May 18, 2008 | Op-ed
The Next Battlefield: Ceuta and Melilla?
Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's No.2, makes a point to regularly mention in his broadcasts the Muslim lands that need to be “liberated.” The list includes the usual suspects for every respectable jihadist: “Palestine,” Kashmir and Chechnya. But interestingly, the list includes two tiny Spanish enclaves located in Morocco: Ceuta and Melilla.
For the time being Zawahiri focuses on the enclaves rather than the whole “al-Andalus” (historic Spain). Indeed their importance should not be underestimated.
The two enclaves administered by the Spaniards, (as Hong Kong was by the British) physically inside Morocco, are in fact neither Spanish nor Moroccan. Ceuta and Melilla – 140 miles apart as the crow flies, or 240 miles by road – on the Moroccan coast hover between Islamic and Christian cultures.
The 12-square-mile territories however have a vital and strategic importance: they serve as beachheads between Europe and Africa. Ceuta is only 13 miles from the European coast. Morocco and Spain have been fighting over them for years. Now the Islamists have joined the fray.
Tension between the two countries is evident: Rabat considers the territories belonging to Morocco. An intense and loud controversy started when Spanish King Juan Carlos made a very highly symbolic visit in November to Ceuta and Melilla. Even though Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero came to visit the two towns in 2006, the Juan Carlos visit was much more controversial. Indeed, no Spanish king had visited Ceuta and Melilla since 1927 and upon arriving Juan Carlos, addressing the crowd, said: “I did not want to let more time go by without paying you a visit. It was a debt I owed you.”
The Muslim population represents about 38 percent of the total population in the two enclaves. A new party composed of Spanish Muslims, the Democratic Union of Ceuta (UCD), was founded in 2003. In the last elections it won four seats, double what the socialist party, PSOE, got. And on June 16, Fatima Hamed of the UCD became the first Spanish Muslim MP wearing the veil.
As of now, there are about 30 mosques in “El Principe” (a neighborhood of Ceuta almost exclusively Muslim, except for three Christians) and the vast majority of women in the neighborhood wear the veil.
But hardcore Islamists are moving in – 10 Islamist associations were created in Ceuta and six in Melilla in the past few years.
And a new Islamist center opened in town. It is a branch of the “Islamic Community Suhail,” headquartered in Fuengirola, Spain, and known for its extreme Wahhabi inspiration.
It is led by a fundamentalist Egyptian imam who was sentenced in Spain to 16 months in jail in 2004 for having written a book calling for men to beat up their wives. His sentence was later reduced to just 22 days.
The current resentment between Moroccans and Spaniards is not going to help quell the tensions. And in such an environment, it could actually give the idea to some radicalized elements to target Spanish interests in the enclaves.
After the March 11, 2004 Madrid terror attacks in which Moroccans were involved, Spain's intelligence agency, El Centro National de Inteligencia (CNI) made Morocco a priority. It started beefing up its presence in Morocco around May 2005. In fact, for Madrid in terms of intelligence, Morocco represents the most important location in the world (close to 600 CNI agents are working on Morocco).
Smartly, the two governments have dramatically increased their cooperation in terms of counterterrorism. On both sides of the Mediterranean, public statements have been very much positive about the cooperation between the two countries.
In February 2007, Moroccan interior minister Chakib Benmoussa declared to the El Pais newspaper:” The [Spanish-Moroccan] cooperation is excellent and yields good results each week with the dismantling of Mafia-like networks, the arrest of alleged terrorists and the seizures of large quantities of drugs. Thanks to this cooperation, we foiled numerous criminal operations during 2006.”
In July 2007, Morocco upped its alert level to the highest possible on very likely information provided by Spain. On July 10, a very high level Moroccan delegation headed by Benmoussa traveled to Madrid to meet with their Spanish colleagues.
A few weeks earlier Spanish authorities arrested four Moroccan men, aged 23 to 32, alleged members of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. Moroccan officials were allowed to interrogate the four in Madrid. Most likely, the interrogation may have revealed plans for terrorist attacks in Morocco and thus triggered Rabat's reaction. In a sign of further cooperation, one of them was extradited by Spanish authorities in September.
But not all is rosy between the two countries in these matters. Agents from both countries detest each other. Spanish services have been accused of going overboard in Morocco, not limiting their activities to purely intelligence gathering; while most Moroccan agents are based in Spain and their activities are irritating their Spanish colleagues.
Islamists are clearly trying to stir up nationalist sentiments within the enclaves and also on the Moroccan mainland to turn it into a religious war against “occupier and Crusader Spain.”
That is exactly what Zawahiri is attempting to do by repeatedly talking about the occupied territories of Ceuta and Melilla. Not surprisingly, in this context Spain is concerned about terror attacks against its interests in the enclaves, Morocco or even in mainland Spain; possibly originating from Ceuta or Melilla.
A dossier worth keeping an eye on.