Is Terrorism Justified?

First, I see terrorism as war and a terrorist in my view is a soldier going to war for certain purpose and reason to destroy. If captured, they should be treated as prisoners of war. What comes to the mind of terrorists is always war such as in military actions because they believe they have a cause to fight for. They are not countries declaring war

“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.” Within this definition, there are three key

The word ‘terrorism’ can be traced back to the French Revolution and the reign of terror committed against the population of France in the 1790s. During this time, thousands of people were killed and the general population was severely oppressed. Also, some of the first instances of terrorist tactics, such as assassination and intimidation, were witnessed in the killing of prominent officials and other opponents of the Revolution. In general, terrorists aim to incite fear in the population through pre-meditated violent acts and gain publicity as a medium in achieving their goals. Such acts include taking hostages, bombings and assassinations, all of which create fear and compliance in a victim or audience. Terrorism can be distinguished from other types of political violence through its disregard for and intentional harming of innocent civilians. Also, terrorists usually adopt a state of mind where one side is always good and any opposition is bad and deserves to be punished. As a result, terrorists will always have some supporters who share the same radical thoughts as them and thus terrorism, as a whole, will always be accepted as a legitimate use of violence. This is the reasoning behind the famous phrase by Gerald Seymour, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”(QUOTE

Terrorism, the very word bring a foul mood with it, wherever it goes, yet most don’t even know the meaning of the word. Most people insult the idea without very little thought, even when knowing not a thing about it, or why its being caused. The Boston Tea party was an act of terrorism, and is taught to be known as one in some schools in the U.S., and many will rise and say that the Boston Tea Party was a justified, valiant, and patriotic act. Terrorism, in many cases, can be proven.

Terrorism is something that has been going on since the dawn of mankind, and it will be with us until the very end. Most people know terrorism only as a horrific, inhumane process that is used to inflict harm and fear towards specific ethnic and religious groups. In reality, however, terrorism was actually used in our very own revolution, the American Revolution. You will see that the Boston Tea Party is a superb example of terrorism. American settlers dressed up like Native Americans, parading and shouting down the streets of Boston late at night, all the way down to the docks, boarded the tea ships, and dumped every parcel of tea down the Charles river. This was the start of American terrorism in the American revolution, and it continued through the war as the Americans started using guerilla warfare and attacking major centers for the British military and the British economy.

In the article “Is Terrorism Distinctively Wrong?”, Lionel K. McPherson criticizes the dominant view that terrorism is absolutely and unconditionally wrong. He argues terrorism is not distinctively wrong compared to conventional war. However, I claim that terrorism is necessarily wrong.

Terrorism is defined as an act of violence that is committed by an organization or a single person in order to be heard. Terrorist acts are usually based on a couple factors such as, historical grievances, foreign policy decision, poverty, and religion. Terrorism is not a new act amongst the world but something that has been around since the beginning. To understand a criminal you must think like a criminal, and understand why they committed a crime or a violent act, then you can prevent and conquer.

The term terrorism is used widely in present day especially in the United States. Terrorism is a double standard, the people who commit those terrorist acts, commit the acts out of beliefs and in their eyes ok. Terrorism can be described as the illegitimate use of force to achieve a political objective by targeting innocent people (Laqueur, 1987). To me the definition mention above is a great definition to describe terrorism as a crime. To aim for innocent people to prove a point which lead major injuries or death in most cases is to most people would be a crime, no questions asked. According to Martha Crenshaw (1995), “Terrorism cannot be defined unless the act, target and possibility of success are analyzed”. So to think, terrorist are people who commit these acts as a way to get their political or religious point across. If we look at the some of the most famous terrorist acts they are automatically labeled crimes. 9/11 was a crime because the persons affiliated with the act, targeted the

The definition of terrorism is “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” From what I have learned about the 9/11 Terror Attacks, this definition seems to be heavily based on the events that occurred that day. I asked my mom about her personal experiences that day, and she seems to remember it very vividly. These are -from what she has told me- Her experiences that day.

Domestic terrorism is an extraordinarily real and frightening thing Americans today have to manage. While many protest at the idea of allowing refugees from the Middle East into the country, others realize that domestic terrorism may be the real problem we should be focusing on. Domestic terrorism, is terrorist activity against one's own country to initiate fear and push an ideology about a particular religion or group. In the US since Sept. 11, 2001, "nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, anti government fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims" (Scott). The statistic is certainly alarming because the media and today's society views the typical terrorist as an Allah praising, bearded, suicide bomber when in fact, in over half the cases it was an American citizen causing the terror.

There are many different definitions of terrorism. Encyclopedia.com defines it very broadly as “the use of violence to further a political or social cause”. (2003). Another source states “Terrorism has been described variously as both a tactic and strategy; a crime and a holy duty; a justified reaction to oppression and an inexcusable abomination” (Terrorism Research, n.d.). Our unit one lecture reminded us of the adage “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” and pondered whether the Boston Tea Party could be viewed as an act of terrorism (Bethel University, 2017). Regardless of the exact definition one chooses to use, our nation faces a wide range of threats from those who intend to do us harm. The individuals and organizations who threaten us are as

"Terrorism has more frequently been associated with violence committed by disenfranchised groups desperately attempting to gain a shred of power or influence" (Juergensmeyer 4), but more often terrorism has been for religion. Terrorism is done to get across someone religious views to others. We are seeing more acts of terrorism on the news today. ISIS being one of the biggest terrorist groups and has attacked on multiple occasions. More then ever, people are on edge to terrorist activity. Although we have come up with new ideas and ways to prevent terrorist attacks terrorism is still growing. After 9/11, the United States changed its policy on the process to board a plan. We try different ways to stop and prevent terrorist attacks but we still find new ways terrorists are attacking us. Terrorist attacks are never acts by on person rather its an act from multiple people. Juergensymeyer talks about different attacks and different ways those attacks where handled.

There have been various definitions and views of terrorism that have beenfronted over the years. It has been described as a strategy and at other levels as a tactic, some have called it a crime and yet other refer to it as a holy/noble duty; some consider it an inexcusable abomination yet others consider it a systematic reaction to oppression. Obviously, a lot depends on whose point of view is being represented, be it theological, political or psychological. Also terrorism can be seen as willful destruction (killing) of people or destruction of property by people not acting on behalf of an established government to redress a real or imaginary injustice attributed to an established government. However it is important to note that not all cases of willful destruction of people or property are acts of terrorism (Red Cross Organization, 2007).

The second reason is that terrorism does not have just causes to support it to wage war. In a book, Aquinas sums up a justified and moral war is that “the war must be pursued for a morally just cause or purpose, such as self-defense or to take back what was unjustly seized” (Velasquez, 2017, p.641). To be brief, if a country starts war in pursuit of more equitable treatment, or it hopes to protect its country from invasion, war in this way has a just cause and is moral. But from other aspect, if a country has no cause or proper purpose, and it arbitrarily uses violence to harm innocent people or destroy another country, it is wrong. A question is raised whether there is a just cause for terrorism when the war started? Taking the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai as an example, this incident was a series of attacks which was launched by Lashkar-e-Taiba which is an extremist organization.

For example, the Andijan Events, which happened in 2005. Many innocent people were killed during the terrorists attempt to take control over the government of (maybe in) Andijan. As the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov said (Uzbek Nation Will Never Depend on Others, 2005), the executors of that terror act were the members of, so-called, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Their primary goal was to set Caliphate in Uzbekistan, which would have made Uzbekistan an Islamic Republic and led to put dot in Uzbekistan's development, especially in economy growth. Also, there are some other reasons for terrorist acts such as: hate towards a race, nationality, or religion. The following example contains all reasons listed above. Another international terror group Al-Qaeda, number one terror group with a multimillionaire leader Osama Ben Laden, carried out a terror attack in 2001, in USA. Referring to Wikipedia.com (2006), terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes and crashed two of them into World Trade Centre, in Manhattan. The other one crashed to US Pentagon, and fourth crashed in rural place in Pennsylvania. It took about 2,986 lives of innocent people, including 19 hijackers, and more than 40 000 people were injured.