The next battlefield: Ceuta and Melilla?

May 19.- Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's No.2, makes a point to regularly mention in his broadcasts the Muslim lands that need to be "liberated." The list includes the usual suspects for every respectable jihadist: "Palestine," Kashmir and Chechnya. But interestingly, the list includes "al-Andalus" and two tiny Spanish enclaves located in Morocco: Ceuta and Melilla.

For the time being Zawahiri focuses on the enclaves rather than the whole "al-Andalus" (historic Spain). Indeed their importance should not be underestimated.

The two enclaves administered by the Spaniards, (as Hong Kong was by the British) physically inside Morocco, are in fact neither Spanish nor Moroccan. Ceuta and Melilla – 140 miles apart as the crow flies, or 240 miles by road – on the Moroccan coast hover between Islamic and Christian cultures.

The 12-square-mile territories however have a vital and strategic importance: they serve as beachheads between Europe and Africa. Ceuta is only 13 miles from the European coast. Morocco and Spain have been fighting over them for years. Now the Islamists have joined the fray.

Tension between the two countries is evident: Rabat considers the territories belonging to Morocco. An intense and loud controversy started when Spanish King Juan Carlos made a very highly symbolic visit in November to Ceuta and Melilla. Even though Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero came to visit the two towns in 2006, the Juan Carlos visit was much more controversial. Indeed, no Spanish king had visited Ceuta and Melilla since 1927 and upon arriving Juan Carlos, addressing the crowd, said: "I did not want to let more time go by without paying you a visit. It was a debt I owed you."

The Muslim population represents about 38 percent of the total population in the two enclaves. A new party composed of Spanish Muslims, the Democratic Union of Ceuta (UCD), was founded in 2003. In the last elections it won four seats, double what the socialist party, PSOE, got. And on June 16, Fatima Hamed of the UCD became the first Spanish Muslim MP wearing the veil ...

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