Hezbollah: The Motivation Behind Terrorism

Islam has dominated the Religious wave. The acts of terrorism associated with other religious groups have been minimal. Islamic groups are noted to have conducted most of the profoundly and deadly international attacks. There was a combination of three events in the Islamic world, all occurring in 1979, which was responsible for the launching of the fourth wave. The events were the Iranian Revolution, the beginning of a new Islamic century and the Soviets invasion into Afghanistan. Iranians had succeed in a revolt against the secular culture that persisted by the then Shah. This showed that religious orientations had strong influence in defeating the Shah. Subsequently, the Iranians inspired and assisted in Shiite terror in other Islamic territories. Inspired by the self-martyrdom tactics of medieval Assassins the Shiites in Lebanon introduced suicide bombing which proved very effective in ousting the Americans and other foreign military occupation in their territory. At the time of the Revolution in Iran the new century of Islam began inspiring thousands of Muslims to flock to Mecca; this caused 10,000 causalities. This happening may be linked to incidences of Sunni terrorism experience in Egypt,

For our purposes, we will use the Title 22 of the US Code, Section 2656f(d), to define terrorism. It defines terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents” (Central Intelligence Agency, 2013). Examples of terrorism persist on a near daily basis around the world. Unstable countries, such as Afghanistan and Syria, deal with terrorist attacks on a constant basis. The common thread of these attacks is deliberate targeting of civilian populations in order to achieve political objectives. The best known and largest example are

This paper will discuss religious terrorism in particular. Religious terrorism can be defined as “the terrorism [is] carried out based on motivations and goals that have a predominantly religious character or influences.” (“Religious Terrorism”) An example of this will be the 9/11 attacks. It was “a series of four coordinated terrorist attack launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.”(“September 11 attacks”) This attack had led to a serious causality, “almost 3000 people dies in the attacks.” (“September 11 attacks”) Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, declared a “holy war against the United States” (“September 11 attacks”) In his “letter to America”, he stated the motives as follows: In opposition to western support for attacking Muslims in Somalia; supporting the Indian oppression against Muslims in Kashmir; the Jewish aggression against Muslims in Lebanon; the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia; U.S support of Israel and the sanction against Iraq. (“September 11 attacks”) The disastrous attack leads to a serious attention of re-constructing the old version of counter terrorism strategy, which had failed to protect the citizens against terrorism. However, ‘terrorism is far to complex for one solution to be effective in dealing with all the possible threats.” (Lygutas 146) Therefore, some of the measures have difficulties in balancing the rights of

Terrorism is an act of violence, usually done in the public sphere, which is used to incite fear in a population in order to coerce change in public opinion or a government’s position on an issue. In many parts of the world, groups wage war with their countries, either to separate from the government or to overthrow it entirely. Sometimes these people are treated unfairly by their government, and their struggles are justified. Other times, these groups use violence against both military and civilian targets, terrorizing innocent bystanders to get what they want—these groups are terrorists. Often, though, it is difficult to tell the difference.

Iran gave direct support to Hezbollah through the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Hezbollah opposed Lebanon because it was supported by Israel and the United States, and in 1985 it issued its political agenda through the “Open Letter to the Downtrodden in Lebanon and in the World.”# In 1989, the Taif Accord emerged and the Lebanese Civil War ended in 1990 when Syrian troops moved into parts of Lebanon that were not occupied by Israel. The Taif Accord balanced powers between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon, and overall tried to maneuver equality amongst both groups although Sunni elites were given the dominant role. After the Taif Accord, economic conditions continued to worsen and many began to underestimate the ability of Syria to control Lebanon. Syria then made the strategic move to promote Rafiq al-Hariri in 1992 to rescue Lebanon from its eventual demise. Hariri was able to boost the economy and revive morale in the Sunni communities. By the 1990s Hariri was capable of governing Lebanon independent of Syria. This began a decline of Syrian support for him, and a decline of Sunni dominance. After Hariri’s assassination in 2005, Syria was able to grasp control of Lebanon once more, and enabled Hezbollah to demonstrate a larger role. First existing as a revolutionary Islamist movement,

Hezbollah suicide bomb attack on June 18 2012, in Sarafovo Airport in Bulgaria, in which five Israeli citizens were killed in that attack.

Hezbollah is a Shiit Islamic political and paramilitary organization based in Lebanon. This organization is a political and military force. According to The Council on Foreign Relations, “Hezbollah (or "Party of God") emerged during Lebanon's fifteen-year-long civil war (1975–1990) in the aftermath of Israel's invasion in 1982 and subsequent occupation” (Masters, 2014). Hezbollah is fighting against Israel and “western imperialism” in Lebanon. This means that they wanted dominance over Israel. Hezbollah’s origins and ideology form from the Iranian Revolution. “The revolution called for a religious Muslim government that would represent the oppressed and downtrodden” states (Hezbollah: History & Overview). One of the reasons why Hezbollah is

Israel ended up withdrawing from Lebanon in 2000, yet Hezbollah, both its military and political wings of its organization, were still intact, functioning, and effective throughout the occupation and afterwards. In fact, it could be argued that Hezbollah came back with more support for its political wing because the number of seats it had in the Lebanese parliament increased from seven to nine between the elections of 1992 and 2000. In this sense, it could be viewed by Hezbollah supporters as a point towards Hezbollah’s abilities because it was able to resist Israeli occupation (one of its stated goals in its Open Letter and Manifesto) for eighteen years when Israel no longer saw any efficacy in the operation and withdrew its

Even though Islam is a religion that does not seek to promote violence among its followers, terrorist leaders have managed to manipulate the interpretations of Islam and other religions for their own benefit (Khan, 2012). Terrorist leaders modify the interpretations in way in which the tasks within the personal agenda of the terrorist leaders will be accomplished. When terrorist leaders modify the religious interpretations, they mainly seek to make violent acts appear justifiable by their religion so that the members and supporters of the terrorist organization can gain the valor and motivation they need to commit terrorist attacks against the enemies of the terrorist leaders (Khan, 2012).

Hezbollah, a radical Shi’a Muslim group located in southern Lebanon was formed with the purpose of liberating Jerusalem through establishing an Islamic government across the Arab world as well as the group does not acknowledge the authority of the State of Israel. There are many names that Hezbollah has been referred to such as Party of God, Organization by the Oppressed of Earth, and the Revolutionary Justice Organization. The United States State Department labeled Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization.

History- Hezbollah started in 1982 during the first Lebanon war. Hezbollah is group of Muslims which is a party of God. They are powerful in military and powerful in politics. Hezbollah is located in Lebanon. Lebanon is east of Syria. A lot of the members of Hezbollah are either Muslims or Syrian people. Hezbollah is the most powerful in military, biggest, wealthiest, and smartest terrorist organization.

The terrorist organization Hezbollah has a short history but the relationship between Lebanon and Israel has been unstable and destructive since their inception in 1982. From the time of their existence, Hezbollah’s focus has been to eliminate Israel and drive out western imperialism in Lebanon. They have been involved with two wars with Israel and countless acts of violence and terror against other nations. In addition, they do not recognize Israel as a legitimate state. The Council on Foreign Relations states, “Hezbollah emerged during Lebanon’s fifteen-year-long civil war (1975-1990) in the aftermath of Israel’s invasion in 1982 and subsequent occupation”. Once Hezbollah was established, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard provided financial and political aid, sanctuary, training, and thousands of soldiers to assist with Hezbollah’s main objective – “to establish an Islamic government across the Arab world that will liberate Jerusalem and the entire area of the present-day State of Israel.” Hezbollah also wanted to adopt the ideologies of the Iranian Revolution, which is a combination of nationalism, political populism, and Shia Islamic religious radicalism.

on March 2, 2016, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) posted on its official website a scathing condemnation of the Lebanese Islamist movement the Party of God (Hezbollah), accusing it of carrying out "hostile acts" in the six GCC member-states and engaging in campaigns of "terror and incitement" in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

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