July 2004

The Madrid Bombings of March 11, 2004—Spain’s 9-11

Dear Friends,

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! As happened in the United States on September 11, 2001, on March 11, 2004, Spain was the victim of vicious and terrible attacks that left 190 dead, 1800 wounded, and millions more in complete shock and disbelief. Ten simultaneous bombs hidden within backpacks and set to detonate within moments of one another, exploded on four different trains full of morning commuters, two in downtown Madrid and two on the outskirts of the city. The morning was like any other—people going to work and school—much as on September 11 in the United States. Both countries were targets of attacks aimed at disrupting social order and inflicting pain on the citizenry via the creation of chaos, destruction, and physical harm to thousands of innocent civilians.

The context leading up to the bombings was that Spain’s government participated in the attack and invasion of Iraq, which was very much against the wishes of the people (some 90 percent of the population was opposed to the war against Iraq). In the months leading up to the war, mass protests were held all over the world in opposition—millions of people protested against “preemptive strikes” and the idea that war can be a means to resolve any situation. In Spain alone, it is estimated that over four million people marched in opposition on February 15, 2003.

Some Western sources have misinterpreted the election outcome as something caused by fear resulting from these attacks. Spanish citizens were not voting out of fear of the terrorist attacks or those who carried them out, but rather in defiance of their government’s inability to take their voice and opinions seriously. The Spanish people punished the former government for their decisions and actions, which did not represent the will of the masses. The consequences of these election results in Spain’s future are even now being played out, and ultimately remain to be seen.

As in the case of the 9-11 Commission in the United States, there are hearings being held in Spain’s national Senate on “11M” (March 11). The findings at this point seem to hint at a cover-up by some elements of the previous government, which insisted on blaming ETA, the Basque separatist group, for the attack, despite the fact that numerous experts testified that from the moment it happened they knew it had not been carried out by ETA, and that a number of factors pointed in the direction of fundamentalist “Islamicist” terrorism instead. Only time and patience will determine the final result of these investigations, but many here are convinced that the outgoing government was dishonest in attempting to mislead the investigations for “electoral benefits.”

This attack happened in the community of Madrid, where we are non-voting associate members of the Presbytery of Madrid. This presbytery and our sister church in Spain, the Iglesia Evangélica Española, have taken action in their prompt written responses sent out immediately following the events. We can easily be inspired by these statements of our Christian brothers and sisters here, who asked their government and fellow citizens to reflect, pray, and forgive, but, more importantly, they asked for restraint and a lack of retaliation in response to the bombings. They in turn were grateful for the messages of solidarity and support sent by many in the PC(USA), other churches, and ecumenical organizations in the United States.

It is with this request for restraint on behalf of our Spanish partners that we write this letter of reflection; let us begin to take our peacemaking efforts seriously as our call to God’s mission in our times. Amen.

Yours in Christ,

Donna Laubach-Moros and Edgar Moros Ruano

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 342