ABSTRACT
One of the most troubling innovations that has hit the world since the end of the Cold War, and especially since 11 September 2001, has been the adoption of suicidal bombing as a strategy. The victims take it simply as murderous terrorism; the perpetrators as martyrdom. Which is true? What is meant by martyrdom in such a context? How can an increasing multitude of suicidal terrorists be thought of (to use Cranmerʼs phrase) as a ʻnoble armyʼ?2
