Laurence Dollimore
ISIS has released its first propaganda video in Spanish and it features a young jihadist from Andalucia.
It comes a week after terrorist attacks in Catalonia which left 15 people dead and over 100 injured.
In the video two jihadists can be heard speaking Spanish with an Arabic accent and proclaiming: “Allah willing, Al Andalus will become once again what it was, part of the caliphate.”
Al Andalus was the name given to the territory of southern and central Spain controlled for more than five centuries by the Moors.
“If you can’t make the hegira (journey or exodus) to the Islamic State, carry out jihad where you are; jihad doesn’t have borders,” says one of the men in the video whose face is uncovered and who is identified by a video title as Abu Lais Al Qurdubi, or Abu Lais ‘of Cordoba’.
Later, the jihadist adds: “Spanish Christians: don’t forget the Muslim blood spilled during the Spanish inquisition. We will take revenge for your massacre, the one you are carrying out now against the Islamic State.”
Police say the unmasked youth is 22-year-old Muhammad Yasin Ahram Pérez from Cordoba.
His father, Abdelah Ahram, 42, from Morocco, is currently in prison in Tangier for his active role in radical jihadism.
His mother Tomasa Pérez, from a Catholic family in Malaga, met Ahram in 1984.
She left Spain with her six children, including Muhammad, the oldest sibling, three years ago to go to Syria and live in territory controlled by the Islamic State.
The second jihadi in the video is believed to be Abu Salman Al Andalus (Abu Salman ‘of Andalusia).
He says in the clip: “We hope that Allah accepts the sacrifice of our brothers in Barcelona. Our war with you will continue until the world ends.”
