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Religious And Political Terrorism In The United States

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The definition of terrorism has forever been a topic of debate. One thing agreed upon however, is that there are different types of terrorism. For instance, there is religious terrorism, and there is political terrorism. This paper will discuss the question: How do religious and political terrorism differ in terms of their roots, their motivations, and their methods – and it will also briefly discuss how their traits coincide. Political terrorism is an entity of its own; its roots therefore, are distinct. It used to be thought that poverty was the main cause of political terrorism. Recently however, this has been challenged and evidence shows that while still a small determining factor, poverty is not nearly as concise of a determinant than as previously thought. The research suggests that levels of poverty do not encounter more terrorism than rich countries. (Krueger & Laitin, 3003) This however does not mean there is no correlation; simply that it is less than previously thought. More prominently, it seems to be that things such as levels of political freedom and geographic features are where the roots of political terrorism …show more content…

The roots of religious terrorism, while fairly difficult to place, seems to hold their weight in a religions sacred scripture – whether that be the bible, the Qur’an, or any other form of ideological instruction and story perpetuated by a specific religion. Terrorism in the religious sense seems to be rooted in a longing for the triumphant historic past based in military success and thriving religious kingdoms Along with this longing for the “old ways,” there goes hand in hand the desire of preservation. Violence has always worked alongside religion when its traditions and customs were being threatened, therefore the roots that currently hold of religious terrorism hold strongly in this need to preserve the past. (Roots of Terrorism, pp.

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