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  • The Tragedy of Al-Andalus:The Madrid Terror Attacks and the Islamization of Spanish Politics
  • Anthony Celso (bio)

The 11 March 2004 attacks in Madrid are a vivid reminder of al Qaeda's ability to survive the global "war on terror," and al Qaeda's power may extend even beyond its ability to launch catastrophic terror attacks. The Madrid attacks' impact on the 14 March election (when the opposition Socialist Party was unexpectedly elected) and the Socialists' decision to accelerate the withdrawal of Spanish forces from Iraq are testimony to al Qaeda's skills at political extortion.

The electoral and policy consequences of 3/11, however, mask economic and demographic trends in Spanish society that may portend even greater Islamist leverage. In this essay I explore the interconnections between external forces (Arab migrants and Moroccan criminal gangs) and internal factors (Spanish multiculturalism and limited antiterror resources) and how they combine to exacerbate the lethality of Islamist terror groups and their consequent ability to alter the political agenda. Both forces conjoin in ways that are likely to enhance Spain's vulnerability to future terror attacks and Islamist political extortion.

I address Islamist influence in Spain in three sections: First, al Qaeda's ideological and tactical interests in using Spain as a recruiting, financing, and logistical base of terrorist operations are sketched. Second, I examine the demographic and economic forces that presage a larger Arab presence and influence in Spain. (Substantial numbers of Arab migrants and illegals have greatly swelled al Qaeda's recruiting base and its ability to draw terrorist financing from both Islamic charities and organized crime.) Third, I explore the ominous implications [End Page 86] of the growth of this Arab population, its supportive community infrastructure, and the terror and criminal gangs it has spawned. The Spanish government's commitment to multicultural diversity and its recent decision to legalize Spain's clandestine working population are likely to exacerbate an already precarious security situation.

Al Qaeda in Spain: Ideology and Terror Infrastructure

Spain's importance for Islamists can be traced back to the country's Moorish past and the presence of the Islamic caliphate for seven centuries. When speaking of Spain, bin Laden has spoken about the "tragedy of al-Andalus" to refer to the Christian conquest of Moorish Spain in the fifteenth century and the collapse of the Islamic Spanish caliphate. In its many pronouncements, al Qaeda has never been bashful about its plans to recapture al-Andalus.1 Given the fundamentalist aspirations and fanaticism of al Qaeda, these plans cannot be discounted as idle threats.

Islamist designs in Spain are furthered by the country's geographical proximity to North Africa. Serving as a nexus of exchange among goods, people, and ideas, Spain's growing Muslim population affords al Qaeda a recruiting ground for future terrorists.2 This is especially true among the ranks of marginalized Moroccan and Algerian migrants and illegals that subsist off the burgeoning underground economy or toil in the service sector of the legal economy.3 Massive population flows, illegal immigration, and the lucrative drug trade create both a large recruitment base and a source of financing for radical Islamists.

Muslim community organizations, charities, and mosques in Spain have grown in response to Arab population movements in the past decade. The development of Islamic civil society frequently offers extremist groups a forum for recruitment, mobilization, indoctrination, and finance, a task greatly facilitated by large numbers of extremists who fled Morocco and Algeria in response to government repression.4 While many of these organizations are responding to legitimate social, economic, and cultural needs, they do provide al Qaeda with political [End Page 87] cover to recruit the most extremist and alienated members of the migrant community.

Al Qaeda's evolution in Spain has gone through a variety of transformations. The history of this organization (both as an ideology and terror infrastructure) can best be deciphered by examining its Spanish cell's role in orchestrating, encouraging, and implementing terror attacks.

Al Qaeda operations date back to the middle 1990s, when its agents sought to recruit and indoctrinate illegal immigrants with the purpose of sending them to Afghan terror camps.5 The movement of large numbers of illegal...

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