This paper explores some of the techniques and tools that are used by terrorist leaders to try to influence and change the mindsets of people. Political and religious motived techniques that are used by terrorist leaders are discussed in the paper. The paper also discuses how terrorist leaders have used the internet to gain support, influence, and recruit new members, Keywords: Terrorist, Political and religious motives, internet
Over the years there has been many different terrorist leaders that have been able to communicate effectively and gain a large amount of committed supporters all over the world. These terrorist leaders have used a wide range of different tools and techniques to modify the psychological and
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Even though Islam is a religion that does not seek to promote violence among its followers, terrorist leaders have managed to manipulate the interpretations of Islam and other religions for their own benefit (Khan, 2012). Terrorist leaders modify the interpretations in way in which the tasks within the personal agenda of the terrorist leaders will be accomplished. When terrorist leaders modify the religious interpretations, they mainly seek to make violent acts appear justifiable by their religion so that the members and supporters of the terrorist organization can gain the valor and motivation they need to commit terrorist attacks against the enemies of the terrorist leaders (Khan, 2012). Other times terrorist leaders might use both political and religious motivated techniques to persuade their followers. Two good examples that portrays how a terrorist leader have used religion and politics to rally up supporters were the conflict between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan; and the arrival of US troops to Saudi Arabia (Friedman, 2007). In both of these events the terrorist leader (which in this cases was Osama Bin Laden) took a political event and made it look as if it was a religious event and a threat against Islam so that his supporters could be on his side since he was a
The use of terrorism started in 1795 relating to the reign of terror leaded by the French Government. The reason people become terrorist is because they see it as their only choice or is a sign for defending their religion. “The personal pathway model suggests that terrorists came from a selected, at risk population, who have suffered from early damage to their self-esteem,” (psychologist Eric D. Shaw). This explains how young adults are becoming terrorist to find themselves, also because they are not happy with who they are. Terrorist technology has changed over the course.
The way terrorist groups has been communicating and recruiting new has been changing, due to the emerging use
“In effect, terrorists’ acts should be viewed as “violent language.” For them, the genuine power of terrorism is that it functions as propaganda. The result is behavior modification of the target audience by both coercive and persuasive means (Denton, 2004, p. 4)”. Terrorists use these evil acts to send messages to their victims to emphasize their “Don’t Fuck With Us” axiom and mentality.
Over the past year or two, newspapers, radio stations, and news broadcasts have been covering the rapid ascent of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS. But they have spread far beyond those material boundaries, reaching into the minds and homes of young people across the globe. These young people are led to believe that ISIS is saving the world, not harming it and that they must partake in the fight for religious dictatorship. They are instructed over the internet to perform acts of terrorism in their own country, known as domestic terrorism. Due to the dramatic increase in terrorist activity
Terrorism has been an important part of social behavior for over 2,000 years. Between the years of 1980 and 1995, terroristic groups motivated by religious beliefs had increased by 43% (Hoffman). Religious beliefs and culture are a main reason groups and individuals resort to terrorism. Groups resort to terrorism as a consequence of seeing their culture demolished, as well as religious motives. Terrorist groups have many intentions when it comes to acts of terrorism. They main ones are they want to create fear globally, weaken the government, and obtain universal recognition for what they have done. Religiously motivated terrorist groups usually have high authority targets. These targets include government offices, banks, and national airlines. From the group’s perspective, terrorism is the only practical option. Groups are formed centered on certain factors like culture and religion. Many terrorists will receive support from their followers
The issue of popular support is further connected to terrorist group’s specific objectives, or goals. In general, terrorists motivated by a religious component are often associated with ‘apocalyptic’ like goals. Hoffman notes that these ‘apocalyptic’ goals, are in nature more violent when compared to the often more tangible political based goals of many secular groups. The association between religiously motivated terrorist groups and apocalyptic like goals is well known throughout academia. Jessica Stern’s book, Terror in the Name of God further references this connection. She is particularly careful not to equate these general end-of-time beliefs to one religion in particular. Instead she notes how such beliefs often span across multiple religions by noting their presence in various sacred texts across all three of the major Abrahamic faiths. She further ties back to Hoffman’s work when discussing how apocalyptic like goals often allow for more violence and destruction when compared to other terrorist objectives (such as forming a new government, or expelling a foreign nation from perceived territory). While Hoffman notes the specific constituency that secular terrorists must appeal to, Stern ties the lack of a needed supportive constituency back to religious terrorist goals. Because religiously motivated groups often seek the complete destruction of society, these groups are less concerned with long-term popular support, (beyond basic funding and recruitment needs.)
Al-Qaeda and its leaders, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri are frequently popular world news subjects. (Piszkiewicz, 2003, p. iii) The world seems to want to be constantly aware of the goings on of these people and their organization. There is no secret to the desired need for this information. As most people know Al-Qaeda is a significant and ongoing threat to the world, with regard to terrorist activities and continued fundamentalist extremism with regard to jihad, or what these extremists see as a holy war against the rest of the world, but mostly the Western world. This work will begin with a short introduction to the threat that Al-Qaeda poses to the world as a way to develop a full profile of the organization,
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.
There are many things can be seen in the psychology of terrorism. Unfortunately there is not good science on psychological factors of terrorism; there are theories and educated opinions (DeAngelis, 2009). The one overarching factor is the fear with which terrorism is based. By definition, terrorism is acts that cause terror by one group on to another, usually for political goals (“Terrorism”, n.d.). Why people suffer from these fears is related to their psychological behavior. Terrorist activity can be described as “fostering a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, in demonstrating the incompetence of the authorities, destroying a sense of security and safety, and in provoking inappropriate reactions from individuals and authorities.” (Alexander & Klein, 2005). Terrorists themselves are affected by psychological behavior; their own and that of others around them. They may even be affected by the behavior of victims and potential victims. Osama Bin Laden has even been known to admit that in the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, his
The plans and operations team is responsible for designing and implementing all non-digital counter violent extremist communication tools. These tools are used to counter terrorist groups’ ability to gain support and to recruit new members. The materials produced by this section are available to be used by all U.S government agencies.
That call to action can come in many forms of media and to a global audience. “Terrorist recruitment videos, often released online, have been tailored to appeal to various audiences. A propaganda video, which can still be watched on YouTube of captured U.S. soldier, Bowe R. Bergdahl, compares what seems to be his good treatment under al-Qaeda, to those of U.S.-run prisoner of war camps” (Philipp).
A large part of the literature review thus concentrated on the definition and characteristics of modern terrorism. However, since terrorist group’s present singularity and uniqueness in their characteristics, is it even possible to reach consensus on the definition and the meaning of the word? Globalization has affected the interpretation of the word terrorism by changing the face of these organizations. Quantitatively and qualitatively, changes occurred in terrorist organizations over the last decades, and one of them is the increasing involvement of women in their structures. From contextual pressure to individual motivations, the increase of female involved in terrorist organizations and activities result from a conjunction of several interrelated
These jihadists have developed a guide for their recruiters, describing step by step how to identify potential candidates for brainwashing as well as how to get them to subscribe to radical political and religious ideals (Warius). The guide includes a clear, step-by-step process that even the most inexperienced jihadi could follow. Slowly introducing the recruit to their ideology, the program describes tools for careful quantitative analysis of the subject’s progress. If the target isn’t reacting the way a recruiter expects, he simply drops them and moves along to the next
However, the identification of the In-betweeners are not the only susceptible targets of radical Islamic recruiters. An example of targeted recruitment can be seen in the approach of Osama Bin Laden’s
Terrorism is used around the world to create fear and influence the public on political views (Siegel, 489). There are four views of terrorism including the psychological view, socialization view, ideological view, and the alienation view. A religious terrorist would most likely fit under the ideological view. In this view the terrorist feels the need to change a wrong opinion and believes that, because they are sacrificing themselves for something they believe so strongly in, it justifies the damage and harm done to innocent people (Siegel, 490). They use terror to create fear in anyone who opposes them and attract followers to their religion. In short, terrorism is widely used for political