The profile of jihadists in Spain continues to mutate, as revealed by the yearbook on the fight against Islamist violence in 2025 made public this Friday by the International Observatory for Terrorism Studies (OIET, an entity promoted by the Collective of Victims of Terrorism-Covite). The study points out that, in addition to the increasingly lower average age of those arrested—already detected in previous years—and the gradually more relevant role that women have been acquiring in these extremist movements, the detainees present an increasingly heterogeneous profile, with a dozen nationalities that are changing and a mobilizing ideology that paradoxically merges narratives of Al Qaeda or the Islamic State (ISIS) with those of groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, despite the differences between them.
The analysis reveals that the province of Barcelona was the “operational epicenter” of jihadism in Spain last year after having been the scene of 27 of the 100 arrests of alleged radicals that the security forces made – on the other hand -. The only terrorist action recorded in Spain was on November 22. In the world, this terrorism claimed the lives of 9,901 people in 2025.
“In Spain, as in much of Europe, in recent years there have been significant changes in the age of detainees, pointing to an increasingly growing problem: the direct involvement of minors and young adults in activities of a jihadist nature,” warns the report, which points out that almost half of the detainees (48 of the hundred) were 25 years old or younger. “This represents a new increase,” adds the text, which focuses on a second aspect: when they were arrested. “The increase in minors and young people in jihadist activities in Spain responds to the context in which new technologies are playing a fundamental role in initiating radicalization processes,” the study adds.
The nationality of those arrested also continues to change. “If in the past the presence of Moroccan citizens was generally predominant, in the last three years this situation is different. Since 2023, the most repeated nationality among detainees is Spanish,” says the report, which details that this year this has represented 41%, compared to 28% of those from the North African country. However, the report makes a clarification to explain this phenomenon: among the detained Spaniards there are “second generations of Muslims who were born or raised in Spain and who, therefore, have Spanish nationality and, on the other, the regulation of the legal situation of certain people, many of them of Moroccan origin, who have also obtained Spanish nationality after living in the country for 10 years.”
The rest of the detainees are mainly Pakistanis (11), Algerians (4), Lebanese (4) and Syrians (4), although a Ukrainian and four Tajiks arrested by the National Police in July during Operation Sarxad have also been detected. “The growing presence among detainees of individuals from Eastern Europe, as well as Central Asian countries, is related to the increasing influence exercised by the ISKP [siglas en inglés del Estado Islámico-Provincia de Jorasán, una rama activa en Asia]”, the document clarifies. There has also been a Palestinian detainee, one from Bosnia Herzegovina and an 18-year-old young man arrested in Llodio (Álava) by the Civil Guard in June who has been classified as stateless.
Regarding gender, the document highlights that “traditionally, the involvement of men in jihadist activities has been significantly higher than that of women” and continues to be so. However, he adds that, as has happened with the growing presence of minors among those arrested, “in recent years due to their growing involvement.” Thus, in 2025 there were eight detainees, a figure similar to those of the last two years, “which confirms that this phenomenon has not been a simple one-off event, but a trend that has already been consolidated,” he concludes. Half of the detained women were also under 25 years of age.
Regarding the ideological affiliation of those detained in Spain, the majority would be close to ISIS: 69% aligned exclusively with the postulates of said terrorist organization. “It follows that, despite the disappearance of the jihadist caliphate and the numerous difficulties that the Islamic State matrix is going through, its ability to attract new followers remains intact, allowing it to continue establishing itself as the first option for those who sympathize with the jihadist cause,” details the yearbook. On the contrary, Al Qaeda, which at the time was the majority, is currently testimonial: only one case has been documented in which, evidently, the detainee was assigned to its cause.
However, the authors of the report focus on the appearance of what they call “ideological ascriptions of a hybrid nature” in 12 cases. That is, a dozen detainees who showed sympathy towards different organizations that, in some cases, are at odds with each other. Thus, for example, some arrested person was aligned with both the Palestinian organization Hamas and ISIS, “when it is well known that both groups maintain diametrically opposed objectives that even lead them to openly reject each other.”
In this sense, the document clarifies that “contrary to what might be thought following the Gaza genocide, the Hamas narrative has not generated sufficient appeal to trigger new radicalization processes” in Spain, although it has been observed that “the Palestinian cause has been instrumentalized by the Islamic State”, in such a way that it managed to attract to its propaganda, “more accessible, abundant and attractive in cyberspace”, people who could sympathize with that organization.
Regarding marital status, the study observes a certain equality between those who were married (41) and single (37). There is also parity between people who had jobs (23) and those who were unemployed (20) at the time of their arrest. In addition, there were 14 that the report calls inactive (14), mostly minors and young people who were students. Among those who had a job, there is a notable variety of professions, although the service sector predominates, with several dedicated to hospitality, commerce and liberal professions. There were also gardeners, butchers or businessmen among those arrested.
The OIET also focuses on the relationships of the detainees and highlights that, although a good part of the operations carried out in 2025 resulted in the arrest of a single individual (in 40 of the 58 carried out), this does not imply that the alleged jihadists always acted on their own and in isolation. “In certain cases it is observed that they have maintained interaction with other people linked to jihadist circles. This relationship can occur both in physical environments, especially when the associated people are family or friends, and in cyberspace, where the ability to contact radical individuals with whom they had not previously contacted is much greater,” he adds, before detailing that 47% of the detainees for whom information is available in this regard had maintained some type of interaction with other individuals also detained for crimes associated with terrorism. And he adds a piece of information: in eight cases, the people involved already had a record of this type of crime before their last arrest, whether in Spain or other countries.
