New ISIS poster campaign follows video from Islamic State jihadists in which they vow to “liberate” what they call Al-Andalus from non-Muslims... and "conquer Israel, Rome and Spain.”
by Bob Unruh, WND — August 18, 2014
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ISIS message in front of Aljafería Palace in Zaragoza
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Jihadists inside Spain have begun prepping for a takeover of the nation by ISIS, also known as Islamic State, the terror army that has been marching across Iraq, destroying Christians and evidence of their faith and imposing the extreme control of Islam’s Shariah law.
According to a new report from Soeren Kern, a senior fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute, there have developed more frequent and more strident statements regarding Spain being ruled once again by the violence of Islam.
Muslims, known then as Moors, occupied that region of the world from 711 until 1492.
“Clearly Spain forms part of the strategic objectives of global jihad,” Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz is quoted in the report. “We are not the only ones but we are in their sights.”
Soeren documents that a new campaign has evolved inside Spain in which images of famous landmarks or monuments are emblazoned with Arabic slogans, including “We are all the Islamic State.”
“One poster includes an image of the medieval Islamic Aljafería Palace in the Spanish city of Zaragoza and the black flag associated with the IS. Another uses an image of the famous La Concha beach in the Basque city of San Sebastián. Yet another includes an image of the statue of Jesus Christ on Monte Urgull in San Sebastián, with the Arabic words ‘Al-Andalus Country’ instead of ‘Basque Country,’” he reports.
One social media statement made the threat specifically, with, “@alwahsh1983 Support from Andalus means when we come to #spain won’t be hard to take it back,” in a Tweet from Abubasir Alkhalidiye.
Soeren, who also is a senior fellow for European politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estrategicos, reports that the poster campaign follows a video from Islamic State jihadists in which they vow to “liberate” what they call Al-Andalus from non-Muslims.
WND reported just weeks ago on an Islamic State video in which IS jihadists are vowing to “conquer Israel, Rome and Spain.”
IS would redraw boundaries of countries, separate Shia and Sunni Muslims, and subject everyone to extreme Islamic law, or Shariah.
Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri also has called for restoring to Muslim rule the Iberian Peninsula, referring to as Al-Andalus, as it was known in the eighth century.
“O our Muslim Umma (community) in the Maghreb of ribat and jihad (land of resistance and holy war): restoring Al-Andalus (Spain) is a trust on the shoulders of the Ummah in general and on your shoulders in particular,” Zawahiri said in 2007.
He also called for the “cleansing” of the “sons of Spain and France” in North Africa, which includes the Maghreb. Today, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is waging its jihad there.
“Restoring al-Andalus is a trust on the shoulders of the nation in general and on your shoulders in particular, and you will not be able to do that without first cleansing the Muslim Maghreb of the children of France and Spain, who have come back again after your fathers and grandfathers sacrificed their blood cheaply in the path of God to expel them,” Zawahiri said.
“Radical Muslims (and many moderate Muslims) believe that all territories Muslims lost during the Christian Reconquista of Spain still belong to the realm of Islam,” Soeren reported. “They claim that Islamic law gives them the right to return there and re-establish Muslim rule.”
He continued, “In recent years, the return of ‘occupied’ Al-Andalus to the fold of Islam has become an obsession for Muslims of all stripes, and calls to reconquer al-Andalus have become more frequent and more strident.”
The report said Moroccan authorities also have warned Spain that “some of the more than 3,000 Moroccan jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq are beginning to return home, and that many of them are likely to attempt to infiltrate the Spanish mainland via the North African Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.”
For example, not even a week ago, there were reports that nine members of an ISIS recruitment team were arrested not far from Cueta, the report said.
“Some of those recruited by the cell are believed to have participated in beheadings in Syria and Iraq. Police say they are also examining computers and data storage devices to determine if there were plans to carry out a terror attack on Moroccan soil,” the Gatestone report said.
“On August 4, a 19-year-old Spanish woman and a 14-year-old Spanish girl were arrested in Melilla just days before they were due to join the jihad in Syria. They are first Spanish females to be prevented from becoming jihadists,” the report said.
Other arrests with alarming implications happened in May and June.
“In May, Spanish police broke up a cell in Melilla that allegedly recruited 26 jihadists (24 Moroccans and two Spaniards) for al-Qaida groups fighting in Libya and Mali. All six members of the cell are Spanish citizens. One of them, Benaissa Laghmouchi Baghdadi, is the first Spanish jihadist known to have returned from the fighting in Mali. Police say the cell used social media platforms such as ‘Sharia4Spain’ to recruit jihadists,” the report said.