The Freedom Contradiction

AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) is the most powerful African branch of the multinational Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda, now shoved to No.2 by ISIS. Headquartered in the Kabylie Mountains of Algeria, AQIM has made public its intention to attack Spain and France. On January 6th –Epiphany or Three Kings Day, a Christian feast that commemorates the visit of the Magi to Jesus in the manger– the Al-Andalus Foundation released a video warning of imminent attacks on Madrid, Rome and Naples, as a follow-up of the Paris attacks in November 2015. The Al-Andalus Foundation for Media Production, AQIM’s official propaganda arm, is the only body authorized to distribute messages from Maghrebi Al-Qaeda, which recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS).

The 13-minute AQIM video, titled “From the depths of the desert”, features a group of Mujahideen fighters waving the black flags of the Caliphate of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of ISIS (or Daesh). In the recording a terrorist of unknown identity –from an unknown location thought to be in Mali– said in Arabic that “now the Crusaders [the Westerners] are in our land, in the land Islam, but with God’s permission the day will come when we will beat them on that occupied land, in Naples, in Rome, in Madrid, with bombs everywhere and with the permission of Allah”.

The twin challenge of Jihadist terrorism and the Syrian refugee crisis is huge. Apparently, the only connection between both predicaments is at the origin: the insecurity caused by the terrorist caliphate is driving hundreds of thousands of civilians to seek refuge and prosperity in Europe. The liberty that has long defined the Western world is the main instrument that Islamist terrorists are now using against the Free World. The West seems dismally torn between freedom and survival.