Muslim terrorists convicted in Spain

Eleven Muslim terrorists were condemned in a Spanish court on December 14 to between 8 to 14 years in prison for having planned to unleash a bomb attack on the Barcelona subway. Ten of those convicted are nationals of Pakistan while the eleventh is from India, having been frustrated in their attempt to conduct a suicide bombing in Spain’s second-most populous city.

Mahroof Ahmed Mirza received 10 years and six months in prison for being the “mastermind.” However, it was Qadeer Malik who was to receive sentences of eight and one-half years for organizing the group and six more for possessing explosives. The balance of the terrorists received eight and one-half years for belonging to a terrorist organization.

However, the court did not find any of the Islamists guilty ofconspiracy despite attempts by the prosecutor, and the majority were not found guilty of possessing explosives. During the trial, evidence was introduced that Qadeer Malik had been manufacturing bombs. On January 17, 2008, Malik tried to discard a garbage bag that contained two empty packages of batteries, an empty box, nine pairs of latex gloves, pliers, a plastic bucket, 8 computer connectors, a clock, a timer, a telephone card, and cables, among other items.

The prosecution linked these to a small amount of explosives – 18 grams of nitrocellulose – that were found later in a mosque where the terrorist gang worshiped. It is for this reason that Malik is the only member who was convicted for possessing explosives.

When confronted with evidence about his participation in the “tabligh” terrorist group, offered that as a peaceful vendor of butane, “I don’t shit where I eat.” However, he asserted that he has nothing but respect for the people of Spain.

The court found that between 2007 and 2008, the terrorists became more “radicalized in their ideology” while living in Barcelona. Following contacts with Afghani Taliban leader Emir Baitullah Mehsud, they decided to carry out an act sufficiently violent as to “provoke an elevated number of victims” in the busy city. It emerged during the trial, where the government of France may have also been involved, that further attacks in Spain where planned.

There are currently approximately 1.3 million Muslims living in Spain, while in Barcelona there are 16 Muslim places of worship. Over the last ten years, their numbers have increased as Spain’s overall immigrant population swelled due to growth in the construction industry and service sectors. That economic boom has ended but Spain has had difficulty in inducing Muslim immigrants (legal or illegal) to return home.

In 2003, Tariq Ramadan – the Oxford-trained grandson of the founder of the Muslim brotherhood – spoke in Barcelona at the Center for Contemporary Culture where he set out a common Muslim platform for Europe. Said Ramadan, “The Muslim consciousness is setting down roots in Europe: there is a silent revolution, a true change in attitude that perhaps is not entirely perceptible but which is making it possible to build a strong link between the native-born population and Muslim immigrants.”

The Swiss-born Ramadan noted the common project of Muslims living in Europe with likeminded (especially Socialist) Europeans in support of Palestine and against globalism and the war in Iraq. Ramadan added that “there is a phenomenon that brings together all of Europe, in which Muslims participate, against the government of the United States.”