ABSTRACT
Introduction On 11 March 2004 Spain suffered its worst terrorist attack ever. On that day Islamist fundamentalists killed 192 people and injured hundreds more after ten bombs went off in four different trains full of commuters during the morning rush hour. These terrorist attacks and the collective suicide of seven of those responsible for them weeks later, on 3 April 2004, when Spanish police surrounded the flat where some of the men involved in the 11 March attack (11 M) were hiding, exposed the prominence that the jihadist movement had reached in the country. Spain, which as far back as 2001 had been described by judicial authorities as the “main base of Al-Qaeda in Europe”1 as a result of the activities of Islamist radicals during the previous decade, had also become a target of violence. The evolution of jihadism demonstrated the extent to which the country had turned into a hub for the recruitment and radicalisation of individuals prepared to commit terrorist attacks in Spain and further away. Over the last ten years almost 200 people have been accused by the Spanish judiciary of being involved in terrorist activities related to Islamic fundamentalism. This chapter will analyse the main patterns in the process of radicalisation and recruitment evident in the networks of jihadist terrorists that have emerged in the country so far. Relying on research based on interviews with significant informants, including members of the security forces and intelligence services, as well as open secondary sources and judicial reports, the author will examine the process of radicalisation and recruitment of the main cells dismantled in Spain. After exploring dominant factors and currents in the process of mobilisation of individuals who over the last decade have joined groups involved in spreading and defending the jihad, an assessment of counter-measures against this particular dimension of the terrorist phenomenon will also be provided.
