Morality In Jessica Stern's Terror In The Name Of God

Morality is the set of principles concerning the distinction between what is right and what is wrong. All moralities are relative, depending on the circumstances immoral act can be committed for a moral good, certain moralities apply to one set of people and not another because of religion, culture, etc. A simple example of a relative moral is lying; During their childhood, Children are taught that lying is wrong—immoral— but as they gain more life experiences some learn that lying isn’t always wrong, in some situations it helps more than telling the truth, the morality and immorality of lying it is relative to certain situations that different people experience. Since morality is relative, the line between what is right and wrong is blurred;

In her book, Terror in the Name of God, Jessica Stern writes about religious terrorism, how terrorist organizations form by using charismatic leaders, opportunistic and ambitious people who recruit the oppressed by using religion as justification and motivation for their acts. In March of 1998, Stern met with religious terrorist Kenny Noble, an American who belonged to a cult in the 80s, and had her first extended conversation with a religious terrorist, “Although I had been studying and working on terrorism for many years by that time, none of what I had read or heard prepared me for that conversation, which was about faith at least as much as it was about violence.” (Stern XIV). Stern pointed out that there was small difference between what Nobel’s cult wanted and what big name terrorist groups like Al Qaeda wanted; they targeted the same institutions, had the same enemy, the only difference was religion. Noble explained how all who refused the word of the lord (liberals, jews, etc.) were enemies and they they would have to be taken care of, “‘They were the enemy. And so they would have to die. . . . We wanted peace, but if purging had to precede peace, then let the purge begin.’” (Stern XV) Terrorist groups believe that their killings are moral because it is to protect the greater good of the world when it comes to their beliefs. Of course where Nobel thought he was in the moral lane to commit such heinous acts, people who didn’t follow his beliefs and his faith saw him as a terrorist with no morals, everything that has to do with morality is relative depending on the individual. Stern talked about how Lesbians in South African faced abuse and violence just because they didn’t fit social expectations of how woman should act and look. Where as in certain counties