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Terrorism and Muslims in the world
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When 19 hijackers took control of four commercial airlines (two Boeings 757 and two Boeings 767) and crashing them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, some would say they never thought about terrorism. Today when you the word terrorism and immediately we think of al-Qaeda or other Islamic extremists. While Islamic extremism does contribute to certain types of terrorism, there are many other forms as well, all with their own characteristics and challenges for policy makers. These types commonly overlap to describe single terrorist organizations but are useful in providing a way of differentiating what these groups will target and what motivates them.
The commonly accepted meaning of the word terrorism is any use of terror in the form of violence or threats meant to coerce an individual, group, or entity to act in a manner in which any person or group could not otherwise lawfully force them to act. There is no true definition of terrorism; the world community has struggled with creating a legal definition of terrorism that is globally accepted. Defining these groups helps us to understand necessary responses to each form of terrorism. Here are three (state, religious, and international) of the several of the most common types of terrorism, and examples of each.
Scholar Gus Martin describes state terrorism as terrorism "committed by governments and quasi-governmental agencies and personnel against perceived threats", which can be directed against both domestic and foreign targets (Martin, 2013). State terrorism is the systematic use of terror by a government in order to control its population. Not to be confused with state sponsored terrorism, where states sponsor terrorist groups, state terrorism is entirely carried out ...
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...lians had “been victims of incidents claimed by or attributed to the ANC. There were reports claiming significant links between the ANC and Communist countries, noting that the ANC "receives support from the Soviet bloc, Cuba and a number of African nations in addition to contributions from the West." After the Cold War the State and Defense departments back off their dire characterization of the ANC, it called the group "a politically diverse organization, representing a range of views.
Mandela and other ANC officials remained on the terror watch list even as President Bush welcomed Mandela, newly released from prison, to the White House in 1990. Because of what was described as a "bureaucratic snafu," their names were kept on the list until 2008; 14 years after Mandela had been elected president and nine years after he had left power. He was 90 at the time.
Categorical terrorism, according to Jeff Goodwin, is defined as “the strategic use of violence and threats of violence, usually intended to influence several audiences, by oppositional political groups against civilian or noncombatants who belong to a specific entity, religious or national group, social class or some other collectivity, without regard to their individual identities or roles.” More so, in terms of definition, according to a study done by Jeffrey Record in 2003, there was a count of over 109 definitions of terrorism, covering 22 different categorical elements. During the 70s and 80s, the United Nations struggled to define the term, finally coming up with the following definition: “Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.”
Al-Qaeda, an Islamic terrorist group, was responsible for hijacking four commercial planes. Nine members of the Islamic terrorist group carried out suicide missions at three different locations: New York City, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania. Of the four planes, two were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third hit the Pentagon in Washington DC, and the fourth, which was believed to be heading towards the White House in DC, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. American Airlines Flight 77, which carried 64 passengers, departed Washington-Dulles for Los Angeles around 8:20 A.M., was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon. American Airlines Flight 11, which carried 92 passengers, and United Airlines Flight 175, which carried 65 passengers, departed Boston for Los Angeles around 8:00 A.M., and were both hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center. United Airlines flight 93, which carried 44 passengers, departed Newark International Airport for San Francisco around 8:40 A.M, was hijacked, and crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Around 8:40 A.M., the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) notifies North American Aerospace Defense Command’s Northeast Air Defense Sector about suspected hijacking of American Flight 1. Shortly thereafter ...
Over the past century, terrorism has advanced from random killings to enormous plans for terrorist groups. To understand terrorism, you must first define it. Terrorism as we all know it is hard to define and understand, and has many different definitions as it is used widely. The word "terrorism" stems from the word "terror", which means to instill fear in. People become terrorists when they take the actions towards instilling fear and terror upon people to prove a certain point or agenda.
Within the world today, there are many organizations with varying opinions about specific ideals. But some of the organizations will take things to the extreme, and will do almost anything to prove that their view is the right one. This extreme act to further an objective is known as terrorism, but what exactly is a formal definition of terrorism? Frank Schmalleger defines it as “[a] violent act or an act dangerous to human life, in violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any state, that is committed to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (Criminal Justice Today, 2013 p.560). The American way of life and other aspects such as policy and the criminal justice system have been impacted by terrorism in many ways over the course of the twenty first century.
State terrorism is terrorism from above meaning that it is committed by governments against perceived enemies. It can be both external meaning international or internal meaning domestic. State terrorism is the official support by governments for policies of violence, repression, and intimidation. It is directed against enemies that the state has determined to be a threat against its interests or securities. State terrorism utilizes many types and degrees of violence to include warfare, genocide, assassinations, and torture. Warfare is the use of conventional military forces of the state against an enemy, whether the enemy is external or internal or a conventional or guerrilla combatant. Genocide is where the state uses its resources towards the elimination of a group. It does not differentiate between enemy combatants or enemy civilians, they are all considered enemies. Assassinations are selective applications of homicidal state violence where a single person or a select group of people are designated for elimination. Torture is an instrument of intimidation, interrogation, and humiliation that is also used on a select person of group of people. There are se...
Throughout his 95 years of living, Nelson Mandela earned the title of many things: global peacemaker, civil rights activist, writer, president, politician, philanthropist, and many more. As an active member of the anti-apartheid movement in 1942, Mandela was known for peaceful and non-violent protests against South Africa's government and their policy of Apartheid, a system of racial segregation. After 20 years of these attempts, realizing non-violence was not working to put an end to apartheid, Mandela moved on to armed struggle. The African National Congress was made illegal and Mandela was put in prison for 27 years for political offenses; sabotage and guerrilla war tactics, after coordinating a workers' strike. 18 of those 27 years in prison
In Module one, I learned that terrorism is a result of physical harm or deadly acts of force with the intent of a political outcome by the use of terror for coercion. There are various types of terrorism such as international terrorism and domestic terrorism. International terrorism occurs outside of the United States with a purpose to influence the policy of a government by intimidation. International and Domestic terrorism both involve violent acts dangerous to human life that violate federal and state laws. Domestic terrorism occurs within the United States with the intention of coercion or intimidation by way of mass destruction, etc. Some forms of terrorism include Improvised explosive devices (IED), kidnappings, suicide bombings and
...errilla attacks and stage strikes in order to appeal to the UN, and after a while it worked, but it took about five years for the international community to recognize the FLN was the legitimate rulers of the state. This was mostly because they staged attacks on civilians as well as their French oppressors, so both sides were at fault. The ANC realized that they could mobilize and use those who were exiled from South Africa to raise awareness of the apartheid state, and thus used culture and song to portray the events to an international audience. Each group was ultimately successful in their movements, and their pleas to the international community never fell on deaf ears. Thus, while the FLN and ANC took completely different routes, they were both able to garner attention to their respective movements, which helped both groups get on the path towards independence.
The concept of state terrorism is highly debated. The main opposition to state-terrorism declares that states have legitimate monopoly over violence, therefore, state-violence cannot be considered terrorism (Lacquer). Furthermore, conceptualizing particular properties of state-terrorism has furthered complicated the debate. For instance, should state-terrorism constitute external conflict or internal conflict; also is the normative strength of non-state violence as compelling as
Nelson Mandela’s commitment to politics and the ANC grew stronger after the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner dominated National Party, which formed a formal system of racial classification and segregation “apartheid” which restricted non whites basic rights and barred them from government.
The U.S. Department of State defines terrorism as, “The calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological”. Whereas the Belgium Red Cross says that terrorism is committed “for the purpose of intimidating the population, forcing a third party to act or destablishing or destroying the fundamental structures of a country or of an international organization”.
The word terrorism was first used during the French Revolution from the reign of terror inflicted by the French from 1784-1804 ("International Affairs"). It was used to describe the violent acts perpetrated on the French that inflicted terror on the various peoples and instilled fear within them. However, at the time it had a more positive connotation than the term that instills fear today. During the French Revolution this was because it referred to state-sponsored terrorism in order to show the need of state instead of anarchy, sometimes promoted by other groups (Hoffman 2). Therefore, even though terrorism has taken a new nature, terrorism can refer to official governments or guerrilla groups operating outside national governments ("International Affairs"). In order to encompass terrorism’s various sectors and explain it to the public, in both positive and negative aspects, many analysts have tried to put it into a few words. Terrorism is a method used by tightly of loosely organized groups operation within states or international territories that are systematic in using deliberate acts of violence or threats in order to instill...
Terrorism is one of the most extensively discussed issues of our time and at the same time it is also one of the least understood. The term itself “terrorism” means many different things to different people, cultures, and races. As a result, trying to define or classify terrorism with one universal definition is nearly impossible. The definition of terrorism used in this research is a reflection of much of the Western and American way of defining it. The definition of terrorism is,
He quoted “Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people” (Mandela, n.p.). Nelson Mandela wasted no time in prison; he earned his bachelor of law degree from the University of London Correspondence Program. When he was released in 1990, within a year, he was announced the president of the ANC forming a youth league also known as ANCYL-African National Congress Youth League. Also, as challenging as this was, Mandela tried making elections racially undivided and this was a nonsuccess. Anarchy broke out amongst the southern black Africans because they wanted all the power instead of sharing power with the whites, which is what the whites intended. Understanding Mandela, he wanted a peaceful movement and was elected president on May 10, 1994.
In this world there are many different topics of controversy. With every controversial topic comes different views and arguments explaining why people believe what they do. There are problems that can be just within one country or throughout the entire world. Terrorism affects everyone in the world, specifically us as Americans, which is why it is one of the biggest controversial topics. Of course with a topic as big as terrorism, there are emic and etic perspectives involved. With past history, there are specific countries and religions that we think of when we hear the word terrorism, specifically Afghanistan, located in the Middle East and the Muslim religion in that general area. Being part of the American