Islamic Fundamentalism in the Strategy of National Security 2013

Abstract

Eight years after the terrorist attacks of 11 March, the new Spanish National Security Strategy doesn’t include explicitly the issue of Islamic fundamentalism as an influential or key factor that can affect the welfare of Spanish citizens and the stability of the State. Neither did the previous National Security Strategy (2011). The new document acknowledges that Spain is a target of jihadist terrorism, and even recognizes that there are certain elements that make Spain the target of international terrorism, such as the insistence of Islamic fundamentalism groups to present Spain as part of the Islamic world. And there is no other reference to the most extreme version of Islam as source of risks and threats in a country that suffered the worst terrorist attack in Europe, with 191 fatalities, and where the police have broken around 30 jihadists cells in the last decade.