The police forces have arrested two people who have perpetrated terrorist acts within hours of each other: a young Moroccan radicalized as a Salafist jihadist and a 74-year-old former official from Miranda de Ebro who is a supporter of Soviet communism. The first attacked two churches in Algeciras catana in hand, with the balance of one fatality and four wounded; At the end of last year, the second sent explosive letters to Moncloa, various ministries and some embassies (one injured a worker from the Ukrainian diplomatic legation in Madrid), against the support of the Spanish State for the Zelensky government in the war against invading Russian troops.
Both detainees are not only suspected terrorists, they are something else. The lone wolf jihadist is described as “unbalanced”, and the nostalgic for Stalin’s times is presented as “a pensioner” tremendously obsessed with a totalitarian ideology.
Words create reality as well as portray or distort it, depending on the case. Is it less terrorism if it is about acts of a guy with mental health problems and an old man who has been hung up on a bygone era that he has idealized? The police investigation and the courts will shed light on this.
However, for the citizen who follows the news, words like retired and unbalanced written together with the word terrorist make a new meaning, which prevails when assessing the serious events to which we refer. It seems that, if we are dealing with a madman and a maniacal grandfather, the substance of each episode –terrorism– could be relativized or considered as something less alarming from a political point of view.
How to get clear in this labyrinth? There is something important that the unbalanced young jihadist and the communist retiree share, according to all the chronicles: both are book fans, both defend their respective cause with an exclusive and violent attitude, seeking to cause damage and chaos.
It must be remembered that fanaticism can infect anyone, and through any ideology, be they young or old, have mental problems or enjoy enviable health. And fanaticism sometimes leads to terrorism. For this reason, a main challenge of this hour is to dismantle and refute the fans.