ROME — The machete-wielding Moroccan jihadist Yassine Kanjaa who attacked Christians at church in southern Spain this week had been under a deportation order since June that was never acted upon, Associated Press reports.
As Breitbart News reported, Kanjaa assailed Christians in two Spanish churches with a machete Wednesday while shouting “Allahu akbar” and “Death to Christians,” killing one and wounding at least four more.
On Thursday, Spanish police raided Kanjaa’s home and are treating the attack as an act of Islamic terrorism.
Kanjaa had been under a deportation order since June of 2022 because of his unauthorized migrant status in Spain, but authorities failed to carry the order out.
A funeral mass takes place with the coffin of the church sacristan who was attacked and killed Wednesday in Algeciras, Spain, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. Spanish police have raided the home of a 25-year-old Moroccan man held over the machete attacks at two Catholic churches that left a church officer dead and a priest injured in the southern city of Algeciras. A judge is investigating the incident as a possible act of terrorism. (AP Photo/Juan Carlos Toro)
The 25-year-old Moroccan had already been arrested in the neighboring British territory of Gibraltar in August 2019 when he tried to come ashore from a Jet-Ski without the necessary documentation and days later he was repatriated.
Algeciras, where Wednesday’s attacks took place, is a southern port city and the first point of arrival for many boats traveling from North Africa.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the conservative Vox political party, condemned the government’s failure to act on Kanjaa’s deportation order.
“He had an order of expulsion,” Abascal wrote on Twitter. “How many more like him could there be in Spain?”
“The human trafficking mafias and the politicians who open their borders and shower them with subsidies cannot conceal their responsibility,” he added.
Similarly, Popular Party (PP) president Alberto Núñez Feijóo said that “Islamic terrorism is a problem for European society.”
“It has been centuries since a Catholic or Christian has killed in name of his religion or beliefs,” Núñez Feijóo said. “And there are other countries who have citizens who do.”