In a 2007 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, US State Department officials noted that heavy immigration from Morocco, Pakistan and Bangladesh has made Spain’s Catalonia “a magnet for terrorist recruiters”. Yet, when its neighbour France saw a spate of Islamic terror attacks, Spain remained seemingly unaffected … until last Thursday
Taliban cell in Barcelona
Despite the deceptive normalcy, Spain’s authorities—helped by their experience in fighting the Basque ETA—arrested over 700 Islamists after the 2004 al-Qaeda attack in Madrid that killed 192
In Jan. 2008, members of the Pakistan Taliban plotting attacks in Barcelona were held; nine men were arrested this year in connection with the 2016 Brussels attacks
A Salafist corridor in Spain
The ultra-conservative Salafism is so pervasive in Catalonia that police speak of a “Salafist corridor” that runs from the southern cities of Reus and Tarragona to Girona near the French border in the north, according to a report by Lorenzo Vidino. Cambrils, the second town hit in the recent attacks, is part of the “corridor”
‘Absolute Islam’ of Salafism
“Muslims looking for existential answers are attracted by the ‘absolute Islam’ it provides. He lived on the fringe of society (mentally); now he embodies a sacred history,” French scholar Mohamed-Ali Adraoui writes