Religious Extremism : The Major Cause Of Terrorism

“Terrorism's particularly heinous but highly attractive means to achieve political objectives or even radically restructure political foundations is manifest within societies in all reaches of the world. While the practical application of terrorist methodologies comes across as a relatively straightforward craft, the conceptual and ideological understanding, and subsequent evaluation of its socio-political influence, implementation, and psychological impacts present difficult questions, and in some cases conceivably insurmountable obstacles” (Romaniuk 2014, para

The second Part of Jonathan R. White’s ninth edition Terrorism and Homeland Security deals with the national and ethnic movements of international terrorism, their emergence as well as well as motifs. Ideological terrorist and ethnic separatists are hard to differentiate since they use the same procedures and tactics to get their demands. Although both fall under the definition of terrorism, there is a difference in the definition of their goals and demands. While separatists have defined, achievable goal, religious terrorists have a nihilistic ideology that are from a rational point of view not feasible. Therefore, it is impossible for satisfactorily negotiation

During this week, I learned about the face of terrorism, as well as terrorist organizational models, and the psychology of terrorism. As a result, I am able to identify what terrorism is by identifying the political, psychological, violent, and deliberate objectives of a group. In addition, I now understand the structure of a terrorist organization and the four levels that make up a terrorist group, as well as the human behaviors that lead a person to become a terrorist.

Without engaging contextual dimensions and other studies is bound to fail in understanding the complexity reality of terrorism ion the global level, especially on so-called Islamic terrorism. It has become a routine to associate terrorism to religion, particularly Islamic. Finally, a critical approach assesses why literature on religious terrorism has nothing connecting Christian, Hindu, and Jewish to terrorism. Thus, Islamic is regarded as a violent religion, where uncritical research escalates the situation that good in understanding new set of challenges in the post-cold war era. Current literature materials stereotype Muslims as terrorists irrational, violent and consider Islamic as a backward religion that turn an ordinary Muslim into a potential

The rise of radical Islam and it’s creation of it’s many terrorist groups is one of the largest political problems of the 21st century. The solution to this issue does not lie in blindly asserting military force within the Middle East, but rather targeting the root of the hate itself. Though, this does not disqualify military intervention. The target of this paper is to dissect the issues that create tension, with regards to the spectrum of modern terrorism, and to propose a solution to the conflict that rages on everyday. I believe that this is best accomplished through analyzing historical events and ideas that created our current situation. I will look into a few crucial events that I believe lead radical groups to harbor hatred towards

Religious terrorism occurs when the use of terrorism is systematized by an ideology and fanatical interpretation of a religious text. Terrorist group functioning in the absence of this pretext create junk. Religious terrorism functions on the basic of five essential principles. These are: means justify the end, holy war, blind obedience, absolute truth claims and the ideal times . Kimball explains that ‘truth claims’ are essential point in a religion “at which divergent interpretations arise. Extreme interpretations of ‘truth claims’ provoke the ideology upon which religious terrorism is based. However the “authentic religious truth claims are never as inflexible and exclusive as zealous adherents insist. The staunch ‘truth claims’ professed

Secularism as an belief can contain religion and allow the division of the state and the religious institution. However, it cannot overcome religious extremism. Religious extremism refers to a different ideology that is a mix of the CIA blowback and a fear of extermination by radicals who pay back with violence. Extremism has various different forms and can not only be only attributed as a characteristic of religion. Even though terrorism is responsible for fewer deaths than other causes of death such as gun violence in the US or road accidents, religious extremism has been exaggerated and presented more alarmingly in the world than it should have been. A report in 2005, showed statistics that proved that the number of deaths from car crashes

When we think of a person who joins a terrorist group we think that they must be a psychopath or suffer from some form of mental illness. There has to be something wrong with that individual to be so easily swayed into a group that is so violent and has no regard for human life. However, classic studies like those performed by Milgram and Zimbardo proved that even stable, well-adjusted individuals can be capable of inflicting serious harm on fellow human beings without any regret. These studies proved anyone put into the right circumstances could be lead to treat their fellow human beings with extreme cruelty, dehumanization, or even death. Therefore, the majority of

As the world increasingly becomes more interconnected and globalization continues at an alarming rate, radical Islam is now at the forefront of the global agenda. While Islamic extremism is not a new concept, and has arguably been around since the dawn of Islam, it only now has become a truly global affair, engaging every nation in the world. With the rise of attention on radical Islam also comes another concept, the misunderstanding of Islam. Some choose to argue that Islam a religion of peace, while others, the greater majority, choose to argue it is a religion of violence, but frankly, neither are the case. The Quran, history, and modern politics all show that Islam is not a religion of peace or violence, but simply a religion of reaction;

An assumption presented by government analysts is that leaders of terrorist organizations recruit “naïve” and vulnerable people (especially young people) to be radicalized and perpetrate terrorist acts. In the case of Islamic groups, many scholars and analyst inaccurately blame Islam and the Quran as the origin or radicalization. The origin of political violence is not Islam; it is the description of Islamic terrorist groups’ ideology and subsequent deceptive assertion that fighting enemies (or infidels) is a way (if not the only way) to go to heaven .

She speaks about vague concepts such as “vengeance” and perceived “unjust persecution” while speaking of the rationality of these actors (Crenshaw 1981). Her claim that motivations such as “vengeance” and group dynamics result in continued involvement in terrorist organizations is speculative (Crenshaw 1981). The argument that psychological factors can motivate individuals to participate in these organizations is put forward without the necessary supporting evidence to validate her claim. It is interesting that while she continually asserts the rationality of terrorists that she devotes so much time to the psychological factors that may color individuals choices. I would argue that while groups and individuals have a degree of rationality individuals in large part are just as compelled to act out of irrational motivations as rational ones. It would be interesting to see research that studies what individuals who carry out acts of terrorism(not the organizations and leaders themselves) identify as the primary motivation out of which they elected to take such drastic

Pointedly, when finding out how fundamentalism has triggered terrorism in the world, there is a need for one to consider the influence of fundamentalism on the modern day terrorism. To elaborate, most scholars have that religious terrorists are the most dangerous and that their strong religious beliefs raise the likelihood of conflicts. Accordingly, religious terrorism embodies radical value systems and skewed morality. As a result, it has become a deadly threat in comparison with traditional

When terrorism is at our doorstep we often ask “why?” The clearest and concise actions enacted are motivations of socially, political, and financial determination. With terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah, extremist’s Islamic groups are on a mission from Allah (Middle Eastern God). Terrorist actions carried out by Islamic groups are typically political. The F.B.I defines terrorism as actions carried out by the unlawful use of force, or violence against persons, or property to intimidate or coerce a government, civilian population, or segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social aim (NIJ,2013). Given the nature of the intended political goal motivations behind terrorism are intended to cripple an infrastructure and regain control under their regime.

After the attack of 9/11 many American citizens sought out an answer to why one would hijack a plane and run it into the Twin Towers, killing millions. According to the Huffpost, Islam became the main reason for the attack and furthermore labeled religion as the inspiration for many terroristic attacks (Gibson, 1). According to many Muslims, however, the attacks are anti-Islamic because the Quran states not to harm civilians who are not involved with war and to avoid it at all possible times (PBS, 3). The conflict between Muslims and Americans is growing and many issues in the Middle East has become the focus for religious terrorism.

Given the growing global threats of terrorism, it is significant that an understanding of the history, nature and mechanism-premises under which terror operates is obtained. This is significant as it would shape the perspective of policy makers when addressing issues of this nature. Terrorism, as it is understood is the action of none-state weak actors, individual or groups, who for some reasons feels suppressed, marginalized and, or denied what they may view as the basic human right. All terrorism has political objectives, even though the perpetrators may use religious relics to appeal to a wider existing audience, and invoke a response through violent act to prove or propagate their point. Yoram Schweitzer in "Suicide Terrorism