Where did Zouhair el Bouhdidi learn his Islam? Could it have been from Abderrahim Bouhdidi, his father and imam? Will the teachings of this mosque be investigated? Will it be shut down? Why not?
“Police Stop Alleged Terrorist Plan to Attack Spain’s Holy Week,” by Itxu Díaz, Daily Beast, April 17, 2019:
A 23-year-old man has been arrested in Morocco, in a joint anti-terrorist operation with Spain, over an alleged plan to attack Spain’s Holy Week festivities.
The suspect’s name is Zouhair el Bouhdidi and he is a student at the University of Seville. According to police sources in Spain, the young man was preparing an imminent attack against the processions of Holy Week in Seville, one of the most important events of the Catholic calendar. According to the newspaper El Confidencial, el Bouhdidi has already confessed to the Moroccan police his plans to commit a “large-scale massacre” in the Andalusian city. The Spanish secret services had reportedly been following him for several weeks.
Holy Week in Seville is a celebration declared as a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest. Nearly 70 brotherhoods come out in procession with wooden sculptures depicting scenes of the Passion of Christ between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. The procession called La Madrugada—on the night of Thursday into Good Friday—brings together hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world, crowded through the narrow streets of Seville.
El Bouhdidi allegedly intended to attempt the attack this week in Seville with a homemade explosive known as “the mother of Satan.” It is the same type of explosive that terrorists prepared in the attack on Barcelona in August of 2017, and in the attack on the Bataclan in Paris in November 2015….
The threats against Spain have been spread on social networks by the Muntasir Media Foundation, which is responsible for propagating jihadist messages and which had already threatened Spain last December. The recent video encouraged attacks against Holy Week in Andalusia, the region of Spain that corresponds to Al Andalus, which was Muslim territory before the Reconquest. Recovering Al Andalus is an old obsession for jihadists and often appears in many of their propaganda messages….
One of the issues on the table in the electoral campaign is the possibility of tightening laws and borders to prevent the entry of jihadists, potentially hiding among other immigrants, into Spain. This is one of the proposals of the far-right party VOX, which has been growing in popularity in Spain according to all the polls. The president of Spain and main socialist candidate are both against hardening the laws. In recent weeks the controversy over the entry of jihadists in Spain has been present in all media and is generating polarized positions among the Spanish.
“The man arrested for attempting an attack in Seville is the son of the imam of the mosque of Su Eminencia,” translated from “El arrestado por intentar atentar en Sevilla es hijo del imán de la mezquita de Su Eminencia,” ABC de Sevilla, April 17, 2019:
The State Security Forces had been following the trail of Zouhair Bouhdidi, the young man arrested for the alleged attempt to attack Holy Week in Seville, and his family and neighboring environment, for some time. In that sense, his relationship with the Albaraka Islamic community, in the area of the city where he resides, Su Eminencia and La Plata, had been analyzed. A place in the Andalusian capital where the Muslim population index is quite high compared to the rest of the city. In this neighborhood there have settled in recent years a good many Muslim families who have come and there are numerous businesses linked to this population. Hence, in addition, an Islamic community and its corresponding mosque was set up in 2011, as reflected in the official registry of religious entities of the Ministry of Justice.
This Islamic community of Su Eminencia has been led for months by Abderrahim Bouhdidi, who acts as imam and is the father of the young man arrested in Morocco for allegedly attempting to take advantage of the crowd among the religious groups. Bouhdidi is currently the reference for these Muslims in the neighborhood and the Albaraka community, where some faithful yesterday insisted on the “absolute normality of the family” and that “there is no radicalization”….