Terrorism:
There is no set definition for terrorism, this is because each country have a different definition of terrorism, but it is commonly recognized as violence from groups with political, religious or ideological ideas. Terrorism tries to bring about change with violence and their targets are usually unsuspecting civilians. However, freedom fighters understand terrorism to be violence against the government and government policy to bring about political, and social change to better their way of life. There are two major category of terrorism, International and Domestic terrorism (Yancey, 2006).
Causes of Terrorism:
There are five major factor that terrorist are motivated by, “political ideology, racial/moral convictions, anarchism, religious, or nationalism” (Yancey, 2006). People choose terrorism when they feel there is no way out. They fight to defend what they believe is right. They believe that violence will be effective and will cause change. They believe that the means justify the ends. It is hard to give an exact reason of why people become terrorist however, there are many factors that are believed to be influential for example, Ethnicity, nationalism/separatism, poverty and economic disadvantage, globalization, (non)democracy, Western society, disaffected intelligentsia, dehumanization, and religion
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. Its leader, Osama bin Laden, issued a fatwa (religious ruling) in February 1998 calling for a worldwide Islamic jihad (holy war) to kill Christians and Jews. Bin Laden 's key targets appear to be U.S. citizens and U.S. property. He is infuriated by the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia and by the influence of Western culture on Islamic nations. The United States is also Israel 's strongest supporter, an enemy of bin Laden and his followers who favor the Palestinians. He was also responsible for the U.S. 9/11 attack (Religious
What internally drives a terrorist’s motivation varies from subject to subject. While the average American citizen would likely be quick to point terrorists hate the western way of life and what it represents, the issue is far more complex. Simon Cottee’s article “What Motivates Terrorists?” (2015), looks at various levels of motivation. Prior definitions of terrorism looked at the defining cause as possibly psychological abnormalities within in the individual (Cottee, 2015). As studies have evolved, the focus has shifted to the environment in which the terrorist is surrounded. While certainly there is cases in which a person who is mentally unstable could be an ideal target for terrorist propaganda, the number of cases involving mental
Where did the animosity which lead to the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001 originate? It is obvious at this point in time that the leader of the al Qaeda network, Osama bin Laden, was the mastermind behind the attacks, but the reasons why the attacks occurred and the fact that a small majority of people can support such acts remains very unclear. Osama bin Laden stated in his February 1998 Fatwah, “The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies- civilians and military- is an individual duty for every Muslim.” When examining the three direct reasons given by Osama bin Laden to kill Americans his reasoning based on factual evidence veers far from the truth and his reasoning based on religion is not a true reflection of the Islamic religion thus creating an illogical argument. Osama bin Laden’s reasons for killing Americans and their allies are insufficient in the sense that his claims about United State’s motivations are wrong and that his justifications are not rooted in the Muslim religion. In looking specifically at each of Osama bin Laden’s reasons their invalidity as well as, their true purpose, to create an uprising amongst his followers to succeed in his Fatwah, to kill Americans and their allies becomes apparent.
The most infamous leader of the Al Qaeda is Osama bin Laden of Saudi Arabia. Osama Bin Laden did not derive his theories, practices, or views because he was educated or raised through the teachings of Islamic seminaries, though his principal inspiration appears to be based upon far-reaching religious sentiment. His higher education was actually the study of engineering at a prominent university in Saudi Arabia (Schweitzer and Shay, 2003). Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian, was a highly regarded mentor and the primary source of persuasion for Bin Laden’s ideology and fundamental vision. Azzam was the main architect behind jihad views and is credited as the founder of Al Qaeda. Osama Bin Laden also shaped his outlook from the works and actions of zealous Islamic philosophers from all over the middle-eastern region of the world that opposed Soviet occupation (...
This paper will talk about three different types of terrorism. A background of each type will be provided to understand the motivations and goals. The first type that will be discussed is religious terrorism. The second type that will be discussed is suicide terrorism. The third and last type that will be discussed is nationalist terrorism. Each type of terrorism has distinct differences in their goals, motivations, strategy, use of violence, etc. However, the main focus of this paper will be on the difference between each type’s tactics and/or strategy.
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.
The topic of my paper is types of terrorism. There are several types of terrorism for which to choose for my paper, state, dissident, religious, left-wing v. right-wing, and international. In this paper I have chosen state terrorism, religious terrorism, and international terrorism as the types of terrorism that I am going to discuss. I will discuss what they are in my own words and give examples of two different groups for each type that represent that type of terrorism. Then I will compare and contrast the three types of terrorism that I chose.
Terrorism is used around the world to create fear and influence the public on political views (Siegel, 489). There are four views of terrorism including the psychological view, socialization view, ideological view, and the alienation view. A religious terrorist would most likely fit under the ideological view. In this view the terrorist feels the need to change a wrong opinion and believes that, because they are sacrificing themselves for something they believe so strongly in, it justifies the damage and harm done to innocent people (Siegel, 490). They use terror to create fear in anyone who opposes them and attract followers to their religion. In short, terrorism is widely used for political reasons but religion has been linked to the violence as well.
Al Qaeda is leading by Osama bin laden that was born and grown up in Saudi Arabia; his family was very rich and respected by Saudi Royal household and the public. When he finished his University in Saudi Arabia, he becomes an extreme religious person. Osama started to help Islamist movement against communist in Yemen (Gunaratna, 2005) . In December 1997 when Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan he went to Pakistan and then Afghanistan to help Afghan group to protect it from Soviet Union. At the time a Palestinian Jordanian, Dr Abdullah Azzam esta...
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”.
In my opinion, the most persuasive cause of terrorism would be what Martin describes as sociological causes, particularly the theory of relative deprivation. This theory means that people turn towards acts of collective violence due to the belief that they are being deprived of certain rights or are being treated as second-class citizens. The rights that people may be derived from can be anything from social rights such as personal security to basic rights like food and shelter. When people in a particular area who have a sense of being repressed in some manner unite, they may begin to act collectively to achieve their goals. The relative deprivation theory works well in that it is not too broad, yet it still is narrow enough where one can argue that most terrorist feel that they are being prevented from exercising what they believe to be their rights. For example, people in the Basque region in Spain fight for their right to preserve their national identity whereas Palestinians in Israel fight for their nation and their rights as Israeli citizens which are denied (Martin 50,51). This shows the broad range of reasons why people may take up arms as terrorists
Terrorism is a type of violence used tactically in peace, conflict, and war. The threat of terrorism is ever present, and an attack is likely to occur when least expected. In trying to find out what factors can cause an individual to choose terrorism, it is first necessary to define what terrorism is. The Department of Defense defines terrorism as “the calculated use of violence or threat of 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.” Per the definition, the terrorists are not giving into a whim of random acts, but these individuals are using calculated moves in order to achieve the purpose of the group. Simply put, this suggests that these individuals are making a conscious choice for violence. What motivates these groups to choose terrorism as a means to achieve a particular agenda? The majority of the motives can be broken down into three broad areas: rational, psychological, and cultural.(1) Although some motives are difficult for the majority of the World to comprehend; given a motive, a terrorist group has a purpose for violence.
The paper “The Terrorists Threat World Risk Society Revisited” written by Ulrich Beck, the author analyses how risk has changed overtime and he focuses on the idea of new risk, and that is world risk. Ulrich Beck breaks down this idea of world risk into three different types, spatial, temporal and social. As well, he also names three different types of conflict, he discusses the effects of risk on the center and the periphery and he examines the use of language. In this essay the main focus will be on how the main points of Ulrich Beck can all relate to the three different types of risk otherwise known as the de-bounding of risk. Also, I will look at how the de-bounding of risk has dissolved the idea of nation-states.
Nobody can truly identify the term “terrorism” with a universal definition but it is attempted by many and interpreted differently. The best way to put it would be the use of violence, to create fear either politically, religiously, or in terms of warfare. It is violence that attempts to bring out some important change. There are many characteristics involved in this field that makes it challenging to narrow down. The biggest separation on this topic is the split between left-wing terrorism and right-wing terrorism. Left-wing (or progressive) terrorism is mostly associated with communism, and tries to challenge the government by creating more options for economic and social equality. Right wing (or conservative) terrorism opposes systems designated to altering individual wealth. This is not only what these two groups of terrorism believe in, but it is also what they believe justifies their use of violence. All types of terrorism have certain similarities obviously, but there are many differences and variances in between the two sides of right and left extremism. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as, FARC, is a prime example of a left wing terrorist organization, as opposed to the American Front, which is the prime example of a right-wing terrorist organization (Forest, 197 -228)
In slightly different words, the American Heritage Cultural Dictionary defines terrorism as “Acts of violence committed by groups that view themselves as victimized by some notable historical wrong.” Many times these groups do not have a formal connection with government affairs, but they do have financial a moral backing from sympathetic governments. These groups typically stage attacks on civilian targets that are quite unexpect...
The determination of the driving force in what causes terroristic behavior is no easy task. The psychology of terrorism is marked by theory and opinions than by actual scientific methodology, examining the terrorists and their acts from afar can lead to erroneous conclusions because one group’s terrorist is another group’s freedom