The Police begin the expulsion of a leader of the Islamic community in Tarragona accused of threatening national security

Mohamed Said, a leader of the Islamic community in Reus (Tarragona), has an expulsion order for alleged radicalism. MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI

Mohamed Said does not explain it to him.

At 40 years old, and after 30 residing in Tarragona, he has received a notification from the Police ordering his expulsion from the country for threatening national security.

They accuse him of "indoctrination" in his community, of disseminating "radical pro-jihadist postulates", of "trying to interfere in politics to destabilize the Spanish State and its institutions" and define him as one of the "main referents in Spain" of the " orthodox salafism.

Rooted in Reus, with three children, a wife and a stable salaried job, he has started a campaign to obtain support and finally not be expelled from a country where he arrived at the age of 10, with his parents, from Larache (Morocco).

He denounces that he is being criminalized and persecuted.

His nightmare began last Wednesday.

"The National Police showed up at my house and gave me a summons for Friday: I had to go to the police station, with a lawyer, passport and NIE," he explains, in conversation with this newspaper.

There he was informed that deportation proceedings had been initiated against him.

Processed preferentially, they only gave him 48 hours to appeal.

A few weeks earlier, Said had received the denial of his application for Spanish nationality, with an argument that could already make him suspect: "They claimed that I am a radicalized person."

Said has been a spokesperson for the Reus As-Sunnah mosque for five years, classified as Salafist, and pointed out by the former Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz as one of the most radical.

At the head of the institution, she has dealt with the media, with the City Council, with the local community... "I deny any radicalization, any defense of violence," she repeats.

And she defines Salafism as "a religion like the one practiced by our grandparents."

In Catalonia, one in three mosques is Salafist, according to data from the Mossos d'Esquadra for 2016, with some 80 places of worship and another 30 spread throughout the rest of Spain.

The Police monitor them and closely follow what is preached in them.

"I have collaborated with the security forces of the province so that there are no problems," she says Said,

in reference to both the Mossos and the National Police.

"And now they come and accuse me of things like that...", she laments.

In June 2020, he left the position at the mosque to start a new project, an association for the defense of the rights of the Muslim community (Adedcom).

The decision to expel him has mobilized neighbors, social movements and also the Reus City Council.

In a statement, signed by the spokesmen for parties such as Junts, ERC, PSC or the CUP, they defend his task "hand in hand with the entities and the City Council" to "guarantee the rights" of the residents.

The letter from the Consistory ensures that Said has always been "involved" in the activities of the municipality, which has "contributed to an important function of social cohesion and exchange with the Maghreb and Muslim community of Reus" and asks the Ministry of the Interior to have into account "his roots" before deciding to expel him.

"I don't think they get wet for a person who is radical,"

Said insists.

A support rally was held in the city on Monday, with more than 150 people.

Part of the police resolution, prepared by the information services, is based on Said's own public demonstrations, where he has shown a clear supporter of the use of the

, has asked that Islamic religion could be studied in schools or the halal menu .

He insists that everything is in the media, where he has claimed the rights of the Islamic community.

And he denies, as the Police maintains, conflicts with other institutions, such as the Islamic Commission of Spain or the Union of Islamic Communities of Catalonia (Ucidcat).

The report also mentions his activity on social networks, which he claims allows him to extend "his sphere of influence" beyond Tarragona.

One of the fears of the Police, according to sources familiar with the case, are the connections of Said, well connected, to whom they attribute a desire to dedicate himself to politics.

A concern of the sectors linked to the security of the State is that the Islamic community is structured through political Salafism.

Said denies that this is his intention and wonders, annoyed, where they got it from.

It is not trivial that the expulsion process begins after Spanish nationality has been denied, a requirement to stand for regional and general elections.

Said is also angry about the "

” that run on the networks since he has made his situation public.

Specifically, a message with thousands of retweets that puts in her mouth the phrase: "All Western women sooner or later will have to wear an Islamic veil."

She claims that she has never said anything like that.

Officially, the Police only confirm that it is a matter of national security, without providing any other details.

The administrative file, which Said has already appealed, must be resolved in six months.

The final decision, which is signed by the Secretary of State for Security, is subsequently appealable through the courts.

His case follows a pattern similar to the expulsion, in 2013, of Noureddine Ziani, then president of the Union of Islamic Cultural Centers of Catalonia and director of the Catalan-Moroccan space of the Nous Catalans Foundation, linked to the defunct Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC). .

Ziani was deported accused of threatening state security.

He was pointed out as an agent of the Moroccan intelligence service (DGED) and promoter of the construction of a reference Salafist center in Catalonia.

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