Podemos: Iran’s forward base and political arm in Spanish and European politics — new evidence

8 min readJun 23, 2016

In our most ambitious research yet, we have spent a month gathering material, surveying countless documents in five languages, and got alarming results. We investigated the Circulo Podemos Mususlmanes, (the Muslim Circle of the Spanish political party Podemos) which now is clear, is an Iranian proxy, aiming to be the forefront base and Iranian foothold in Spanish and European politics influencing it to do their want.

This post will be much longer as the scope of the research is much greater and is the culmination of many efforts done by our side.

The research will show that The Circulo Podemos Mususlmanes is led by Raul Gonzales, a Shiite cleric with immediate close relations and dubious connections with Iranian officials that are responsible for exporting the Iranian revolution — with their end goal being taking over countries through soft power and political influence.
We will show that Gonzales heads an NGO- Musulmanes Por la Paz (MPP) dedicated for conveying Iranian propaganda, including glorifying martyrdom, calling for Jihad in Iraq, serving as the Spanish voice for Iran’s supreme leader and spreading hatred towards non-Shiite Muslims.

We will show how Iran uses Podemos to pursue it’s own agenda at the expense of the Spanish people. This crucial information is necessary for the upcoming elections on June 26th. People must know who they are voting for.

The breakthrough: The phone number
While researching online, we found that The Circulo had posted a phone number in the About section. [1] We decided to cross check the number and found out it belonged to two other organizations: The NGO Musulmanes Por la Paz,[2] headed by Raul Gonzales, and a book store called “Fatima Ediciones”[3].

This shows us that the same people are serving all three organizations.

Information taken from the FB pages of these
organizations online.

The MPP Headquarters:

Following the findings above, we also confirmed that the organizations’ headquarters are all located at the same place: Calle Luis Carbera 25, Madrid.[4] The MPP headquarters houses many different conventions and the strong Iranian connection we stumbled upon were the lectures given at the center. In a very unusual step the Iranian ambassador to Spain, has visited the center to deliver a speech for Jerusalem day, an Iranian sponsored tradition focusing on the Palestinian problem.[5]
Other events included specific events focusing on Iranian Shi’ite interests in the Middle East- Syria , supporting Bashar el-Assad Iran’s ally and mass murderer, Yemen — in support of the Houthi Shi’ite militia and many more.

Fatima Ediciones: Library of Shia and Iranian propaganda

As stated above, Fatima Ediciones publishing house and Library is located inside the MPP headquarters.[6] All the books are Shi’ite in orientation and promote Iranian propaganda, supporting martyrdom, anti Saudi propaganda and religious writing:[7]

· Spanish translation of Ali Khamenai’s, Iran’s supreme leader,
speech directed towards Europe and the West in general.

· Anti-Wahabism — bashing Saudi Arabia

· Ali and his Family (Shi’ite central figure)

· Martyrdom in Shi’a

· Writings of Shia cleric Musa a-Sadr

The Circulo — Raul Gonzales’s incitement and political influence pressure group.

The Circulo was created in 2014 and acts as a lobby for Muslims in Podemos. It is run mainly online through two FB groups — one open, with around 2200 participants , [8]and a closed one with the around 100 people [9]for the major figures in the circulo. This platform is used for incitement further advertising Iranian propaganda MPP and Fatima Ediciones content as shown below also through HispanTV , an Iranian network connected to Podemos. Podemos’s leader Iglesias has worked at the station and received 90,000 euros from the Iranians in 2013–2015.[10]

Posts from the Circulo’s closed group (up) and the open one (down)

One of the more disturbing findings we came upon our check was a post that called Muslim youth all over the world to perform Jihad against ISIS in Iraq. Ayatollah Sistani an extreme Shi’ite Iranian cleric made the call. While Muslims generally oppose and condemn sending Muslim European youth for fighting, Gonzales seems at ease to send his followers at the Circulo to fight in the Middle East.

Posts from the Circulo’s closed group

The mastermind behind it all — Raul Gonzales (aka. Yafar Abdallah)

The Circulo is run by 3 admins,[11] two of them are practically non-active, while one, Raul Gonzales,[12] is the main active figure there. Raul Gonzales is a Spanish national that was a Marxist and later embraced Islam and studied in Qom, Iran where he became a religious cleric. Raul functions as the Head of MPP, Head of the Circulo, and Head translator at Fatima Ediciones.

While researching his name we found evidence of dubious connections to key Iranian officials connected with Iran’s project of exporting the revolution, he used unknown funds and resources to fly different people to Iran “and conduct his own affairs there”. The most interesting find was that Gonzales serves as a contact of an Iranian official- Ahmad Bahmani, and created MPP modeled after the Iranian NGO and with it’s cooperation to curtail the message of Iran’s supreme leader in Spain.

12 Days in Iran with Raul Gonzales- A trip paid for by Iran

In a blog,[13] the Spanish architect Jaime Carbonel tells a story of his 12 day visit to Iran in February 2014. He was invited with some friends by Raul Gonzales to travel to Iran, all expenses paid (except flight) for by Musulmanes Por la Paz. During this visit, the blogger reveals connections between Raul and Iranian officials and the scope of Raul’s involvement with the Iranians.

Posts were written and posted in March and April 2014.

In this picture is the full delegation including (left to right in the red circles) Javier, an official at MPP, Raul’s daughter Laila and Raul himself.

The following are excerpts from Jaime Carbonel’s blog:

“The biggest intrigue came when, after making the transfer for the amount of the ticket round trip to the account number we had to send a questionnaire to fill in for the visa application.
We were instructed (by Raul) to answer these questions as following:
the reason for the trip: “attend ceremonies anniversary of the Iranian Revolution.”
“who paid the expenses”, we had to answer “The Organization of Ceremonies“ (An Iranian ministry).” [14]

“Virgil (One of the travelers) had no visa which could be a cause of trouble to enter the country…
Raul gave us instructions that we go forward with his daughter, he and Virgil were diverted down another hallway to make some efforts (regarding the visa).
Soon Raul and Virgil appeared and the problem was solved. Who really is this man, and what sort of influence does he have in this country?”[15]

“Raul had to satisfy my curiosity that I raised last night (regarding who paid for everything). He said (as we met the man) that his name is Ahmad Bahmani, who was president of the Ibn Sinna NGO, that is directly under the office of International Relations of the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Republic.

“…we learned that Raul / Jafar and Mr. Bahmani were old friends. Mr. Bahmani proposed Raul to be his contact in Spain. Raul accepted and founded the NGO Muslims for Peace, in correspondence with the Ibn Sinna Irani (which Bahmani headed) .

Once on the street, Raul also said goodbye to us, because he stayed a few days more to deal with his own affairs.” (3)[16]

While reading in Persian sources, Raul allows himself to be more blunt and accuse the West along with Saudi Arabia,Turkey, Qatar, Israel, the UK, and France of creating ISIS, trying to put Muslim against muslim. He also wishes that something that resembles the Islamic awakening (following the Iranian Islamic revolution) will happen in Europe against Capitalism.[17]

Last but surely not least, we started noticing how Podemos uses the Spanish parliament to support and further Iranian strategic interests. Podemos urged the Spanish royal family to cancel their visit to Saudi-Arabia after blaming the Saudis of human rights violations. Podemos also asked the Spanish Ministry of Defense to issue a list of all transactions with countries considered “human rights violators” so they can be scrutinized by the public and/or canceled,[18] another action directed against Saudi Arabia, in order to prevent arms sales to Iran’s nemesis.

To conclude, Podemos‘ Muslim circle, the MPP and Fatima Ediciones are all one entity that serves as an Iranian proxy. It is headed by an extremist Shia cleric trying to forward Iranian agenda, supports and hails martyrdom and sending Muslim youth to fight in Iraq. It calls the West (which Spain is a part of) the enemy and tries to de-legitimize forms of Islam not compatible with Shiism. Finally it is ruling Podemos‘ policy making, favoring Iranian interests over Spanish ones.

The Spanish public need to understand that if they vote Podemos- they are putting Ayatollah Khamenai in the Spanish parliament with foreign interests at the helm.

This is happening in Spain’s own backyard.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

[1] https://www.facebook.com/podemosmusulmanes/info/?tab=page_info

[2] https://www.facebook.com/musulmansporlapaz/

[3] https://fatimaediciones.wordpress.com/

[4] Google street view.

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muYs2lYG9HU

[6] https://fatimaediciones.wordpress.com/

[7] https://www.libreriaproteo.com/libro/listadoColeccion/pagina/1/id/267686/nombre/fatima-ediciones.html

[8] https://www.facebook.com/podemosmusulmanes/

[9] https://www.facebook.com/groups/1544976299099730/

[10] http://www.abc.es/espana/abci-pablo-iglesias-cobrado-93000-euros-iran-entre-2013-y-2015-201601140057_noticia.html