AN IMAM who worked as an Arabic language teacher at a Madrid mosque has been arrested by the Guardia Civil for trying to radicalise minors.
The 44-year-old man is accused of trying to recruit candidates to join the Islamic State(DAESH) terror group.
He’s appeared before the National Court who jailed him.
The Guardia Civil began an investigation last year after hearing about a person in Madrid linked to jihadist ideology who allegedly indoctrinated youngsters.
The local Muslim community discovered his activities and he was forced to leave the mosque, although he continued with lessons in private settings.
The arrested man allegedly defended a violent view of Islam in the same terms as jihadist terrorist organisations.
According to the Guardia, the tutor praised suicide bombers in his speeches as ‘legitimate figures’ in the fight against Jews, Christians and apostates.
His classes extolled theories of extreme behaviour that should be followed by all Muslims.
Two house searches were made by Guardia officers during their action against the man, with computer equipment removed for analysis.
The operation had the help of Europol analysts which made it possible to gather all the evidence of the alleged terrorist activity of the detainee.
The Guardia Civil says that terrorist recruitment of young people by jihadism is one of the emerging phenomena around the world and has been detected in other recent investigations by them in an increasing ‘worrying trend’.
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