The self-styled Islamic State again has threatened Spain and Portugal, this time in a video in which the spokesperson, the son of Portuguese emigrants to Luxembourg, says there is a plan to recapture the Iberian Peninsula. "You will pay dearly" for having driven out the Muslims.
The video shows the murder of five people in Iraq and features the terrorist, known as Steve D A making threats about invading the Iberian peninsula.
"I swear that you will pay a heavy price and that your end will be very painful. God willing, we will recover Al Andalus" - the name given to the Iberian Peninsula by Islamic conquerors in the eighth century.
"No Muslim can forget Cordoba, Toledo and Játiva (in Valencia). There are many faithful Muslims who swear to retrieve Al Andalus. Iberia will never be forgotten."
The jiadista on the broadcast looks western and is speaking in French. In fact he is the 29-year-old son of emigrants from Tras os Montes and comes from Luxembourg.
He is referred to by security services as Steve D A and isthe first known Portuguese jihadists who travelled to Syria in 2014 and now is part of a group responsible for propaganda due to their computer and social networking skills.
"You infidels, thought that you would end the Islamic State with airstrikes, but are amazed and frightened by the strength of the caliphate," says Steve D A, repeating a threat to increase terrorist attacks.
"You attacked us in the past and now we attack you," he adds.
This is not the first time the Islamic State has mentioned reconquering Iberia as one of its goals.
In November 2015, after the attacks in Paris, a video was released featuring the terrorists of Abu Bakr al Bagdadi as he threatened Spain.
"We want to conquer Paris, before Rome and the Iberian Peninsula."
Al Andalus is the Arabic name given to those parts of Spain, Portugal and France occupied by Muslim conquerors from 711 to 1492, when both the Moors and the Jews were expelled by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.
Most of the territory of modern-day Portugal was occupied by the Moors for more than 500 years, from 711 until 1249.
During that time, the territory was known by its Arabic name, Gharb Al-Andalus (The West of Al-Andalus) or Al-Gharb (The West).
Jihadists believe that all of the territories Muslims lost during the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula still belong to the realm of Islam.
They claim that Islamic law gives them the right to return there and re-establish Muslim rule. This belief is based on a verse in the Koran that reads: "And kill them wherever you find them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you..." (Koran 2:191)
Comments
(Paragraph removed by Ed., a rare event I realise but occasionally necessary)
And the precedent would be too damaging.People would begin reporting on all their local crimes and revisiting the many that were never properly investigated.
So Belgium and France's appeals for closer EU wide anti-terror information exchange will fall on deaf ears here.