Made-to-measure Qur’anic quotations: the incomplete verses of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb

Sergio Altuna Galán. ARI 72/2019 (English version) - 20/6/2019.

More than half the Qur’anic quotations used by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in its propaganda are faithful reproductions of the text but incomplete or truncated.

Jihadists who left Spain for Syria as foreign terrorist fighters but have returned

Fernando Reinares. Expert Comment 14/2019 - 20/5/2019.

Around one fifth of the 230 to 235 jihadists who between 2012 and 2018 travelled from Spain to Syria and Iraq as foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) have already returned. 

Moroccans and the second generation among Jihadists in Spain

Fernando Reinares & Carola García-Calvo. ARI 82/2018 (English version) - 27/6/2018.

A large majority of Jihadists in Spain are either Moroccans or descendants of Moroccans. But it is more likely for someone of Moroccan origin to become involved in terrorist activities if living in Spain than if living in Morocco.

Jamā’at Nuṣrat al-Islām wa-l-Muslimīn: a propaganda analysis of al-Qaeda’s project for the Sahel

Sergio Altuna Galán. ARI 70/2018 (English version) - 1/6/2018.

The lessons that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has learnt after years of activity in the Sahel have crystallised in the creation of JNIM. This paper analyses its propaganda to shed light on this new alliance and its relationship with the regional organisational structure.

Document of interest: CTC Sentinel - Diferential Association Explaining Jihadi Radicalization in Spain. A Quantitative Study

. DI/MI - 9/10/2017.

Article by Fernando Reinares, Carola García-Calvo, and Álvaro Vicente published in CTC Sentinel, Volume 10, Issue 6 (June / July 2017). Violent radicalization leading to involvement in jihadi terrorism appears to be highly contingent upon two key factors of what has been termed “differential association,” namely contact with radicalizing agents and pre-existing social ties with other radicalized individuals. This empirical study, which examines all those arrested in Spain for jihadi terrorism activities over the four-year period between 2013 and 2016, quantitatively assesses the importance of these two factors and sheds light on why some individuals radicalize while many more with similar demographic and social characteristics, in the same country, do not.

‘There is no life without jihad and no jihad without hijrah’: the jihadist mobilisation of women in Spain, 2014-16

Carola García-Calvo. ARI 34/2017 (English version) - 17/4/2017.

This analysis looks at the women who are recruited to join Islamic State in Spain: who they are, how they were radicalised and what their motivations and functions are within the groups, cells and networks in which they ultimately become involved.

Jihadist mobilisation, undemocratic Salafism and terrorist threat in the EU

Fernando Reinares. Expert Comment 13/2017 - 10/3/2017.

Each time a terrorist attack is perpetrated, jihadism is to be thought of not just as a national security problem but also as a challenge to the very fabric of open societies.

Patterns of involvement among individuals arrested for Islamic State-related terrorist activities in Spain, 2013-2016

Carola García-Calvo and Fernando Reinares. 29/12/2016.

Research on the case of Spain conducted by the Program on Global Terrorism at Elcano Royal Institute confirms that the terrorist threat posed by Islamic State is highly networked and organized.

Brussels attacks: Challenge to Security and Coexistence

Fernando Reinares. Op-ed (English version) - 28/3/2016.

We have to avoid the spread of Islamophobia without losing sight of the challenge that both the Jihadists with their terrorist outrages and the Salafists with their anti-democratic preaching pose to open societies.

How to counter jihadist appeal among Western European Muslims

Fernando Reinares. December 2015.

Worldwide terrorism connected with the jihadist insurgencies in Syria and Iraq emerges disproportionately among second- and third-generation Muslim youth from Western Europe. Governments should prepare community leaders to identify and intervene with at-risk youth and should enhance and coordinate efforts to counter jihadist propaganda.