Catalonia attacks : The Catalan president calls people not to vilify Moroccans

The president of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, called on Sunday not to criminalize the more than 200,000 Moroccans living in the territory after the jihadist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, which left at least 14 dead and 132 wounded, reports kienyke.

«In Catalonia there are about 200,000 Moroccans who are part of the normal daily life of this country, who pray, who work, who participate in collective life; and so it is very unfair to try to introduce a community that has a significant share Muslims as a cradle radicalization hot spot,» Puigdemont said at a press briefing with foreign media.

Likewise, Josep Lluís Trapero, Major of the Mossos d'Esquadra, called this Sunday to «not put the blame on the mosques» that are simply «a place where people pray.»

According to the official, the authorities do not have at the moment sufficient information to detail with certainty the process of radicalization of the perpetrators of the attack, most of whom were identified as young people of Moroccan origin with no history linking them to terrorism .

«Maybe neither the mosque nor the schools or penitentiaries are places of radicalization», said Trapero, who stressed the importance of the Internet as a platform for jihadist recruitment.

The main line of research suggests that Adbelbaki Es Satty, Ripoll's imam - suspected of having died in the Alcanar explosion - was the mastermind of the attacks and the person in charge of radicalizing the rest of cell composed of 12 people, of whom one is still on the run.