Western Resistance

« Saudi Arabia: Muslim Courts Sentence "Witch" To Death | | Denmark: Flames Of Muslim Rage »

February 14, 2008

Spain: Three Suspected Islamists Held

News from AKI, Jerusalem Post, Associated Press, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, CNN, Reuters, Typically Spanish, EITB, Expatica, Irish Sun and the Daily Times:

Early this morning (Thursday) at least three suspected Islamists were arrested in Vitoria, the capital city of Spain's Basque region in the north of the country. The men were suspected of raising funds for armed jihad. Police said that they had also been distributing CDs and other propaganda material, including internet-downloaded MP3s of jihad preaching to local Muslims.

AKI and CNN state that the three men were all Algerians. Police had begun investigations of the three men in December 2007. The arrests took place today on the orders of the National Court in Madrid. The arrests, carried out by Basque police, took place at 4 am local time.

The distribution of material took place at two sites, police suggest. One of these was an apartment, and the other was a phone center, where those without fixed phones can call out or use the internet. One of the suspects worked at this center.

Items seized in the predawn raids included a laptop computer, two hard drives and around 30 CDs. The apartment that was raided was shared by the three detainees and a fourth individual. Documents seized from the apartment filled four boxes.

The three detainees were aged around 30 years old, and all are said to have convictions for minor offenses.

Later in the day, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said that the arrests were important because Islamist cells could easily graduate from "rites and faith" to violence.

We reported that 14 people, 12 of Pakistani nationality and two Indians, were arrested on Saturday, January 19 this year. Four of these were later released, but the remaining 10 were held in jail on the orders of a National Court judge. The Barcelona, Catalunya, arrests took place mainly in an unregistered Tablighi Jamaat mosque, and the suspects were thought to be planning explosions. In the Catalunya region, whose capital is Barcelona, more than 70 people have been arrested since 2003.

*******

On February 8, a Moroccan man who is suspected of involvement in 9/11 was extradited to Spain from Britain. 39-year old Farid Hilali was arrested in south London in September 2003 on a Spanish extradition warrant from Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon. He has used Britain's legal appeal system to fight extradition. He had apparently called Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas by phone prior to the 9/11 attacks, in which mention was made of entering "the field of aviation" and "cutting the bird's throat."

Yarkas (aka "Abu Dahda") was sentenced to 27 years' jail on September 26 2005. He had been found guilty of conspiring to cause the attacks of 9/11. Yarkas was given 12 years' jail for leading a terrorist group, and 15 years for "conspiracy to commit murder". On February 16, 2006 Yarkas had his sentence reduced. On June 1, 2006 his sentence of "conspiracy to murder" was quashed . He still retained his sentence of 12 years for being a head of a terrorist organization.

The Spanish case against extradited Moroccan Farid Hilali (aka "Shakur") is weakened on account of Yarkas' sentence quashing, but there is apparently enough evidence to proceed against him with a case of membership in a terrorist group. On April 25, 2007, Hilali had been freed from his British jail.

*******

In three weeks' time, on March 9, Spain will be going to the polls. The center-right Partido Popular (PP) party said earlier this month that if it should win the elections, it would impose a French-style ban of the Islamic headscarf in Spanish schools. The PP also said that Muslim girls in schools will have to accept examinations/treatment by male doctors, partaking in sports lessons and must attend school during menstruation.

On Wednesday February 6, the PP announced that all immigrants would be forced to sign a legally obligating document which would guarantee they would learn Spanish and observe Spanish customs. PP campaign coordinator Juan Costa said of the school headscarf ban: "We feel that what makes sense is to establish in the framework of the law that use of symbols which might amount to discrimination or a demonstration of submission of women must be avoided. Therefore, as a principle, veils should not be used in classrooms."

Socialist premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said that such moves would be "discriminatory" and stated: "I apologize to all women, wherever they are from, in name of all Spaniards."

Within only one decade, foreign residents in Spain have grown in number from minimal numbers to 10% of the population.

Zapotero's PSOE or Spanish Socialist Workers' Party came to power against all expectations in the 2004 elections after a gaffe by the PP leader, Jose Maria Anzar. Immediately after the Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people, Anzar of the PP party had suggested that Basque separatist group ETA had carried out the attacks. There had already been eyewitness reports of North African men being responsible for planting the rucksack bombs, and Anzar's credibility suffered. His popular vote dissolved and he lost in the election, which took place on March 14, 2004.

********
Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Spain earlier this month. In his country, the wearing of Islamic headscarves has been banned in universities, schools and government offices under the terms of the secular state introduced by Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s. This month however, Erdogan has managed to come close to achieving a victory in parliament which could allow headscarves to be worn in universities.

Erdogan then said of his country's banning of the Muslim headscarf: "Even if the headscarf were being worn as a political symbol, can that really be accepted as a crime? Can we really ban symbols and signs that way? Where else in the world does such a ban exist when it comes to freedoms?... We will solve this problem in the shortest time possible."

Two days later, his comments were discussed by Deniz Baykal, head of Turkey's secular opposition party the Republican People's Party (CHP). Baykal responded to Erdogan's comments by saying: "The Prime Minister is dragging Turkey in some very dangerous directions, and he is clearly very confused about some very basic concepts. Everyone has said that the turban (headscarf) is a political symbol up until now, though the Prime Minister has said it wasn't. Now he comes up and says 'Even if it is a political symbol, what does that matter?' So he's admitting it..."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at February 14, 2008 10:03 PM

Comments

Post a comment