Mohamed Merah, the alleged murderer of Toulouse was last year at a Salafi conference held in Catalonia. State Information Services alerted France counterparts about the visit and now the Spanish police are looking for what kind of connections and relationships Merah had with Spanish and European Salafists.
Islamist experts now insist that Al Qaeda is not a movement but an ideology. Omar Bakri[1] had also warned a year and a half ago in Tripoli during an interview with the Spanish news chain SER, “Open dialogue with Al Qaeda before it is too late, said Bakri. Al Qaeda is a phenomenon in which many people believe and you’d be surprised to know how many non Muslim people in Europe support Al Qaeda. People in Europe have not chosen to live in terror and Al Qaeda continues to spread it and continues to do what Islam brands: protect all Muslims from invasions “.
Bakri provides other data that was confirmed by the Western Information Services: the increase of the number of non-Muslims Salafis. They are converts who moved the objectives of Al Qaeda into their places of origin: United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Germany.
The alleged murderer of Toulouse, Mohamed Merah, had French nationality but many Salafists marry nationals to obtain residence in parts of Europe. This is another of the modus-operandi that jihadists use to enter a country. The matter is concerning Spanish authorities as all Salafi leaders resident in Spain have permanent residence and work permit until 2014 because they married with Spanish women. The Minister of Interior is considering not renewing these residence permits and has already submitted several negative reports to the Ministry of Justice about permit renewal solicitations.
[1] Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical cleric banned from Britain for glorifying terrorism; once nicknamed the Tottenham Ayatollah. http://www.canada.com/news/Radical+cleric+Omar+Bakri+Mohammed+threatens+Syria+with+wave+suicide+bombs/6051523/story.html
