Islamist Attack On Jewish Bookstore Thwarted (But Store Had No Mohammed Cartoons)

Police in Barcelona, Spain foiled an planned attack on a Jewish Bookstore by Islamist terrorists. The terror cell planned to bomb the store, grab one hostage and publicly behead that hostage. Strangely the bookstore didn't display any cartoons of Mohammed. After listening to some of the libera comments about the attack on Pamela Geller's event in Garland, Texas; I thought the only time Jihadists attacked was when they agitated people with cartoons of Mohammed.

As reported by the WSJ, the terrorist cell in Catalonia; "which featured prominent roles for converts to Islam, tried to recruit fighters to join Islamic State in Syria and developed plans to bomb a Jewish bookstore in Barcelona and snatch and behead a captive, according to police and prosecutors in court documents. After monitoring it for about a year—and stopping several members from allegedly heading to the Middle East to fight—Catalonia regional police last month detained 11 people linked to the alleged cell, the biggest haul yet in a Spanish crackdown on Islamic extremists. "

The April 8 arrests in Catalonia brought the total number of people who have been detained in Spain in terrorism-related investigations to 42 so far this year, compared with 46 in all of 2014, according to the Interior Ministry.

Not one of these terrorist related arrests had anything to do with cartoons of Mohammed.

In December, according to police, three Islamic Fraternity members allegedly left Spain to join Islamic State in Syria. They were detained in Bulgaria after Catalan authorities sent out an international arrest order.

At that point, other cell members are believed to have had second thoughts about making the trip to the Middle East, said an official from the Catalan police force, which used informants and wiretaps to monitor the group.

But rather than giving up, the remaining members redirected their energy to planning attacks around Barcelona, police say. “It shows the paradox of success” of intercepting outbound fighters, the police official said.

The man charged with being the leader of the terrorist cell is a barber named Antonio Saez Martinez. Martinez converted to Islam a few years ago after marrying a Moroccan woman, said the police.  “I have been absorbed by the global jihad against crusaders and Jews,” Mr. Saez wrote in a journal entry, according to court documents.

Police say that another convert, Jacob Orellana, a Spaniard who worked at the fruit shop, was heard on a wiretap saying that “to die in the name of Allah doesn’t hurt, it is like being pinched,” according to the court documents. Police found chemical materials in his house that they believe could be used for bomb-making, according to the documents. 

(...) Mr. Saez tried to obtain arms for the group from an acquaintance named Diego Jose Frias, court documents said. Mr. Frias wasn’t an Islamic radical, but an activist in a right-wing extremist party, police said. He had offered to provide the cell with arms, including a hand grenade, to launch an attack on a Jewish bookstore, the documents say. A hand grenade, knives, a pistol and firearm accessories were found in Mr. Frias’s house, according to the documents.

Jordi Borràs, a Catalan journalist who tracks right-wing extremists, said it might seem counterintuitive for them to work with Islamic extremists, but “they are united by a common enemy, the Jew.”

But wait a second, most Jews don't draw pictures of Mohammed!

The mainstream media was quick to blame Pamela Geller for the attempted terrorist attack on her event in Garland Texas (see one example below). They claim Geller should shoulder part of the blame because her event insulted Muslims. But in Catalonia the terrorists were about to attack a bookstore only because it was associated with Jews.  But how could that be? Could the liberal media be wrong in blaming Ms Geller for inciting the violence against herself?  Absolutely!