Book Review of Seeds of Terror
The book entitled, “Seeds of Terror”, examines evidence of terrorist
activity in Southeast Asian countries. It is an eyewitness account by
Maria A. Ressa, about Al-Qaeda’s Center of Operations emerging in
Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia. She recollects her own, as
she has lived through many of the terrorists’ attacks in the region.
Over the years, al-Qaeda successfully infiltrated and co-opted
homegrown Muslim movements in: North America, Europe, the Middle
East, Chechnya, Kashmir, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Groups from
these regions have their own domestic agendas, but they are also
pushing al-Qaeda’s anti-Western goals. Through al-Qaeda, terrorist
organizations around the world have exchanged tactics and
information. This book shows the silence that has been slipping
beneath the sensors of intelligence and law-enforcement agencies since
1988. Maria Ressa travels to four nations in the region, talks with
common people on the street and in the highest levels of government
and intelligence, and gives us an unprecedented look at the region,
the growth of al Qaeda, the players at work, and the future of
terrorism.
Al-Qaeda has encouraged local groups to carve out autonomous Islamic
areas that can be linked together worldwide. Much like fascism and
communism before, their goal is political power and world dominion,
but mainly to replace democracy with Islamic Shariah law. Indonesia
and its neighboring countries have become fertile ground for the
terrorist network al Qaeda. In fact, nations like Indonesia, which at
200 million has the world’s largest Muslim population. The terror i...
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...ian terrorist networks helps her understand the nature of
unconventional warfare and counterinsurgency, and the importance of
intelligence and link analysis. Using Southeast Asia as a focal
point, it becomes evident that al-Qaeda used the same tactics to
recruit, train, and mobilize thousands of Islamic fighters all over
the world. Above all, the author has seen how al-Qaeda’s tactics are
shifting under the pressures of the war on terror. The network is now
tangling itself in local conflicts, establishing Muslim independence
movements wherever they can be found, and helping local
“revolutionaries” to fund, plan and execute sinister attacks against
their neighbors, and the West (Ressa 205). Thanks to classified
investigative documents uncovered by Ressa, many of those plans have
already been discovered and revealed.
The Winchester brothers dealt with angels and demons in “Supernatural” Season 9, Episode 21 titled “King of the Damned.” However, the main focus of the episode is the issue of control over Hell between demons Crowley (Mark Sheppard) and Abaddon (Alaina Huffman).
Bloxham's book ‘The final solution: A genocide’ has brought about much criticism and debate. In this book Bloxham “seeks to situate the mass-murder of European Jewry between 1941 and 1945 within the broader history of European genocide from 1875 to 1945” . In this, he challenges the uniqueness of the holocaust, and presents the argument that the full meaning of the holocaust and final solution can only be completely understood, if it is placed in the larger context of genocide. Bloxham argues that “the history of the holocaust is itself an international history, and international history always has comparative dimensions” . Furthermore, in the forum Bloxham states that the aim of the book was to bring the holocaust into a wider history of genocide and bridge together the holocaust and genocide studies. This analysis will look at each review in order of appearance in the forum, and the comments Bloxham reports back in reaction. However in light of this analysis, not all points that were raised will be able to be commented on, instead this analysis will focus on the key point’s aspect of each review.
On November 26th, 2008 a largely unknown terrorist group forced their way into the international consciousness after an armed group of 10 terrorist’s implemented a well-planned, coordinated, and complex assault on the civilian populace of Mumbai. Utilizing Ak-47’s, hand grenades, and communication equipment, the terrorist attackers killed 104 people and injured another 308. For three days the Mumbai government struggled to effectively eliminate the perpetrators of the terrorist attack, which finally ended in a gun battle between the last living attacker and an Indian Commando unit. Only one attacker was captured by police, but the size of the attack and all of the terrorist participant’s commitment to terrorizing the Mumbai population even when surrounded and outnumbered highlights the development of Lashkar-E-Taiba (LeT), an organization which has arguably become one of the most powerful global terrorist networks. Over the past 20 years, a combination of religious ideological dogma within the Lashkar-E-Taiba, and a perceived utility within the Pakistani’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), set the conditions which allowed the transnational growth and expansion of Lashkar-E-Taiba. Since its inception, the LeT has become the largest and organized group within Kashmir (Desouza and Tobin 2007, 599). The group’s broad ideological jihadi goals and their global influence make Lashkar-E-Taiba a current threat to the United States, but also the most likely group to conduct a successful large scale significant attack against the United States or Western interests.
The reading “The Terror” by Junot Diaz is a story I can relate to because of the emotional and physical bullying I experienced in high school which I was able to curb after informing my parents who took immediate actions to put a stop to it. Junot Diaz was narrating his experiences with fear after getting beat-up as an adolescent.
Currie, Stephen. "Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda." Terrorists and Terrorist Groups. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2002. 69-83. Print.
Khashan, Hilal. “The New World Order and the Tempo of Militant Islam.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. Volume 24, Issue 1 (1997. 5), 5-24.
The subject of this review is Hassan Abbas’ book, Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America’s War on Terror (Pentagon Press, 2005). At the time of writing this book, he was a Ph.D candidate at Tufts University (USA), a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School and had served in the government of Pakistan for ten years during the administrations of Prime Mnister Benazir Bhutto and President Musharraf.
Ever since September 11, 2001 Americans along with the majority of the world’s population have been skeptical of Muslims. It’s a sad reality but it’s hard for people to think of a Muslim without linking them directly to terrorism. But these assumptions aren’t totally out of the blue—the Muslim’s religion, Islam, teaches a low tolerance for other religions and the Islamic government has no separation of church and state, so it’s only normal to assume that their government shall have a low tolerance as well—some however, immediately translate this into terrorism. Through the Islamic government and religion, relations with foreign countries, and separation amongst themselves it can be concluded that Islamic Fundamentalism is clearly a threat to political stability.
The threat of global terrorism continues to rise with the total number of deaths reaching 32,685 in 2015, which is an 80 percent increase from 2014 (Global Index). With this said, terrorism remains a growing, and violent phenomenon that has dominated global debates. However, ‘terrorism’ remains a highly contested term; there is no global agreement on exactly what constitutes a terror act. An even more contested concept is whether to broaden the scope of terrorism to include non-state and state actors.
This essay provides an analysis of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah from its foundation and grass roots development up until the splintering of the group in 2000. It also provides analysis of the motivations behind its founder and the future of JI and radical Islam.
In a post-9/11 environment where terrorists have been isolated, driven into remote, lawless areas such as Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen, the Al Qaeda network has been cut off from gathering for fear of military action or covert drone strikes. Al Qaeda?s leadership and operational assets have been driven underground. However, the ideological bonds that united those within Al Qaeda have found traction in a new generation of online jihadists, inspiring those who wish to continue the Salafist struggle. There is still much to learn about Al Qaeda, how it was formed, evolved, took action against the United
Rashid, Ahmed (2000) Taliban (1st Pan ed.) London: Pan Books (ISBN 1850653607), pp. 25-29, p. 29, pp. 71-72, pp. 74-75, p. 107, p. 177
The prominent developments in terrorism since the 1970s, that is claimed to make terrorism ‘new’, firstly includes a shift in the nature of terrorist organisations. Secondly, there has been change in the structure of the networks comprising terrorist groups. Thirdly, terrorists use weapons that maximise the number of casualties they cause, mainly weapons
In module one, we l will discuss international threats from both political and religious perspectives. In A Military Guide to Terrorism in
Different terrorist groups have emerged over the past years and caused instability and security threats globally and regionally. The Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS are some of the popular radical and extremist groups. Understanding the formation of the radical groups and strategies the groups use is important in comprehending factors that