Islamic Radicals in Spanish Army

An investigation initiated by the American CIA and FBI in 2009 revealed that at least 100 Islamic extremists had infiltrated the U.S. military, and that some of these individuals had been in touch with Islamic radicals who had infiltrated military units in Spain, as well as Britain, France and Germany.
The military is an attractive employment option for many young Muslims born in Spain, where the unemployment rate is stuck at 27%, and the jobless rate for individuals under 25 exceeds 60%. Often, a stint in the military opens doors for civilian jobs with national or local police or other security-related occupations.

The Spanish military is quietly monitoring its Muslim soldiers in an effort to prevent the spread of Islamic radicalism within its ranks, according to a classified Defense Ministry document that has been leaked to the Spanish media.

The Spanish Army has also been systematically replacing its Muslim soldiers with new recruits from Latin America in an effort to reduce the potential for trouble in areas of Spain that have a large Muslim population.

Spain abolished the draft and transitioned to a professional military in 2002, but has been unable to find enough native Spanish volunteer soldiers to fill the ranks—due to a mix of apathy, pacifism and declining birth rates (Spain has a fertility rate of just 1.36 (2011), one of the lowest in the European Union).

Like other European countries facing a similar dilemma, the Spanish Defense Ministry, in a desperate search for soldiers, is increasingly relying on Muslim recruits. But the push to boost Muslim enlistment has been a double-edged sword: while Spain needs the extra manpower, it also worries that some Muslim soldiers harbor extremist ideologies.

The leaked document, entitled, "Measures to be Applied to Military Personnel Identified as Showing Signs of Radicalism," was issued by the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Spanish Army, Lieutenant General Jesús Carlos Fernández Asensio, on October 24, 2013.

Read it all here.

Jihadists make threats in Spain

A jihadist group affiliated with Al Qaeda has threatened to carry out terrorist attacks in Catalonia, an autonomous region in northeastern Spain that is home to the largest concentration of radical Islamists in Europe.

The threats were issued by a group called "Africamuslima" in response to efforts by Catalonian lawmakers to increase surveillance of radical Salafists seeking to impose Islamic Sharia law in Spain and other parts of Europe.

Catalonia -- a region of 7.5 million people centered on the Mediterranean city of Barcelona -- is home to the largest Muslim population in Spain. Most of the estimated 450,000 Muslims in Catalonia are from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

Many of the Muslims living in Catalonia are shiftless single males who are unemployed and "susceptible to jihadist recruitment," according to diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks and published by the Madrid-based El País newspaper.

Spanish authorities are especially concerned about the threat posed by Salafism, a radical strain of Islam that seeks to re-establish an Islamic empire [Caliphate] across the Middle East, North Africa and Spain, which Salafists view as a Muslim state that must be reconquered for Islam.

Read it all here.

Spain: Unemployed Nears 6 million

Spanish unemployment has hit a new record high, official figures have shown.

The number of unemployed people reached 5,639,500 at the end of March, with the unemployment rate hitting 24.4%, the national statistics agency said.

The figures came hours after rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Spanish sovereign debt.

Official figures due out on Monday are expected to confirm that Spain has fallen back into recession.
Earlier this week, the Bank of Spain said the economy contracted by 0.4% in first three months of this year, after shrinking by 0.3% in the final quarter of last year.

Other figures released on Friday showed that Spanish retail sales were down 3.7% in March from the same point a year ago, the 21st month in row sales have fallen.

Read it all here.

Socialists Defeated in Spain (Gracias a Dios)

Spain's centre-right Popular Party (PP) has won a resounding victory in a parliamentary election dominated by the country's deep debt crisis.

With almost all the votes counted, the PP, led by Mariano Rajoy, is assured of a clear majority in the lower chamber.

The Socialist Party, which has governed Spain since 2004, has admitted defeat.

Mr Rajoy, who is expected to tackle the country's debts amid slow growth and high unemployment, said he was aware of the "magnitude of the task ahead".

He said there would not be "no miracle" to restore the country to financial health, and that all Spaniards must work to win back respect in Europe.

The PP won about 44% of the votes and the Socialists 29% in Sunday's election, according to near-complete official results. The PP is expected to take about 186 of the 350 seats in the lower house.

Read it all here.
 
 
Related reading:  Secularization of Spanish Society; Spain's Catholics Resist Secularization; Spain: A New Version of the Bible

Youth Made Aware of Porn and Exploitation

ROME, JULY 29, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The "digital age" generation flocking to Madrid for World Youth Day in a couple week's time will be made aware of one of the darker sides of digital culture: the flourishing business of Internet pornography.

Thanks to an award-winning documentary created by Anteroom Pictures in New York City, the pornography industry will be exposed and analyzed before the young audience.

"Out of the Darkness" features the story of Shelley Lubben, a former sex worker and porn star who left that life behind and converted to Christianity.

The film, winner of the Mystery of Love award at the 2011 John Paul II International Film Festival in Miami, will have an online screening with Morality in Media next Thursday. After that, it's on to World Youth Day in Spain for a screening on Aug. 17.

ZENIT caught up with filmmaker Sean Finnegan, the director and producer of "Out of the Darkness" to talk about the film's message.

Read the interview here.

 

Sequel to Spain's Stolen Children

A painful chapter of Spain's 1936-39 Civil War - the removal of children from mothers who were political opponents to be adopted out or even sold - has an even more painful sequel. As many as 30,000 children may have been removed from women identified with the politics of the losing side under the regime of Francisco Franco.

The surprise for Spaniards has been that the practice of removing and even selling babies continued into the mid 1990s. "A great many Spaniards" had been affected by the scandal, which took place "over a prolonged period of time," Attorney-general Candido Conde-Pumpido told the media. Activists claim that of the 2 million adoptions in Spain between 1940 and 1980, 10%, or 200,000 involved false documentation. In June Conde-Pumpido announced that prosecutors are investigating 849 cases of stolen children; 162 cases have been referred for trial and only 38 have been dropped for lack of evidence.

Anadir, a lobby group for people searching for lost children or parents, says that baby-snatching began as a punishment for Republican women but became an underground money-spinner even after Spain became a democracy in 1978. The founder, 41-year-old Antonio Barroso, discovered only three years ago that he had been purchased for 200,000 pesetas (the Spanish currency that preceded the euro). Other tragic stories have emerged from recent investigations. Mothers who brought flowers to their baby's grave for 30 years discovered empty coffins when the child was exhumed. Hospital paperwork about "deceased" twins has turned out to be fraudulent. The investigations are just beginning. ~ AP, June 17
 
 

Spanish Episcopal Conference: A New Version of the Bible

MADRID, Spain, FEB. 8, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The relativization of the Bible, which denies the value of Word of God, constitutes a genuine crisis that is both external and internal to the Church, says Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

The prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, who served as relator of the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the Word of God, stated this Monday in the opening address of a congress on "Sacred Scripture in the Church."

The congress, which closes Wednesday, has gathered 800 people in Madrid.

"In the last decades, a profound crisis is shaking the foundations of European culture," said the cardinal.

He continued: "A new raison d'etat imposes its law and tries to relegate the Christian roots of Europe to a secondary plane.

"It would seem that, in the name of secularism, the Bible must be relativized, to be dissolved in a religious pluralism and disappear as a normative cultural reference."

However, the prelate affirmed, "the crisis has also penetrated the interior of the Church, given that a certain rationalist exegesis has seized the Bible to dissect the different stages and forms of its human composition, eliminating the prodigies and miracles, multiplying the theories and, not infrequently, sowing confusion among the faithful."

Thus, he explained, disturbing questions arise: Is Sacred Scripture no more than a human word? Isn't it true that the results of the historical sciences invalidate the biblical testimony and, hence, the credibility of the Church? How can we continue to believe? And, finally, whom should we listen to?

Prayerful meditation

The 2008 Synod of Bishops was held "to confirm the Church's answer to these questions," clarified its relator.

Cardinal Ouellet recalled that "in the bishops' interventions was heard the urgency to reflect further on the way to address the biblical text."

He continued, "In addition to the historical-critical method, the merits and limitations of which were recognized, the synodal fathers strongly recommended lectio divina, prayerful meditation of the Word of God, and they called for the development of the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures, in the line of the great patristic tradition."

The cardinal noted that in "a parallel way to this reflection of the universal Church, the Spanish Episcopal Conference was perfecting an official version of the Bible, adapted to present-day culture, with all the guarantees of scientific rigor and ecclesial communion."

"I hope that Spain will benefit from this initiative and that it will be able to show Europe, today as in other periods, a renewed way for the proclamation of the Gospel," he said.

The prelate spoke about the post-synodal apostolic exhortation "Verbum Domini," in which Benedict XVI brings together the conclusions of the synod and gives impetus to the new evangelization, "inviting pastors, faithful and experts on the Bible to find the Divine Word again in the human words of the sacred text."

Cardinal Ouellet stated, "In face of the secularization of the Christian West and of Christianity's identity crisis in pluralist environments, the Church responds with a new proclamation of the living Word of God in Jesus Christ, which invites us to a renewed act of faith in the Sacred Scriptures."

From here.

Moroccans and Indians Responsible for 2004 Madrid Train Bombing

WASHINGTON, Dec 12: Two Indian citizens were involved in the 2004 Madrid commuter train bombings that killed 191 people, a US diplomatic cable says.

The cable, sent by the US Embassy in Madrid on March 15, 2004, identified the two Indians as Vinay Kohly, who was born in Jalandhar on June 11, 1976, and Suresh Kumar, born on Jan 27, 1972, in Hoshiarpur.

The cable, released this weekend by WikiLeaks, noted that the two accused persons had sold the telephones used in the attacks to some Moroccans suspects.

According to the cable, Qaeda emerged as the main suspect in the investigation into the March 11, 2004, attacks in Madrid, although authorities could not completely rule out the possibility that a Spanish terrorist group called ETA also played a role.

Spanish authorities had detained five suspects, three Moroccan and two Indian citizens. All three Moroccans were said to have links to Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, who was indicted for his role as an alleged ringleader in Al Qaeda’s organisation in Spain. Authorities reportedly linked the three to the attacks after tracing the cell-phone from one of the sport bag bombs that did not detonate. The three Moroccans were Kamal Zougam, Mohamed El Bekkali Boutalih and Mohamed Chaqui.

All reportedly had police records and Zougam was named in Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon’s September 2003 indictment of Barakat Yarkas, though not indicted himself. Zougam reportedly ran an internet cafe with Chaqui, his half-brother.

On March 13, 2004, Spanish authorities were advised of a videotape placed in a trash container near a prominent mosque, located near the major M-30 roadway in Madrid. The tape purportedly showed a masked spokesman, going by the name of Abu Dujan Al Afghani, who claimed responsibility for the attacks on behalf of Al Qaeda’s military group in Europe.

From here.

Concerned Broadcasters Criticize Spain's New Law

SOURCE: World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)

According to the government, the bill is the outcome of a wide consultationwith all actors in the audiovisual sector

(AMARC/IFEX) - 17 October 2009

The European branch of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) refutes the declarations of the Spanish government and express its concern over the fact that this important law was drafted without the participation of the media's main actors and without any kind of debate.

In spite of the fact that the government said that it would consult with all organizations in the media sector during the drafting of the bill and arrive at a consensus, it has not facilitated the flow of information on the contents of law, nor have meetings been held with the relevant organizations, with the exception of the Union of Commercial Television Stations (UTECA). The only way for media organizations to know the proposed law's contents, and thus allow them to make contributions, has been through the State Council (Consejo de Estado) during the month of August 2009. Just 10 organizations presented proposals in a consultative body hearing, which was not a government initiative.

Moreover, AMARC considers the law to be written with a commercial vision of communication instead of considering it as a natural development of fundamental rights.

In regards to the social uses of media, the law recognizes in a marginal form, in article 32, that non-profit organizations can establish radio and television stations (community-based media).

Within this framework, AMARC Europe considers that the article is quite deficient and contravenes the European "Audiovisual Media Services" directive, since it does not include any measures to guarantee or support the existence of these media outlets.

While the law puts in place restrictions for community-based media, those same measures do not apply for commercial media services.

On the other hand, in order to regulate community-based media, the Spanish Government did not consult with the Network of Community Media (Red de Medios Comunitarios), although the network requested this many times. Nor did the government take into consideration the recommendation regarding amendments to article 32 proposed by the State Council and the Commissionfor the Telecommunications Market (Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones).

Before the next step towards the passage of the Audiovisual General Law, AMARC demands:
- Improvements and amendments to article 32 regarding community media services.
- Removal of the financial restrictions foreseen in article 32.
- Acknowledgement of the "Red de Medios Comunitarios" proposals, whose declarations have not been taken into account by the Government.
- That the recommendations issued by international bodies be taken into account, including the UN joint declaration on diversity in broadcasting, the September 2008 resolution of the European Parliament on community media and the Council of Europe's declaration on the role of community media in promoting social cohesion and intercultural dialogue.

http://www.ifex.org/spain/2009/10/21/audiovisual_law_approved/

For more information:
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
705, rue Bourget, bureau 100
Montreal, Quebec H4C 2M6
Canada
secgen (@) si.amarc.org
Phone: +1 514 982 0351
Fax: +1 514 849 7129
http://www.amarc.org/

Secularization of Spanish Society

BARCELONA — For a country steeped in Catholic tradition, these are alarming times.Public schools are being told by judicial order to pull crucifixes from their walls. City buses with billboards espousing atheism have been rumbling through the streets here, prompting yowls of blasphemy from Catholic leaders.

"Probably God Doesn't Exist," bleated an ad plastered last month across Bus 14, a normally sunny mode of transport past this city's harbor. "So Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life."

The so-called godless buses — which copy a campaign begun in Britain — have appeared in Madrid and Malaga, Spain, and are planned for elsewhere in Europe. For Spain, the stunt is a provocative sign of the times.

This democracy is engaged in a bracing debate over God and state and deciding whether Catholic or secular visions should mold social policies and young minds.

A new citizenship course, introduced in secondary school in September, left politicians and church leaders tangling over what values should be formally taught. Laws passed in 2005 that recognize gay civil unions (called "solidarity pacts") and ease divorce still rankle Catholic elders.

Read it all here.

Spain's Catholics Resist Secularization

For Pope Benedict XVI, who has staked his three-year-old papacy on keeping Europe Catholic, Spain, with its 90 percent Catholic population and rich history, represents a last hope in an increasingly irreligious continent.

That hope is quickly dimming. Since 2004, the Socialist government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has legalized gay marriage and fast-track divorce, and it is seeking to loosen laws on abortion and euthanasia.

But in response, the church and religious Catholics have been pushing back, seeking a greater voice in public life. The result is that the church is in a full-throated war with the government.

As such, Spain represents not only the Catholic Church’s past in Europe, but perhaps also its future: an increasingly secular country with a muscular Catholic opposition, or what Benedict has called a “creative minority,” smaller in number but more ardent in faith.

At stake is the vision of the country: Will Spain join the rest of secular Europe or stand as a final Catholic foothold?

Read it all here.

Note the inaccuracy in this NYT's report that the Zapatero government has legalized gay marriage. Spain's Parliament has resisted using the word "marriage", restricting that word to official heterosexual unions. The law that was passed in Spain simply grants civil partnership status to homosexual couples.

Despite Zapatero's Socialist Party push to equalize all unions through the "Law of amendment of the Civil Code in the matter of Marriage," homosexual partnerships are not recognized by the Church and are limited to some states. The law is intentionally ambiguous. Zapatero remembers how the Spanish Republic, a coalition of Leftist groups, attempted to impose a new morality on Catholic Spain in 1936 and cast that nation into a bloody civil war which ended in the defeat of the Left in Spain.

Read more here.