Entitled The Explosive Belt for Martyrdom Operations, the step-by-step video shows the making of a tough-to-detect explosive belt using common materials.

The film — access to which has now been blocked — is among a vast range of military manuals, showing how to make everything from ordinary bombs and explosives to chemical weapons, disseminated by Islamic websites that refer to this month’s bus and tube bombings as “the blessed London attacks”.

While the existence of such sites explains how the bombers acquired the expertise to kill themselves and fellow passengers, they go little way to answering the more fundamental question of what drove the four British-born men to carry out the attacks — provided, that is, they knew theirs was a suicide mission.

Was it purely the result of a religious upbringing with promises of paradise for acts of martyrdom? Or was it brainwashing or encouragement from a community that regards suicide bombers as weapons against oppression and humiliation?

During my last few years’ reporting in the Middle East, I have met and interviewed many aspiring suicide bombers, from Palestine to Iraq, who explained their reasons for volunteering for such missions. Many did not conform to the “typical” profile of the suicide attacker.

The current wave of bombers no longer comes purely from the poor and downtrodden classes seeking a way out of poverty and their desperate lives. It also includes young men and women from the middle classes with a high level of education and a profession.

“We are educated strugglers,” claimed Yunis, a 27-year-old Palestinian graduate I met while he was preparing for a mission. “We are not terrorists and the world should recognise that our acts are not intended to be pure, cold-blooded murder.”

Curiously, he had begun our conversation by talking of his love for art and the paintings of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Picasso before abruptly changing the subject to his impending “martyrdom”.

Even though the Leeds men were born in Britain, brought up in a western culture known for its tolerant multi-ethnic society, had never seen conflict nor been invaded and occupied, they would have been influenced by dramatic images of violence from Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan.

Robert Pape, author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, said 95% of all suicide terrorist attacks had the specific goal of forcing democracies to withdraw military forces from territory considered by the terrorists to be their homeland.

“Religion is often used as a tool by the terrorist organisations in recruiting and in seeking aid from abroad, but it is rarely the root cause,” says Pape. “Al-Qaeda is today less a product of Islamic fundamentalism than of a simple strategic goal: to compel the United States and its western allies to withdraw combat forces from the Arabian Peninsula and other Muslim countries.”

If the four Leeds men knew they were to die, then before setting off they would have performed a ritual washing to purify their bodies, followed by the traditional prayer recited by all fighters before combat.

Most likely, they would have been dressed in new clothes with a small Koran tucked in the left pocket above the heart. They would have reached a mental state of conviction and serenity beyond those around them. The greatest hurdle would be to override their natural instinct for self-preservation in the final moments.

A commander I met in the Palestinian territories, who selected, trained and dispatched suicide bombers into Israel, once described to me the spiritual preparations a suicide bomber would undergo, including the repeated studying of verses from the Koran relating to his future path to paradise.

“He is not saddened to leave,” he said. “He knows that his time on earth was a temporary journey and in preparation for life beyond that — in paradise. Material pleasures and belongings are temporary and nothing compared to those awaiting him in paradise.”

In Iraq, another commander said the Arab fighters who had flocked to become suicide bombers and who arrived prepared for their mission and awaiting a target had already “gone”.

“It is like they are already on a one-way ticket,” he said.

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