Islamic community leaders in the spotlight

In the image, Mohamed Said, a leader of the Islamic community of Reus (Tarragona), who has received an expulsion order from the National Police for alleged radicalism in favor of Jihad.MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI

The expulsion files for two leaders of the Islamic community, Mohamed Said Badaoui and Amarouch Azbir, settled for decades in Catalonia, under the accusation of being radicalized and posing a danger to national security, instill fear among Muslim entities.

"It is a delicate situation," says Mohamed El Ghaidouni, president of the Unió de Comunitats Islàmiques de Catalunya (Ucidcat), which affects "people who have been in Spain for 20 or 30 years."

"The fear we have is that the idea is generated that being a representative of the community carries a risk of expulsion," he says.

The lawyer Iván Aybar, who defends Said and Azbir, goes further: "It is not surprising that many Islamic communities now have problems filling the positions of president," he explains by email.

Said came to Spain at the age of 10 —where he has been 30 now—, with his parents, and has dedicated himself from Reus (Tarragona) to being one of the visible faces of the Islamic community, first as a spokesman for the city's mosque, As-Sunnah, and in recent years as president of the Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Muslim Community (Adedcom).

Azbir has lived in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona) for 22 years, where he works as a street sweeper, and is the president of the Al Furkan mosque, controversial because of his past association with terrorism.

Said more outwardly, defending the rights of the Islamic community, and Azbir more internally focused, are two references that the National Police links with Salafism and considers a danger to national security.

Both have received preferential expulsion orders,

Fifty of the 285 Islamic worship centers in Catalonia, according to data from the Department of Justice for 2020, follow a Salafist current that defends a rigorous version of Islam.

In the case of Said, the Police links him to the “most orthodox Salafism”, says that he is one of his main referents, and blames him for an alleged increase in radicalization in Tarragona.

Among other issues, he also accuses him of "indoctrinating" migrant minors, defending the

and jihad

and wanting to interfere in politics with these ideas, accusations that he denies.

"The key question is whether the ideas that are defended are transferred to the external sphere in such a way that they pose a threat or a certain, real and current danger to national security or public order," says the lawyer Aybar, who criticizes that the Police reports provide no evidence.

“If they have broken the rules, let them open a judicial procedure.

In an administrative one, you are unable to defend yourself.

That is the problem”, laments the president of the Union of Islamic Communities of Catalonia (Ucidcat), El Ghaidouni.

“Let a normal judicial process be carried out, and let what is considered be decided,” shares Farid Khattouti, secretary of the Reus mosque of which Said was a spokesperson, classified as Salafist and which the former Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz pointed out as one of the most radical

For Khattouti, the two expulsion orders convey the idea that “the most influential or most visible people” are the ones who later risk being expelled.

“This is going to have direct and indirect effects.

Many people are going to reduce their activities”, adds the secretary of the Reus mosque,

“This is a warning to navigators”, consider sources who have known the context of Islam in Catalonia for years.

The communities, they indicate, have been characterized "for not complaining" and being "little combative", while profiles like Said have publicly fought over issues such as the halal menu, the use of the veil or being able to have their own cemetery, elements used by the police in your removal file.

Other police sources point out the fear that the Islamic community is structured through political Salafism arouses in the spheres of State security.

Spanish nationality, requested by Said and Azbir, is a necessary requirement to be able to stand for regional and general elections.

Both have received the support of local political leaders.

In the case of Said, deputies from En Comú Podem, ERC,

“There is no reason that motivates the urgent expulsion of these two people.

If they really posed a certain, real and imminent danger to national security or public order, they would have been expelled a long time ago, instead of denying them nationality”, says the lawyer Aybar.

The lawyer has appealed both expulsion orders, insists that the Police have not "proved in any way" that his clients pose a "threat to national security" and asks that the procedure be suspended until the parallel judicial proceedings initiated are resolved. after denial of nationality.

"It is urgent to banish from our legal system any possibility of expelling a foreigner without providing reliable evidence" and without him being able to "present it before the courts of justice."

After the jihadist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, in 2017, expulsion files were initiated against various leaders of the Islamic community in Spain, considering them also dangerous for national security.

Among them, Yassine Lafraiki, imam of the Islamic center of Corella (Navarra), accused of practicing Salafist proselytism and seeking financing from organizations linked to the Islamic State to build a mosque.

The expulsion of Mohamed Attaouil, leader of the Salt mosque (Girona), also considered Salafist, was also ordered.

Lafraiki was expelled.

In the case of Attaouil, who applied for nationality, the expulsion was suspended.

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