NINE in 10 of the Jihad terrorists arrested in Spain in the last three years have 'no relevant knowledge of Islam', according to investigators and researchers specialising in DAESH, or the so-called Islamic State.
A typical Jihad fighter in Spain is aged around 30, married, and either Moroccan or a Spanish national of Moroccan origin, with only 6% being pure-bred Spaniards with no foreign roots in the previous four generations.
Marginally fewer Jihad terrorists in Spain are second-generation migrants – 42.2%, compared with 51.7% who are first-generation immigrants.
They generally have a low level of education, with no qualifications beyond compulsory schooling to age 16, and it is very rare to find any who have been to university, according to the Royal Elcano Institute (RIEC)'s Global Terrorism unit and expert researcher in the field, Carola García-Calvo.
Generally, they were unemployed, but the researchers said this is not an reliable indicator given the high level of joblessness in Spain as a whole among the rest of the population – 21% in total, and nearly 50% among the under-30s.
The study covers details of all 124 DAESH recruits who have been arrested on Spanish soil, or Spanish residents caught elsewhere in the world, since June 2013.
In the majority of cases, Jihad arrests by Spanish authorities were for suspects involved in online recruiting and indoctrinating rather than actual front-line fighting or terrorist attacks, although a worrying 35% of them had the clear intention of staging a massacre in Spain and the resources and ability to do so.
Crucially, though, although 62.8% became radicalised for 'ideological reasons' rather than emotional, personal or political motives, the overwhelming majority have extremely limited knowledge of the Islamic faith and are largely unfamiliar with the teachings of the Q'ran.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com