'A better class of terrorist'

For a time, when I was at University, I used to live in the Basque country in Donostia [aka San Sebastian]. I learnt Basque ['Euskara'] and wrote a paper on Basque phonology and a dissertation on Basque grammar. I also hung around with various people, collected a rubber bullet and helped educate some fellow Brits about what I was discovering about Basque politics.

The thing I wanted to reflect on here is the place of religion in such things. In Britain we're used to associating religion with terrorism because of the way that the Irish troubles are commonly perceived. In Euskadi [=Basque homeland] this is not so. Both 'sides' are historically Roman Catholic. The phalangist Spanish state under Franco was Nationalist/fascist Catholic while the Basques are known to be,as a people, pretty loyal to the Church. Of course all this was complicated by the fact that the Republican side in the Spanish civil war had a big anti-clerical and anti-church animus and that was the side that supported regional autonomy whereas Franco's lot were into a centralised Catillian state. ETA itself has a history of Marxist influence and so it is pretty anti church [note that the article implies that the recently arrested leadership couple were living together without being married. Of course Spain has an even older history of interreligious conflict and the Madrid bombing must surely have had resonances of that since pageants involving and celebrating the expulsion of 'los moros' are still very much a part of the calendar in Spain ... It'd be interesting to see some analysis of that particularly in the light of the fact that the population of north Africans who are predominently Muslims -moros- now play such a key part in Spanish agriculture. I'm wondering whether ETA are playing the race and religion card, albeit subtly.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 'A better class of terrorist'