ABSTRACT
On April 3, 2004 seven people committed suicide in Leganés only weeks after terrorists killed in Madrid 191 men and women, injuring hundreds. The suicide terrorists killed themselves when their flat was surrounded by police forces who were investigating the March 11 massacre in the Spanish capital. It is believed that the seven suicide terrorists were themselves involved in perpetrating and preparing the March 11 attack. This chapter will analyze how and why the seven immigrants from the Maghreb became the first suicide bombers in Western Europe related with the current networks of international terrorism.1 Relying on research based on interviews with significant informants, as well as open secondary sources and judicial reports, the authors will examine the process of radicalization of the seven men. Factors such as their socialization experiences, family, and friends networks as well as the influence of religious, cultural, and political variables will be looked at in order to shed light on their real motivations and the rationale behind this collective act of self immolation. The importance that a neosalafist ideology had on their actions and their process of mobilization as members of the global jihad will also be assessed in order to understand how individuals already predisposed to suicide terrorism precipitated such a course of action due to conjectural factors such as the police siege.
