La investigació de la periodista paquistanesa i directora del UNIS, el Servei d'Informació de les Nacions Unides a Viena, Nasra Hassan, sobre el fenomen dels terroristes suïcides és, especialment després dels atemptats de Londres, de lectura imprescindible. Nasra ha recollit documentació sobre uns 250 palestins suïcides i n'ha fet un llibre. A finals del 2001 ja va escriure un article sobre aquest fenomen al "The New Yorker". Ara n'ha fet una versió per el "Times". La investigació dóna llum sobre alguns dels interrogants sobre les causes, motivacions i organització dels yihadistes suïcides.Són el producte de la misèria i del mar d'injustícia mundial?
None of the suicide bombers — they ranged in age from 18 to 38 — conformed to the typical profile of the suicidal personality. None of them was uneducated, desperately poor, simple-minded, or depressed. Many were middle-class and held paying jobs. Two were the sons of millionaires. They all seemed entirely normal members of their families. They were polite and serious, and in their communities were considered to be model youths. Most were bearded. All were deeply religious.Per què atacs suïcides?
I was told that to be accepted for a suicide mission the volunteers had to be convinced of the religious legitimacy of the acts they were contemplating, as sanctioned by the divinely revealed religion of Islam. Many of these young men had memorised large sections of the Koran and were well versed in the finer points of Islamic law and practice. But their knowledge of Christianity was rooted in the medieval crusades, and they regarded Judaism and Zionism as synonymous.
“Battles for Islam are won not through the gun but by striking fear into the enemy’s heart.”Com es recluten i es preparen els suïcides?
“We do not have tanks or rockets, but we have something superior — our exploding Islamic bombs.”
“The main thing is to guarantee that a large number of the enemy will be affected. With an explosive belt or bag, the bomber has control over vision, location, and timing.”
A member of Hamas explained the preparation: “We focus his attention on Paradise, on being in the presence of Allah, on meeting the Prophet Muhammad, on interceding for his loved ones so that they, too, can be saved from the agonies of Hell, on the houris, and on fighting the Israeli occupation and removing it from the Islamic trust that is Palestine.”Com funcionen les cèl·lules de suïcides?
I asked one planner about the problem of fear. “The boy has left that stage far behind,” he said. “The fear is not for his own safety or his impending death. It does not come from lack of confidence in his ability to press the trigger. It is awe, produced by the situation. He has never done this before and, inshallah, he will never do it again. It comes from his fervent desire for success, which will propel him into the presence of Allah. It is anxiety over the possibility of something going wrong and denying him his heart’s wish. The outcome, remember, lies in Allah’s hands.”
Generally, each cell consists of a leader and two or three young men. When a candidate is placed in a cell, usually after months, if not years, of religious studies, he is assigned the lofty title of al-shaheed al -hayy, “the living martyr”. He is also referred to as “he who is waiting for martyrdom”.
Each cell is tightly compartmentalised and secret. Cell members do not discuss their affiliation with their friends or family, and even if two of them know each other in normal life, they are not aware of the other’s membership in the same cell. (Only the leader is known to both.) Each cell, which is dissolved after the operation has been completed, is given a name from the Koran or from Islamic history.
