In Barcelona, the radical Islamists are not so active as in a few other Spanish cities. The reasons for this lie partly in the policy of the regional government, partly in the complicated character of the city.
“The danger of the situation in Catalonia is clear.” In unique words, the American outline of the Ministry of foreign Affairs in 2010, the radicalization potential of young Muslims in Catalonia. Made public, this assessment had the unveiling platform Wikileaks. Barcelona, – was stated in the document, is “a meeting point of concern movements”. There is a large Muslim population, of which a small part could, for the Jihad to recruit. The immigration from North Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh have allowed the Region to become a “Magnet for terrorist recruitment”.
The day after the attack, Spanish Newspapers publish the Numbers that describe the time-defined risk position statistically. Barcelona with Madrid and the two Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are on African soil to the cities, where many jihadists are active. In these cities, a good third of the entire Muslim population of Spain lives. Between 2012 and 2016, have been arrested throughout the country, 178 of jihadists, with almost four-fifths of the Detainees came from one of the four cities.
Many Muslims live in Catalonia, is not a coincidence. The boom at the end of Catalonian economy is urgently looking for cheap labour. The Catalan government has opened to little successful recruitment try in Poland – in 2003, a recruitment office in Casablanca. In the result, more and more Moroccans moved to Catalonia. In 2015, half a million Muslims – around seven percent of the total population lived there.
The day after the attack: mourning in Barcelona
The descendants of the immigrants
Up to the year 2013, write to the terrorism researcher Fernando Reinares and Carola garcía-Calvo, were most of the sub-Jihadism-suspect arrested – 90 percent – are foreigners, mostly in Morocco, Pakistan and Algeria-born migrants. From the year 2013, so the two researchers, have changed the Situation fundamentally. Since that year, around half of the detainees were born in the country itself and Spanish citizens. Most of the arrests occurred in the two enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Directly after that, the Spanish mainland.
The year 2013 marked, in two respects a turning point. The war had been nationalized in Syria, on a kind of hatching, the indignant part of the young Muslims and radicalized. On the other, but had grown by this time the second Generation of Muslim immigrants. The Migration of Muslim immigrants to Spain began relatively late, only in the 1990s. From about 2013 to the descendants of the immigrants reaching the adult age.
The myth of Al-Andalus
The “Generalitat”, the Catalan autonomy government will boast of the multi-cultural atmosphere of Barcelona, writes the Journalist Ignacio Cembrero in his book “La Españade Allah” (“The Spain of Allah”). But the fact is, you do to the Integration of the Muslim immigrants very little. Barcelona is the only European metropolis that does not have a large mosque. Applications to build smaller mosques in the city, were regularly dismissed. Instead, the city Council shall give the floor to areas, approvals for construction in a less attractive industry. Also with the establishment of Muslim religious education of the Generalitat do.
Symbol of Al-Andalus: The mosque of Cordoba
This is also because of the myth of Al-Andalus, of the nearly 800 years (711-1492) ending Muslim rule in Spain, was present on both sides. This is one of the reasons that offers from the wealthy Gulf States have not been adopted for the construction of large mosques in the past. “Spain, including Catalonia, is in the eyes of the Arabs particularly attractive,” writes Cembrero. “It is not the same, of course, whether you like your Petro-dollar in a mosque in Berlin, the city with the largest Muslim presence in Europe, to invest, or in Barcelona, it was since the year of 801, part of Al-Andalus.”
Double identity – double conflict
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Terrorism in Spain: an Interview with Guido Steinberg, the Foundation’s policy and science
Many members of the second and third Generation Muslim immigrants have a hard time trying to solve the tension between the country of origin of their parents and the new home, between the religiosity within the family and in a predominantly secular environment, so this conflict in Catalonia is complicated still once twice. Catalonia is characterised by a rivalry between Spaniards and Catalans. This double identity do the Integration for immigrants in addition to complicated.
“In Catalonia, we observe not only a particular concentration of Salafist movements, but also a question of Identity and divided society,” writes terrorism researcher Fernando Reinares. This double bit of unique identity to make it to the migrants, in addition, are difficult to integrate. Often you don’t know whether you should feel, as a Spaniard, or Catalan.
Not coincidentally, writes Reinares, there is in both regions, a disproportionately high number of jihadist recruitment attempts. The Jihadism promises to the young migrants, those well defined identity, which you can’t find in the complicated reality of Catalonia and of Spain.