The Success Of Boko Haram In The United States

The United States of America has experienced terrorism in many forms over the years. From domestic terrorism in the 1920s (the Palmer Raids and Wall Street Bombing) to international and domestic terrorism in the 2010s (Najbullah Zazi, Cleveland Bridge Plot). But on February 26, 1993, the threat of terrorism took a significant leap when the garage underneath the World Trade Center was bombed.

When discussing terrorism, the groups which most frequently come to mind are those which operate either internationally or specifically in foreign countries, such as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Al Shabab. However, the United States has a number of domestic terror groups some well-organized, some loosely connected that have perpetrated serious attacks over the last few decades. Al-Qaeda's attacks on September 11th, 2001, and the subsequent wars born out of the United States' response to these attacks have meant that domestic terrorism is less widely discussed topic, this does not mean that domestic terrorist groups do not present a serious threat to the United States and its citizens. By examining known terrorist organizations within the United States and their classifications, it will be possible to demonstrate how and why the country has seen a rise in domestic terror over the last three decades, as well as some possible government responses to these groups that could help to prevent individuals from joining in the first place.

The Boko Haram sect in Nigeria has been a huge problem for the country in the past, and the threat is only growing. This group is considered responsible for a handful of government attacks, targets on the United Nations, and often churches who undermine the Islamic religion. Their actions have spawned from the idea that their country is controlled by “fake Muslims”, and aim to create an Islamic nation ruled with Sharia law.

Boko Haram are motivated by a Jihadist version of Islam and is believed to be believers of the one true interpretation of the (Brinkel & Ait-Hida, 2012, p. 16). Their ultimate goal to create a true Islamic state in Nigeria directly associated with Sharia law. (Chothia, 2015, p. 5). The group has maintained their secrecy and the authorities have yet to be captured by law enforcement. Boko Haram is seen to have many basic views including their religious motivations, political downfall, and their extreme actions taken on the people of Nigeria. Boko

Counter-terrorism expert Steve Emerson, senior advisor to the RAND Corporation Brian Jenkins, Ryan Mauro and the Clarion Project have documented and exposed the reality of radical Islam in the United States. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1, English Standard Version). Since the attacks on 9/11, the American public has settled into a false sense of security while the internet has enabled homegrown radicalization and enlarged the footprint of radical Islam inside the United States. “Many law enforcement officials fear that a new style of jihadist group is appearing, a hybrid of foreign and homegrown terrorists” (White,

Radical Islamists are activists whose main goal is to form an international group of Islamic believers. They are determined to form this group in whatever way they can, even using violence and having mass killings. The United States of America allows them to be radical because of their needs such as, oil. They take teachings from the Qur’an and radicalize them into violence and harsh beliefs, however, the majority of Muslims do not believe in most all of the ways of radical Islamists.

In 1999 there was said to be a huge increase that focused on the terrorism in the United States (fbi.gov). Even though this focus was on terrorism in general, it was mainly focused on the domestic terrorist. Eight of the ten terrorist incidents were those domestic terrorisms that year in the United States. There were seven plots that were prevented by law enforcers this year and in 1998 there were twelve. The seven that occurred in 1999 were because of the Animal Liberation Front also known as ALF. All of these led to financial damages that ended up being more than three million dollars (fbi.gov).

The most recent presidential race associated the most dangerous fear and entity to the United States is ISIS, which is a radical Islamist extremist group that models their actions closely with Sharia Law. ISIS mainly consists of terrorists that are willing to do anything to destroy more prominent Western civilization. ISIS is the terrorist group of this current generation; however, they were not the first terrorist group in this region. Terrorist groups started as a result of Arab nations lack of ability to militarily confront Israel during the 1960s. The Palestinian secular movements such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Al Fatah began to target civilians that were not associated within the immediate arena of conflict.

In spite of the fact that the distinctive types of terrorism may emerge for various arrangement of reasons however a portion of the real causes might be recorded as political disappointment, financial hardship, local incongruities and intercession into religious, social; and individual opportunity of the general population . Any or these may on occasion make circumstance where worldwide personal stakes discover t simple to mediate and to animate the propensities towards terrorism for further their own particular targets at the expense of honest individuals .

ISIS obtains such a profuse amount of money that they are wealthier then several actual countries. ISIS has grown from a violent growing cell to a violent growing state. But fighting a war to establish a caliphate is expensive, especially when the U.S is trying to flip the bill. According to some estimates, they have placed Isis’ income to 3 million dollars per day. The Government has begun to examine and understand how ISIS raise their money. Isis has revenue coming from multiple areas such as: capturing cities, capturing oil feeds and refineries, as well as donations. Surprisingly, a majority of their funds come from ransoms, kidnappings and, unorganized crime extortions.

For the past few years, the terrorist group ISIS has made headlines around the world with their acts of terror and rapid spread. Naturally, people all over the Earth have called for the obliteration of ISIS, and many have looked to the US for action. The question that prevails the most: should the US put soldiers in Syria to try and directly destroy this radical terrorist group? The safest, most reliable answer is an emphatic no, the US should not put "boots on the ground" against ISIS.

Terrorism is a form of communication because it gets the attention of major countries, it widens a terrorist group’s publicity, and it exposes a goal that a group of people want to achieve to the general public. A good analogy for terrorism would be to think of it as the younger sibling in a family of four. You have the mom, the dad, the older sibling and the younger sibling. Then say the older sibling is getting all the praise and attention from the parents and the younger sibling sees that and wants attention too and it starts doing nice things for attention such as cleaning up, and being nice but that’s not working so it starts to act up. The younger sibling starts throwing fits and making a mess just to get attention and it starts to work. That’s what terrorism is. Most times terrorism comes from groups and political organizations (ISIS, Al-Qaeda Taliban, IRA) whose original intentions we good and started off doing good things for the people but they weren’t getting the attention of major countries and their governments. So

The relative success against groups like Al-Qaeda is with the power of money and adjusting our nations and other partnering countries financial laws to report “shady transactions that fit a certain criteria. As for Al-Qaeda, the main success we had was the taking down of Osama Bin Laden, which was where a great amount of Al-Qaeda’s money came from (Guiora A., 2008).

(U) “Al-Qaeda is the complex international Islamist terrorist network made of regional affiliate organizations and clandestine cells with varying degrees of communication.“ 1 Their ultimate goal is to establish its version of Islamic rule across all Muslim territory.They continually adopts new patterns of operations in response to global counter-terrorism effort.

Boko Haram has yet to stray from its notoriety as a harsh terrorist threat to both the people of Nigeria and the government itself. In 2014, nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls were stolen from their families in the town of Chibok and taken into captivity by Boko Haram. This event has yet to be rectified now two years later, nor have the families received any news or closure from the Nigerian government. Both citizens of Chibok and activists around the world have developed voices in regard to this ongoing investigation. Videos of the girls have recently surfaced which lead one to believe that the girls are still alive; these videos, however, are most likely either old or altered. Boko Haram has yet to