 6,000 square metres of municipal land first allocated to the Muslim community in 2004 has now been denied. No specific reason was given in the report for the shelving of the project.
The construction of the mosque has been mired in controversy, with one local politician, Augustin Villar, of the regional autonomy Andalusian Party claiming that al-Qaeda linked organisations would help fund the project. A residents' association in Bermejales has also come out against the mosque's construction while the issue has been hotly debated in the run-up to local elections set for 27 May.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) SEVILLE BACKTRACKS ON MOSQUE
Seville, 18 May (AKI) - Spanish muncipal authorities in Seville reversing a previous decision say they will not grant land to the Muslim community for the construction of a mosque in the southern city's Bermejales district, a newspaper reported Friday citing a top official. Seville deputy mayor, Emilio Carillo, told the daily ABC that the request to set aside 6,000 square metres of municipal land first allocated to the Muslim community in 2004 has now been denied. No specific reason was given in the report for the shelving of the project.
The construction of the mosque has been mired in controversy, with one local politician, Augustin Villar, of the regional autonomy Andalusian Party claiming that al-Qaeda linked organisations would help fund the project. A residents' association in Bermejales has also come out against the mosque's construction while the issue has been hotly debated in the run-up to local elections set for 27 May.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) SEVILLE BACKTRACKS ON MOSQUE
Saturday, April 21, 2007
DAR AL HARB -SPAIN/AL ANDALUS: MOSLEM ART?!? KILLING LAMBS ON STAGE
Muslim play sparks outrage in Spain
MADRID, April 20 A play in Spain has provoked outrage following word that its creator calls for a lamb to be slaughtered for each performance.
The Muslim playwright created the scene to depict an Islamic ritual on stage, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported.
"It is outrageous that an animal should lose its life in this way for the sake of art," said a spokesman at a British animal refuge center. Animal rights activists told police the theater company performing the play was breaking an animal protection law that "prohibits the killing, mistreatment, and causing of harm and stress to animals used in film, TV, artistic and commercial productions."
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim play sparks outrage in Spain
MADRID, April 20 A play in Spain has provoked outrage following word that its creator calls for a lamb to be slaughtered for each performance.
The Muslim playwright created the scene to depict an Islamic ritual on stage, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported.
"It is outrageous that an animal should lose its life in this way for the sake of art," said a spokesman at a British animal refuge center. Animal rights activists told police the theater company performing the play was breaking an animal protection law that "prohibits the killing, mistreatment, and causing of harm and stress to animals used in film, TV, artistic and commercial productions."
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim play sparks outrage in Spain
Thursday, April 19, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - SPAIN/MOROCCO: SPAIN WORRIED ABOUT MOSLEM JIHAD ATTACKS FROM MOROCCO & NORTH AFRICE
MOROCCO: ISLAMIST TERRORISTS 'COULD TARGET SPANISH INTERESTS'
Madrid and Rabat, 19 April (AKI) - Security at Spanish embassies, consulates and schools in Moroccan cities could be stepped up in the coming days amid fears they could be soft targets for Islamist terror attacks, according to unnamed security force sources quoted by Spanish daily ABC. Security officials are said to be especially concerned to safeguard the Spanish consulates in Tangiers, Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir and Tetouan which are all located in busy central areas, as well as the brand new Spanish embassy in Rabat.
Since the start of this week, student at the Spanish school in Rabat have to show their passport to be allowed on the premises. The authorities in Morocco have however been on alert for some time: after the deadly 2004 bombings of commuter trains in the Spanish capital, Madrid, investigators came into possession of a note signed by a radical Islamist group threatening Spanish interests in North Africa.
Despite fears of a widening conflict stoked by the suicide bomb attacks last week in Casablanca and in Algiers that left dozens dead and hundreds injured, Spain has retained the 'medium' alert level it introduced on 15 February at the start of the trial of 29 suspects for the Madrid train bombings. Most are of North African and many of Moroccan origins.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) MOROCCO: ISLAMIST TERRORISTS 'COULD TARGET SPANISH INTERESTS'
Madrid and Rabat, 19 April (AKI) - Security at Spanish embassies, consulates and schools in Moroccan cities could be stepped up in the coming days amid fears they could be soft targets for Islamist terror attacks, according to unnamed security force sources quoted by Spanish daily ABC. Security officials are said to be especially concerned to safeguard the Spanish consulates in Tangiers, Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir and Tetouan which are all located in busy central areas, as well as the brand new Spanish embassy in Rabat.
Since the start of this week, student at the Spanish school in Rabat have to show their passport to be allowed on the premises. The authorities in Morocco have however been on alert for some time: after the deadly 2004 bombings of commuter trains in the Spanish capital, Madrid, investigators came into possession of a note signed by a radical Islamist group threatening Spanish interests in North Africa.
Despite fears of a widening conflict stoked by the suicide bomb attacks last week in Casablanca and in Algiers that left dozens dead and hundreds injured, Spain has retained the 'medium' alert level it introduced on 15 February at the start of the trial of 29 suspects for the Madrid train bombings. Most are of North African and many of Moroccan origins.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) MOROCCO: ISLAMIST TERRORISTS 'COULD TARGET SPANISH INTERESTS'
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: SPANIARDS GET A WHIFF OF DANGER OF THE ISLAMIC JIHAD, IS IT TOO LATE?!?
Alarm in Spain over al-Qaeda call for its "reconquest"
By Sinikka Tarvainen, dpaEds: epa photos available
Madrid (dpa) - The emergence of a new al-Qaeda-linked organization in Northern Africa is alarming Spain, which is concerned about Islamists' calls for the reconquest of the country they regard as a lost part of the Muslim world.
"We will not be in peace until we set our foot again in our beloved al-Andalus," al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said on claiming responsibility for an attack which killed at least 24 people in Algiers on Wednesday.
Al-Andalus is the Moorish name for Spain, parts of which were ruled by Muslims for about eight centuries until the last Moorish bastion, Granada, succumbed to the Christian Reconquest in 1492.
The terrorists will undoubtedly attempt to extend their offensive from Northern Africa to European soil, anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzon warned, cautioning that Spain was at a "very high risk" of suffering an Islamist attack.
...
Thanks for the story Babb's...
Pertinent Links:
1) Alarm in Spain over al-Qaeda call for its "reconquest"
By Sinikka Tarvainen, dpaEds: epa photos available
Madrid (dpa) - The emergence of a new al-Qaeda-linked organization in Northern Africa is alarming Spain, which is concerned about Islamists' calls for the reconquest of the country they regard as a lost part of the Muslim world.
"We will not be in peace until we set our foot again in our beloved al-Andalus," al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said on claiming responsibility for an attack which killed at least 24 people in Algiers on Wednesday.
Al-Andalus is the Moorish name for Spain, parts of which were ruled by Muslims for about eight centuries until the last Moorish bastion, Granada, succumbed to the Christian Reconquest in 1492.
The terrorists will undoubtedly attempt to extend their offensive from Northern Africa to European soil, anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzon warned, cautioning that Spain was at a "very high risk" of suffering an Islamist attack.
...
Thanks for the story Babb's...
Pertinent Links:
1) Alarm in Spain over al-Qaeda call for its "reconquest"
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: AL ANDALUS, AGAIN
Spain fears Islamists reclaiming "al-Andalus"
By Sinikka Tarvainen
dpa German Press Agency
Madrid- While the international spotlight is on 29 suspectson trial for the 2004 Madrid train bombings, Spanish police areworking behind the scenes to counter a growing threat of new attacks.Radicals inspired by al-Qaeda have stepped up propaganda andrecruitment activities in Spain, a country they claim as a part ofthe Islamic world because of its Muslim past, according to policeexperts.
Extremists present in Spain no longer come just from North Africa,but also from Pakistan.
Spain has become one of the main bases for the recruitment ofsuicide bombers, some of whom are trained at new al-Qaeda bases inAfrica's Sahel zone before they are sent to Iraq.
The ongoing Madrid bombings trial has given a face to Islamistterrorism as Spaniards have watched one suspect after another takethe stand, from bearded fundamentalists to young men with anapparently Western lifestyle.
After questioning the suspects, the court is currently hearingpolice experts and other witnesses.
Ten bombs that exploded on four Madrid commuter trains killed 191and injured nearly 2,000 people in March 2004, suddenly placingIslamists on top of the security agenda, ahead of the armed Basqueseparatist group ETA.
Two groups are suspected of involvement in the attacks: theMoroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) and the extremely radical Tafkir Wal Hijra, which is of Egyptian origin.
Such groups do not form part of a hierarchical structure, but heedmessages emanating from al-Qaeda and act on their own.
Arab activists are believed to cooperate with Pakistanis makingmoney transfers on their behalf.Pakistani radicals are active especially in the north-eastern Catalonia region, where police have detected the presence of Asiangroups such as the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET).
The JEM has been implicated in the 2005 bombings in the Londontransport network, while the LET is linked with attacks in India.Police are investigating whether the Arabs and Pakistanis havecontacts with Chechen Muslims, large numbers of whom reportedlyarrived in Spain in 2006.
Islamist radicals proselytize at an estimated 10 per cent ofSpain's hundreds of unofficial mosques, which operate in garages,basements and the like.
Fighters recruited in Spain are no longer trained only in Iraq andAfghanistan, but also in Sahel countries such as Mali, Niger and Mauritania, where al-Qaeda and its allies teach them to handleweapons, explosives and even poisons, according to the daily El Pais.
The young men then travel to conflict zones such as Iraq, whereone of the Madrid train bombers is believed to have died in a suicideattack in 2005.
Those who are not killed in Iraq or are unable to enter thecountry sometimes return to Spain, where they constitute one of thepotentially most dangerous groups, according to police sources.
The Madrid bombers targeted Spain partly to punish the thengovernment for its participation in the Iraq war.
Spain has changed its Atlanticist foreign policy since then, but the presence of its troops in Afghanistan and its judicial crackdowns on Islamists keep it on al-Qaeda-inspired hit lists.
Islamist websites have also long called for a reconquest of al-Andalus, a Moorish name for Spain, parts of which were ruled byMuslims for nearly eight centuries until 1492.
Recently, some websites have also begun campaigning for the"liberation" of the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on theMoroccan coast, causing concern among police experts.
They should permit more moslem immigrants to settle in Spain and across Europe...They will get their 'utopia'...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain fears Islamists reclaiming "al-Andalus"
By Sinikka Tarvainen
dpa German Press Agency
Madrid- While the international spotlight is on 29 suspectson trial for the 2004 Madrid train bombings, Spanish police areworking behind the scenes to counter a growing threat of new attacks.Radicals inspired by al-Qaeda have stepped up propaganda andrecruitment activities in Spain, a country they claim as a part ofthe Islamic world because of its Muslim past, according to policeexperts.
Extremists present in Spain no longer come just from North Africa,but also from Pakistan.
Spain has become one of the main bases for the recruitment ofsuicide bombers, some of whom are trained at new al-Qaeda bases inAfrica's Sahel zone before they are sent to Iraq.
The ongoing Madrid bombings trial has given a face to Islamistterrorism as Spaniards have watched one suspect after another takethe stand, from bearded fundamentalists to young men with anapparently Western lifestyle.
After questioning the suspects, the court is currently hearingpolice experts and other witnesses.
Ten bombs that exploded on four Madrid commuter trains killed 191and injured nearly 2,000 people in March 2004, suddenly placingIslamists on top of the security agenda, ahead of the armed Basqueseparatist group ETA.
Two groups are suspected of involvement in the attacks: theMoroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) and the extremely radical Tafkir Wal Hijra, which is of Egyptian origin.
Such groups do not form part of a hierarchical structure, but heedmessages emanating from al-Qaeda and act on their own.
Arab activists are believed to cooperate with Pakistanis makingmoney transfers on their behalf.Pakistani radicals are active especially in the north-eastern Catalonia region, where police have detected the presence of Asiangroups such as the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET).
The JEM has been implicated in the 2005 bombings in the Londontransport network, while the LET is linked with attacks in India.Police are investigating whether the Arabs and Pakistanis havecontacts with Chechen Muslims, large numbers of whom reportedlyarrived in Spain in 2006.
Islamist radicals proselytize at an estimated 10 per cent ofSpain's hundreds of unofficial mosques, which operate in garages,basements and the like.
Fighters recruited in Spain are no longer trained only in Iraq andAfghanistan, but also in Sahel countries such as Mali, Niger and Mauritania, where al-Qaeda and its allies teach them to handleweapons, explosives and even poisons, according to the daily El Pais.
The young men then travel to conflict zones such as Iraq, whereone of the Madrid train bombers is believed to have died in a suicideattack in 2005.
Those who are not killed in Iraq or are unable to enter thecountry sometimes return to Spain, where they constitute one of thepotentially most dangerous groups, according to police sources.
The Madrid bombers targeted Spain partly to punish the thengovernment for its participation in the Iraq war.
Spain has changed its Atlanticist foreign policy since then, but the presence of its troops in Afghanistan and its judicial crackdowns on Islamists keep it on al-Qaeda-inspired hit lists.
Islamist websites have also long called for a reconquest of al-Andalus, a Moorish name for Spain, parts of which were ruled byMuslims for nearly eight centuries until 1492.
Recently, some websites have also begun campaigning for the"liberation" of the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on theMoroccan coast, causing concern among police experts.
They should permit more moslem immigrants to settle in Spain and across Europe...They will get their 'utopia'...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain fears Islamists reclaiming "al-Andalus"
Sunday, February 18, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN / AL-ANDALUS: LESS ENTHUSIASM FOR IMMIGRANTS IN SPAIN
Spain cooling on immigrants
ALCALÁ DE HENARES, Spain: Bianca Grancea's first New Year's Day in her adopted country was supposed to be a new beginning. Instead, it ended in murder.
The 26-year-old Romanian had recently immigrated to Spain and was looking forward to celebrating with her husband, Ion, who had entered three weeks earlier as a tourist and had found work — illegally — as a security guard at a public skating rink.
Early New Year's morning, he ordered a young Spaniard out of the closed rink, using Romanian because he could not speak Spanish or understand the youth's angry taunts: "Romanian scum."
Twenty minutes later, the police and witnesses say, the 18-year-old youth, Francisco Arteaga de la Calle, returned with 11 friends and stabbed Grancea in the heart and the back. A Spanish street cleaner said a police officer had stood nearby without acting, although the officer denied having seen the incident. De la Calle has been charged with murder and is awaiting trial; the others have been released.
"If the victim had been a Spaniard, things would have been different," said Bianca Grancea, who has since been reduced to begging to support her 6-year- old son. "But because I am a Romanian migrant, I am invisible."
The killing has shaken the Romanian community in this sleepy university town of 200,000 people, where 5 percent of the population is Romanian. Nearly 400,000 Romanians live and work in Spain — the third-largest foreign community, after Moroccans and Ecuadorans.
Gheorghe Gainar, the leader of the Romanian community in Alcalá de Henares, said he feared that the killing was an extreme example of a brewing anti-immigrant backlash. In recent weeks, he said, the words "Romanians go home" have been sprayed on buildings in the neighborhood. "There are elements of society in Spain who are now saying that immigrants will invade us," Gainar said.
Spain has been among the most open countries in the European Union, admitting 650,000 immigrants last year alone and granting residency permits to 560,000 more who were in the country illegally — a move loudly criticized by other EU countries.
Immigration experts say the country's liberal attitude reflects openness after the insularity of the Franco years, when the country was a nation of emigration. The thriving Spanish economy, spurred by the country's accession to the EU in 1986, also has encouraged people to come here. Thousands work legally in construction or as household aides. Thousands more work illegally in the country's giant shadow economy.
"Spain has had a laissez-faire attitude to immigration, and we have had none of the debates about multiculturalism raging in the rest of Europe," said Rickard Sandell, an immigration analyst at Real Instituto Elcano, a Madrid-based research institute. "But people are beginning to ask questions."
Sandell said the recent influx of 30,000 African migrants to the Canary Islands had had a psychological effect. The diplomatic dispute this week between Spain and Mauritania over a trawler with 372 migrants aboard did not help matters.
Violent clashes this month between Spanish youths and Latin American immigrant gangs in the Madrid suburb of Alcorcón also fanned fears that the country's open immigration policies had gone too far.
In an October poll by the Madrid- based Center for Sociological Investigation, a majority of Spaniards cited immigration as their top concern, ahead of terrorism, unemployment and education.
"For every 10 delinquents we used to have here, we now have 40," complained Sebastián Pelegrin, 58, a 30-year resident of Lavapiés, a large immigrant neighborhood of Madrid where streets are lined with Arab kebab shops and Bollywood film-rental stores. Pelegrin, who said he had been mugged twice by knife-wielding migrant youths, contended that illegal migration was creating a generation of unemployed, disenfranchised youths.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain cooling on immigrants
ALCALÁ DE HENARES, Spain: Bianca Grancea's first New Year's Day in her adopted country was supposed to be a new beginning. Instead, it ended in murder.
The 26-year-old Romanian had recently immigrated to Spain and was looking forward to celebrating with her husband, Ion, who had entered three weeks earlier as a tourist and had found work — illegally — as a security guard at a public skating rink.
Early New Year's morning, he ordered a young Spaniard out of the closed rink, using Romanian because he could not speak Spanish or understand the youth's angry taunts: "Romanian scum."
Twenty minutes later, the police and witnesses say, the 18-year-old youth, Francisco Arteaga de la Calle, returned with 11 friends and stabbed Grancea in the heart and the back. A Spanish street cleaner said a police officer had stood nearby without acting, although the officer denied having seen the incident. De la Calle has been charged with murder and is awaiting trial; the others have been released.
"If the victim had been a Spaniard, things would have been different," said Bianca Grancea, who has since been reduced to begging to support her 6-year- old son. "But because I am a Romanian migrant, I am invisible."
The killing has shaken the Romanian community in this sleepy university town of 200,000 people, where 5 percent of the population is Romanian. Nearly 400,000 Romanians live and work in Spain — the third-largest foreign community, after Moroccans and Ecuadorans.
Gheorghe Gainar, the leader of the Romanian community in Alcalá de Henares, said he feared that the killing was an extreme example of a brewing anti-immigrant backlash. In recent weeks, he said, the words "Romanians go home" have been sprayed on buildings in the neighborhood. "There are elements of society in Spain who are now saying that immigrants will invade us," Gainar said.
Spain has been among the most open countries in the European Union, admitting 650,000 immigrants last year alone and granting residency permits to 560,000 more who were in the country illegally — a move loudly criticized by other EU countries.
Immigration experts say the country's liberal attitude reflects openness after the insularity of the Franco years, when the country was a nation of emigration. The thriving Spanish economy, spurred by the country's accession to the EU in 1986, also has encouraged people to come here. Thousands work legally in construction or as household aides. Thousands more work illegally in the country's giant shadow economy.
"Spain has had a laissez-faire attitude to immigration, and we have had none of the debates about multiculturalism raging in the rest of Europe," said Rickard Sandell, an immigration analyst at Real Instituto Elcano, a Madrid-based research institute. "But people are beginning to ask questions."
Sandell said the recent influx of 30,000 African migrants to the Canary Islands had had a psychological effect. The diplomatic dispute this week between Spain and Mauritania over a trawler with 372 migrants aboard did not help matters.
Violent clashes this month between Spanish youths and Latin American immigrant gangs in the Madrid suburb of Alcorcón also fanned fears that the country's open immigration policies had gone too far.
In an October poll by the Madrid- based Center for Sociological Investigation, a majority of Spaniards cited immigration as their top concern, ahead of terrorism, unemployment and education.
"For every 10 delinquents we used to have here, we now have 40," complained Sebastián Pelegrin, 58, a 30-year resident of Lavapiés, a large immigrant neighborhood of Madrid where streets are lined with Arab kebab shops and Bollywood film-rental stores. Pelegrin, who said he had been mugged twice by knife-wielding migrant youths, contended that illegal migration was creating a generation of unemployed, disenfranchised youths.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain cooling on immigrants
Friday, February 09, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN / AL-ANDALUS: RESURGENT ISLAM IN SPAIN 500 PLUS YEARS AFTER SHE FREE'D HERSELF FROM ISLAMIC TYRANNY
Spain's resurgent Muslims clamour for places to pray
By Victoria Burnett
For centuries the Iberian peninsula was studded with the minarets of mosques that served its Moorish rulers. When the call to prayer goes out nowadays, many of Spain's Muslims cram into scruffy shop-fronts, garages and warehouses.
Five hundred years after the Catholic kings ousted the Moors, Spain's resurgent Muslim population is clamouring for places to pray. A campaign for land on which to build new mosques has sparked debate about the rights of religious minorities and underlined the challenges of absorbing a growing immigrant population.
Spain has a dozen mosques to serve a Muslim population that has swollen to about 1m in the past few years as North African immigrants stream into the country. Immigrants generally get a laid-back reception in Spain, but Muslim leaders complain that they face political and bureaucratic hurdles as they try to buy land and get building permission.
"It's almost impossible for the Muslim community to try to build a place to pray without confronting strong public rejection," says Mohammed Chaib, a socialist member of the Catalan parliament. Catalonia - home to about 250,000 Muslims - has no purpose-built mosques. About 170 spaces have been converted into places of worship.
Plans for a mosque in the Catalan town of Badalona drew national attention after more than 20,000 local residents signed a petition of protest last month. Cowed by public pressure, the local government has dropped a plan to allocate public land for the mosque. Eduardo Tortajada, Badalona's deputy mayor, says the fast rise of the Muslim community has strained relations with other residents; the town's Muslim population has grown from a few hundred to about 10,000 in the past five years - about 5 per cent of the population.
Suspicion that some mosques are hubs for Islamic extremism adds to public distrust. Badalona police in January arresteda Moroccan, Abdullatif Nekkavi, for alleged ties to jihadi groups in Iraq.
...
What the author of this article fails to mention is that Spain was first CONQUERED BY MOSLEMS, the Moors, and was OCCUPIED BY MOSLEMS/ISLAM SINCE THE 8TH CENTURY UNTIL THE RECONQUISTA...
Here are some excerpts from the Medieval Sourcebook that pertain to the initial conquest & occupation of Spain:
1) Ibn Abd-el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain
2) Al Maggari: Tarik's Address to His Soldiers, 711 CE, from The Breath of Perfumes
Tarik was the Muslim leader who lead the conquest of Spain.
3) Poetry of The Spanish Moors
4) Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain
Here are some links that pertain to the Reconquista (the Reconquest of Spain):
1) Excerpts from the Chronicles of the Cid
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain's resurgent Muslims clamour for places to pray
By Victoria Burnett
For centuries the Iberian peninsula was studded with the minarets of mosques that served its Moorish rulers. When the call to prayer goes out nowadays, many of Spain's Muslims cram into scruffy shop-fronts, garages and warehouses.
Five hundred years after the Catholic kings ousted the Moors, Spain's resurgent Muslim population is clamouring for places to pray. A campaign for land on which to build new mosques has sparked debate about the rights of religious minorities and underlined the challenges of absorbing a growing immigrant population.
Spain has a dozen mosques to serve a Muslim population that has swollen to about 1m in the past few years as North African immigrants stream into the country. Immigrants generally get a laid-back reception in Spain, but Muslim leaders complain that they face political and bureaucratic hurdles as they try to buy land and get building permission.
"It's almost impossible for the Muslim community to try to build a place to pray without confronting strong public rejection," says Mohammed Chaib, a socialist member of the Catalan parliament. Catalonia - home to about 250,000 Muslims - has no purpose-built mosques. About 170 spaces have been converted into places of worship.
Plans for a mosque in the Catalan town of Badalona drew national attention after more than 20,000 local residents signed a petition of protest last month. Cowed by public pressure, the local government has dropped a plan to allocate public land for the mosque. Eduardo Tortajada, Badalona's deputy mayor, says the fast rise of the Muslim community has strained relations with other residents; the town's Muslim population has grown from a few hundred to about 10,000 in the past five years - about 5 per cent of the population.
Suspicion that some mosques are hubs for Islamic extremism adds to public distrust. Badalona police in January arresteda Moroccan, Abdullatif Nekkavi, for alleged ties to jihadi groups in Iraq.
...
What the author of this article fails to mention is that Spain was first CONQUERED BY MOSLEMS, the Moors, and was OCCUPIED BY MOSLEMS/ISLAM SINCE THE 8TH CENTURY UNTIL THE RECONQUISTA...
Here are some excerpts from the Medieval Sourcebook that pertain to the initial conquest & occupation of Spain:
1) Ibn Abd-el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain
2) Al Maggari: Tarik's Address to His Soldiers, 711 CE, from The Breath of Perfumes
Tarik was the Muslim leader who lead the conquest of Spain.
3) Poetry of The Spanish Moors
4) Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain
Here are some links that pertain to the Reconquista (the Reconquest of Spain):
1) Excerpts from the Chronicles of the Cid
[From Chronicle of the Cid. ed. 5, Robert Southey, tr. ed. 5 (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1894.), bk 2.]
Probably the best-known figure of Medieval Spanish history and legend was the Cid (Lord), Rodrigo de Bivar. His exploits were recounted in an epic tradition which has come down to us in several recensions. These epics depict not only the struggle between Islam and Western Christendon in the Iberian Peninsula, but also the interaction of these two civilizations.
2) The Chronicle of the Cid (If I am not mistaken, this is the complete chronicle, brought to you by the Gutenberg Project...)Pertinent Links:
1) Spain's resurgent Muslims clamour for places to pray
Friday, February 02, 2007
DAR AL HARB - SPAIN / AL ANDALUS: SPAIN'S MOSLEM SOLDIERS HAVE DOUBLE LOYALTIES, THEY MAY EVEN SIDE WITH MOROCCO
Spain's Muslim Soldiers "with Double Loyalties" Spark Debate
By Sinikka Tarvainen, Dpa
Muslim soldiers serving in the Spanish army in the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are sparking controversy among security experts.
Some doubt their loyalty to Spain and fear they could side with neighbouring Morocco in case of a conflict between the two countries.
Located on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla have belonged to Spain for centuries, but Rabat continues to claim sovereignty over them.
About a third of the enclaves' population of some 70,000 each is estimated to be Muslim, a proportion corresponding to their number among the total 8,000 soldiers stationed in the two strategically important military outposts.
Officially, Ceuta and Melilla are presented as models of a harmonious coexistence between Catholics, Muslims and the smaller Jewish and Hindu communities, but the reality is less rosy.
If a conflict erupted with Morocco over sovereignty or some other issue, "I'm not certain the Muslim soldiers would obey me," one commander said.
Recently, the Ceuta command refused to renew the contracts of about 15 Muslim soldiers on the basis of confidential information, angering Muslims and creating tension between them and the Christians in the enclave.
"This has given rise to suspicions and rumours," complains lawyer Mohammed Ali, leader of the Muslim party Ceuta Democratic Union.
Muslim soldiers are Spanish citizens, but they, their parents, grandparents or greatgrandparents were usually born in Morocco, where they retain family ties.
They are schooled in the Muslim faith by Moroccan imams, who often pass to them a reverence for King Mohammed VI, regarded as the spiritual leader of Moroccan Muslims.
Spain and Morocco barely avoided a military conflict over the islet of Perejil - also known as Leilah - in 2002.
If a conflict did break out, possibly over Ceuta or Melilla - security experts wonder, would the Muslim soldiers act like Spanish patriots, or would they turn their weapons against their Christian comrades-in-arms?
Because of their higher birth rate, Muslims are expected to become the majority in Ceuta and Melilla in a little over a decade.
...
Now the security experts begin worrying about this?!?
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain's Muslim Soldiers "with Double Loyalties" Spark Debate
By Sinikka Tarvainen, Dpa
Muslim soldiers serving in the Spanish army in the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are sparking controversy among security experts.
Some doubt their loyalty to Spain and fear they could side with neighbouring Morocco in case of a conflict between the two countries.
Located on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla have belonged to Spain for centuries, but Rabat continues to claim sovereignty over them.
About a third of the enclaves' population of some 70,000 each is estimated to be Muslim, a proportion corresponding to their number among the total 8,000 soldiers stationed in the two strategically important military outposts.
Officially, Ceuta and Melilla are presented as models of a harmonious coexistence between Catholics, Muslims and the smaller Jewish and Hindu communities, but the reality is less rosy.
If a conflict erupted with Morocco over sovereignty or some other issue, "I'm not certain the Muslim soldiers would obey me," one commander said.
Recently, the Ceuta command refused to renew the contracts of about 15 Muslim soldiers on the basis of confidential information, angering Muslims and creating tension between them and the Christians in the enclave.
"This has given rise to suspicions and rumours," complains lawyer Mohammed Ali, leader of the Muslim party Ceuta Democratic Union.
Muslim soldiers are Spanish citizens, but they, their parents, grandparents or greatgrandparents were usually born in Morocco, where they retain family ties.
They are schooled in the Muslim faith by Moroccan imams, who often pass to them a reverence for King Mohammed VI, regarded as the spiritual leader of Moroccan Muslims.
Spain and Morocco barely avoided a military conflict over the islet of Perejil - also known as Leilah - in 2002.
If a conflict did break out, possibly over Ceuta or Melilla - security experts wonder, would the Muslim soldiers act like Spanish patriots, or would they turn their weapons against their Christian comrades-in-arms?
Because of their higher birth rate, Muslims are expected to become the majority in Ceuta and Melilla in a little over a decade.
...
Now the security experts begin worrying about this?!?
Pertinent Links:
1) Spain's Muslim Soldiers "with Double Loyalties" Spark Debate
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