Some relatives of the 191 dead from the Madrid train bombing along with some of the almost 2,000 injured are angry at what they consider the lenient sentences for some of the 27 convicted of the crime. They are protesting also that seven of those charged, including an alleged Egyptian mastermind, were found not guilty. In such an emotionally charged situation, their reaction is understandable. Nevertheless, this was a fair and exhaustive four-month trial in which it seems very likely that justice was done. Seven other terrorists blew themselves up three weeks after the attacks when their Madrid apartment was stormed by the security forces. A policeman also died.
What is notable is that though all Spaniard feel disgust and dismay at the March 2004 massacre, the general public reaction to the crime and the subsequent trial has been admirably measured. Spain has not fallen victim to the same kind of paranoia which many Muslims in Britain and the United States are concerned has gripped ordinary people there. Maybe the Spanish are actually more phlegmatic than the British. There is also the fact that for years the Spaniards have suffered from terror attacks by the Basque separatist group ETA. Indeed, immediately after the Madrid bombings the conservative Popular Party government actually blamed ETA. (It is ironic that one recent poll showed that as many as 30 percent of Spaniards still suspect ETA may have had something to do with the train bombings). That error contributed to its defeat by the Socialists in the general election that same month. There was also widespread dissatisfaction with the then Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar’s decision to back America’s Iraq invasion with 1,300 troops. These soldiers were withdrawn after the socialist victory, as the party had long campaigned for. Few people believed it was in response to the Madrid outrages.
No one in Spain imagines that Al-Qaeda has removed Spain from its target list. Very probably the tough sentences handed down to its followers may even encourage it to mount another attack. The Spanish authorities are undoubtedly prepared for more plots. But this said, there is no general mood of fear and no ugly campaign of suspicion or prejudice against the large Spanish Muslim community. Maybe Spain’s long experience of Moorish rule has equipped it with a more balanced approach and greater understanding of Muslim culture. The country is clearly not prepared to let the wicked acts of a small group of deluded and murderous bigots to have it running scared.
It is also evidence of a sense of proportion. In the final analysis, even crimes as monstrous as the 9/11 attacks or the Madrid or London public-transport bombings are in reality mere pinpricks on any mature and stable society from which it quickly recovers. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said so memorably, there is “nothing to fear but fear itself”. Spreading fear is all terrorists can ever do. Their only slim chance of success is to panic a society into chaos. The Spanish today are demonstrating how to defeat them.
