Terrorism is an unofficial and unauthorized use of extreme violence, force and intimidation in the pursuit of political and religious gain. Throughout the 20th century, terrorism is among the world’s leading issues. The reason for its existence can be found from the roots of imperialism and its injustice. Today its momentum and actions have many violent, devastating and deadly effects throughout the world. The terrorists that drive this fear are perverse Islamic fundamentalists. Muslim fundamentalists believe that the Qur’an should be interpreted literally and context, namely the time period and the social climate, cannot determine the texts interpretation and application. Extremists in this group advocate extreme violence in order to fulfil certain elements of the Qur’an. These extremist groups are numerous, however some are more notable than others. Al Qaeda, the terrorist group that had its formation in Sudan, before relocating to Afghanistan used the Qur’an to justify the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. Similarly, the Taliban, the terrorist group who have control over Afghanistan have imposed harsh and crude versions of Sharia Law and twisted the Qur’an to suit their endeavours. Furthermore Isis, a Sunni group that aims to create an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria, have also extracted Quranic verses to suit their ideals and justify their premature taking of life. Overall, the misinterpretation of the Qur’an and the Hadith has led to the justification of terrorism,
Terrorism is a massive problem--everybody realizes that. Regardless of origin, culture, country, or political standpoint, every sane person understands that terrorism is something that is still relatively prevalent in the world, and something needs to be done about it. The problem, however, is that there is no easy solution. The United States tends to take overbearing control and responsibility for all terrorist threats, groups, and attacks, but this is simply not reasonable. Although we cannot expect every country to take initiative against terrorist threats like ISIS, sustained international coordination is necessary to effectively confront transnational terrorist groups (Shirkey). This way, the US can begin taking care of themselves and their own country, as they still have many issues that have yet to be solved. While working together is important, though, it is not the key to solving the problem. What we must do in addition is investigate and address the root causes of terrorism, and analyse them in detail in order to best combat terrorist groups at their roots.
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
Acts of terrorism are typically political oriented and ideologically motivated, ranging from specific goals expressed in terms of the might of political nation-states to more general purposes connected to the dilemma of certain people and groups. Therefore, terrorism can result from demands made by ethnic groups to receive representation in an existing political community or have its own state be formed, while terrorism can also be part of ideological fights for the acknowledgment of diminished expressions of ideas and ways of life. Because of the essentially political ideological objectives of terrorism, the fundamental ideas of terrorism are important to consider as the inspiring forces that fuel terrorist groups and individuals.
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 position of Islam on the issue of terrorism, whether Islam at all approves or endorses this kind of action (), and if the Islamic doctrine draws its roots from the sources of violence is a question that experts in the teachings of Islam, can clearly and indisputably respond to (). Although Western analysts define terrorism as the use of force against random, civilian targets, with the intention of intimidating and provoking a general fear among the people, in order to achieve certain political goals (), terrorism is also seen as a threat, violence and violent behaviour or struggle aimed at those causing fear.
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.
A main misconception of terrorism especially in today’s society is that, society views terrorism as faith- based acts of violence, when it may not be the case. Terrorism is an illegitimate mean to achieve a cause; it is a willful defense of an ideology or a political group. These acts by sub state actors who violently target non-combatants to communicate a political a message. Terrorist are neither crazy nor
This was the first declaration by Osama Bin Laden in 1996 calling upon Muslims around the globe for the destruction of America and other Westernised countries for their hostility towards Islam and Muslims. It is safe to say that this declaration was the beginning of what was about to be the most terrorising decades the world has ever been through. The increasing numbers of terrorist attacks around the world in recent years serve to show the importance in learning to understand terrorism and the reasoning behind the crime. This essay will do this by analysing the
In the beginning of issue guide it summarizes the Terrorist attacks of September 11th. How it set off of a chain of events and questionable efforts to deal with what occurred that day. The article explains after the attacks on the world trade center, our nation lost comfort in thinking our state of security was actually secure, that we were vulnerable. The government gave false impression to citizens that to overcome what happened that day was to come together, to show the strength and our allegiance to the U.S. This wasn’t an approach to deal with the issue but a distraction to what was really going on.
Religious extremism is often assumed the major cause of terrorism. This assumption became justifiable in the minds of numerous people because the terrorist groups are frequently associated with a religious organization, such as Islam. However, the focus on religion deters from other plausible explanations that cause terrorism. Although, religious extremism is a popular belief of the cause of terrorism, I pose it is not a major cause of terrorism due to the errors with misrepresented claims and support, the overlook of material interests, and the motivational incentives.
This scholarly interest has resulted in a spate of research output from multiple disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. There are two ubiquitous trends in the literature on extremism and terrorism. First, a majority of the conversations locate the causes of contemporary extremism and radicalization in the religious edicts of one religion namely, Islam (Parent and Ellis, 2011). Second, a large number of
One can scarcely turn on the television, or the radio, or open up a web browser without the mention of Islamic terrorism or unrest around the world. Though the United States and the rest of the world may not be engaged in a protracted religious war, for radical Muslim fundamentalist they are. Bernard Lewis brings to light possible reasons for the issues facing the world dealing with Islamic terrorism. The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror explains these issues in historical context as well as how some of the actions professed in the name of Islam and claim to
Walter Laqueur’s book, “The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction”, is empowering readers with the entire spectrum of terrorism. The reasons behind terrorism are not easy to understand, but Laqueur goes into great detail to try and bring the reader to an understanding of what the terrorist is thinking in order to justify the means to the end.
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.
Over the years there have been significant changes in how terrorism is carried out. With the changes in how terrorism is carried out there have also been dramatic changes in how countries counter terrorist attacks. The modifications in the way a country counters these terrorist attacks affects international relations of these countries. These issues bring about the question of how have counter terrorism methods affected international relations. To answer this question several things must be addressed which are, methodology, history of terrorism, and a literature review of multiple authors that have discussed this subject.