Last week, in Algeciras, Spain’s southernmost tip, 25-year-old Moroccan national Yassin Kanjar left his apartment and headed into town. He had been illegally squatting there for three years and it was clear he wouldn’t be returning anytime soon.
After destroying artifacts at a nearby church and verbally abusing parishioners, Kanjar armed himself with a machete and stung and seriously injured the priest. Later, at another church in the area, he chased Sexton in a nearby square shouting “Allah Akbar” and slit his throat. caught on video by shocked onlookers. Church employee Diego Valencia died at the scene.
If last week did not herald a shift in public opinion towards illegal immigration from the MENA region, it is difficult to guess what will.Indeed, Spain knows of far more deadly attacks: 193 people killed in al-Qaeda attack bombed A recent series of car crashes at Madrid’s Atocha train station in March 2004 left 13 people dead. attack But this latest case sets a precedent in provoking a long-overdue national debate on illegal immigration: how much illegal immigration is tolerated and what tools can be used to limit it. It can be said that it is in a more appropriate position.
The perpetrators in 2004 and 2017 were all legally resident in Spain; Kanjar He is not an asylum seeker and had been ordered deported since June last year. Having become radicalized during his stay in Spain (he had begun consuming ISIS propaganda weeks earlier), the police’s failure to prevent Canjar’s assault was a sign that Spanish intelligence services were protecting innocent people. This is a worrying sign that the mission is not up to the task. From the terrorist reserve army.
Kanjar’s case is alarming not only because of the speed with which he transformed from an unassuming young immigrant to a potential terrorist, but also because he undertook the process entirely on his own, without the knowledge of the police. There is.Indeed, Kanjaa’s flatmate recollection At first he smoked marijuana and drank heavily, so as to be alone all the time, but then he began to listen to the Quran on headphones on a regular basis.
But the fact that he had been sharing ISIS-related content on Facebook in the month leading up to the attack flew under police radar, raising questions about the speed and effectiveness of Spanish intelligence. I’m letting you do it. These are questions that the public should answer if we are to prevent such attacks in the future.
What we need now is an open discussion among the major political parties about how to deal with this issue. But a full week after the killing, no such debate has taken place beyond the confines of Spain’s right-wing, immigration-skeptical party, Box. Even the centre-right Partido Popular, with which Mr Box is rumored to be considering forming a coalition in the next election in December, has linked the attack to Islam or immigration from Muslim-majority countries. It neglects sexuality.
On the other hand, one might think that the left has softened its views since coming to power in June 2018 as part of a coalition between Podemos and various socialist parties. But Spain’s left has since turned rather pro-immigration, denouncing Vox’s comments on the issue as “xenophobic.”
Politicians on the right and left are turning a blind eye to this problem at their peril. This can’t just be an issue on the right wing, it has to become a national issue. Otherwise, there is a risk that the remaining Spaniards will refuse to discuss how to change policy to prevent future attacks from occurring. And that’s the real danger.