The Fight against terrorism, and the ironical interpretation of biological origin of actors

By African Bulletin on August 27, 2017

While all the suspects of Barcelona terror attacks left Morocco at a very young age, some western media insist on labeling them as “Moroccan,” implicitly holding Morocco responsible for the terror attacks and damaging its international image.

Starting off from this outlook, the suspects committed the terror attacks because they’re of Moroccan origin. The media seemingly closes an eye that they were brought up in Spain and the Imam responsible for their radicalization left Morocco 17 years ago and that he himself was radicalized in Spain.

Moroccan or Spanish?

Younès Abouyaaqoub, the driver of the van that crashed in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas Avenue killing 13 people and injuring 120 people, was born in Mrit, a town located in the Middle Atlas. He emigrated to Spain, with his parents, at the age of 7 years.

His brother Houssain, one of the suspects killed by the Catalan police in Cambrils, emigrated along his brother to Spain when he was 4 years old.

The nationality of Hichamy brothers, terror attack suspects was also emphasized each time their names were mentioned in the press. Omar Hichamy, left his natal town Mrirt at the age of 3, while his brother Mohmed left at the age of 6.

The same case applies to the Aalla brothers. Born in Ksiba town, Said left Morocco at the age of 8, his brother Youssef at the age of 11.

Their brother, Mohamed Aalla, who was arrested by the police and released after his hearing by the judge, is the eldest of the suspects involved in terrorist attacks. He migrated to Spain at the age of 16, old enough to be influenced by Jihadist ideologies.

The case couldn’t possibly apply to the Oukabir brothers, whose names were cited several times for the Barcelona attacks. Moussa, one of the five men killed in Cambrils, was born in Ripoll and bears Spanish nationality. His brother Driss was born in Aghbala and left Morocco when he was only 10 years old.

The last Moroccan whose name is quoted in the attacks of Catalonia is that of Mohamed Houli Chemlal. Born in Farhana, near Nador, emigrated to Spain while still an infant of six months.

The Land on which Terrorism Thrives

While it is established that all the suspects of the terror attack have left Morocco at an early age, western media sees that that being born in Morocco is a sufficient reason to assert that it is their nationality that incited them to commit the terrorist acts.

There are several reasons that cause youth to become radicalized. The conditions of living are among these reasons.

The suspects were raised and educated in Spain. It is there where their personalities and beliefs developed. However, once the terrorist acts broke out, the youth were spoken of as Moroccans.

The brothers Oukabir and Hachimy both lived in the town of Ripoll. They were next door neighbors. They went to the same schools with children of emigrants who resembled them, and where not many Spanish children lived.

This forced communalism in host countries gives rise to many frustrations and leads to withdrawal from outsider communities, making these young people easy targets for jihadist propaganda.

Aside from living in closed communities, the suspects involved in the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils attended prayers in Ripoll and not in Morocco, making it the responsibility of Spanish authorities to monitor the ideological speeches in their country and not Morocco’s.

Imam Abdelbaki Es Satty is suspected of having played a key role in the radicalization of the people involved in the attacks.

A native of the town of Chefchaouen, he left Morocco in the year 2000, without having any radicalized beliefs. Previously imprisoned for drug trafficking, he was influenced by extremist dogmas in a Spain correction facility.

Upon leaving prison, he became an imam in the town of Ripoll, without and accreditation from the Higher Council of Ulemas, which sends Moroccan Imams abroad. Thus Morocco cannot be penalized for his radical beliefs.

Although born in Morocco, the “Moroccan terrorists” owe their education, beliefs and ways of life to their host country because it is on its soil that terrorism thrives and not elsewhere.

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