Mohamed Said Badaoui, leader of the Islamic community of Reus (Tarragona), who has received an expulsion order.MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI
Two leaders of the Islamic community in Catalonia, Mohamed Badaoui and Amarouch Azbir, have been arrested this Tuesday afternoon by the National Police.
An expulsion file was opened for both of them two months ago, after a report from the information services in which their supposed ideological radicalism was denounced and their expulsion from the country was decreed for posing a threat to national security.
Both are at the La Verneda police station in Barcelona, as confirmed by their lawyer, awaiting expulsion to Morocco.
The informative files were communicated to them during the month of August.
In both cases, they were carried out after those affected, who have been in Spain for between 20 and 30 years, applied for Spanish nationality.
Badaoui is a benchmark for the Islamic community in Reus (Tarragona) and has received municipal support, institutions and various politicians.
Since the campaign began, with Azbir in a more discreet background, they have initiated a strategy to defend their rights and their request to be able to defend themselves in court.
The great fear of both is that, as has happened, the police will detain them without a margin for a judge to rule.
Both are accused of practicing and spreading radical Salafism.
Badaoui, who has been in Spain for three decades, was a spokesperson for the As-Sunnah mosque in Reus, designated as a Salafist center, and in recent years has served as president of the Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Muslim Community (Adedcom ).
Azbir has lived in Vilanova i la Geltrú for 22 years, where he works as a street sweeper, and is the president of the Al Furkan mosque, controversial for his past association with terrorism.
The two expulsion files have aroused suspicion in the Islamic community, which considers that exposing yourself publicly with a certain leadership and defending the rights of its members poses a clear risk of being considered a threat to national security.
Police sources insist on the fear of the intelligence services and police operators that a political option based on Salafism will be constituted in Spain.
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