Introduction
This paper will talk about three different types of terrorism. A background of each type will be provided to understand the motivations and goals. The first type that will be discussed is religious terrorism. The second type that will be discussed is suicide terrorism. The third and last type that will be discussed is nationalist terrorism. Each type of terrorism has distinct differences in their goals, motivations, strategy, use of violence, etc. However, the main focus of this paper will be on the difference between each type’s tactics and/or strategy.
1. Religious:
Background
Religious terrorism is usually carried out based on motivations, goals, and beliefs of a certain religious influence. The religion that seems to be the most radical and has the most terrorist activity is Islam. A very small group of Muslims are the cause for nearly all religious terrorist attacks. An example of one of the most radical, dangerous, and most powerful religious terrorist groups would be Al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda’s history began during the Cold War. Western countries, such as the United States, and its allies supported militant units within Islam to fight the Soviet Union. The United States formed an alliance with the Pakistan Interservice Intelligence Agency (ISI) (White, 2012). The ISI is equivalent to the United States intelligence agency CIA. The ISI, along with the United States began training and arming the mujahedeen (holy warriors) to fight the Soviet Union. In 1979, Afghan mujahedeen along with Saudi Arabia fought the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan (White, 2012). The United States supported the Afghan mujahedeen along with any other form of Islam to combat the Soviet Union. The United States developed an unde...
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Seeing countless news reports about terrorist attacks or attempts throughout the years, I now believe terrorism under the name of religion is a simple gateway to having authority over someone or the greed of power, thinking it sounds justifiable if you claim “it is an order of God”. As stated in the article Terrorism in the Name of Religion, “Religious terrorist groups often become cheap and effective tools for specific states in the advancement of their foreign policy political agendas”; religious terrorism can often be interpreted is a way to assert a group into one’s beliefs however like Richard and the article mentions, it is an excuse to fulfill a political agenda or go against the government
On December 24th 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. On that day began a war which wreaked incredible havoc and destruction on Afghanistan for 10 long years. The Soviets stormed in with thousands of troops at the request of the troubled Afghan Communist regime. The Russians believed this be a neat surgical military operation. They were wrong.(Boggs) The only resistance to the Soviet invasion were men known as the "mujahideen" known to many as freedom fighters. They are multinational; some even from America, doing everything in their power to repeal the Soviet horde. The Soviet invasion frightened neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, so they unofficially allied with the United States. The U.S. provided the weaponry, training, etc., Saudi Arabia recruited the fighters (mujahideen) which were sometimes based in Pakistan. They all agreed on the need for armed resistance against the Soviets. The U.S. decided to tap the religious vein of the rebels, creating a zealous religiously driven guerrilla organization; well armed and trained by CIA officers with the goal of returning Afghanistan to Islamic purity.
Islamic terrorists are estimated to comprise approximately 10% of the Muslim population, which is equivalent to 160 million out of 1.6 billion people. A terrorist is defined as a person who engages in violence and the infliction of fear in order to gain something either for themselves or for their people. Most Muslims are not terrorists. It is stereotypical to deduce that all Islamic people are involved terrorist groups, however, there are many people who are involved in these groups. Islamic terrorist groups use religion to justify their violent movement by claiming that their religion is the only just religion, strictly following religious leaders and sacred texts, and preserving their aboriginal religious beliefs.
The Irish Republican Army was a well-known terrorist organization originating in Dublin, Ireland. The IRA (Irish republican Army) used irregular military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, and petty warfare against the United Kingdom. The IRA raged Guerilla warfare against the British, creating the Irish War of Independence. Even though the Irish Republic Army is no longer active, in their time they wreaked havoc any many different people. In this essay, the description of the group, historical and past events of the group and recent activities will be discussed.
Certain revolutions in Afghanistan occurred between 1978 and 2001 which caused the US War with Afghanistan. The United States helped Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel by giving them military weapons and, as a result, the Soviet Union viewed this as if the United States was trying to have power over the Middle East. After the collapse of the Soviet regime in Afghanistan, Afghan socialists fought over power, which led to the creation of Taliban by Mullah Omar, a religious preacher who taught in Pakistan. During Mullah Omar’s time, Osama Bin-Laden came to Afghanistan and he ...
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... can all tie in together yet still be their separate types at the same time. State, religious, and international terrorism are probably the three most common types of terrorism the world experiences. When you look at where they are conducted, a lot happens in developing countries, you can start to see the big picture. Terrorism is everywhere, though it may be labeled different things in different areas. But in the end, it is a group fighting for a belief that they feel is just and true, and they will fight by any means necessary to protect that belief from any perceived threat, real or not. History has shown us that terrorism has always been around, though it has been labeled many things. It has also shown us that it is an evolving tactic, which proves that those groups who feel threatened can and will use any means to protect or fight for what they believe.
In Module one, I learned that terrorism is a result of physical harm or deadly acts of force with the intent of a political outcome by the use of terror for coercion. There are various types of terrorism such as international terrorism and domestic terrorism. International terrorism occurs outside of the United States with a purpose to influence the policy of a government by intimidation. International and Domestic terrorism both involve violent acts dangerous to human life that violate federal and state laws. Domestic terrorism occurs within the United States with the intention of coercion or intimidation by way of mass destruction, etc. Some forms of terrorism include Improvised explosive devices (IED), kidnappings, suicide bombings and
Chapter seven of the textbook Essentials of Terrorism Concepts and Controversies, by Gus Martin, the author discusses Religious Terrorism as well as all of its elements in excellent detail. Religious terrorism can be defined as “terrorism motivated by an absolute belief that an otherworldly power has sanctioned and commanded the application of terrorist violence for the greater glory of the faith” (Martin, 2017, p. 9). For example, religiously motivated terrorist will violently attack other groups, or nations, whose religious views and values are divergent. It is easy to assume that religious terrorism could have been the first form of terrorism humankind has seen. However, in today’s modern society when most people think of a religious
a comprehensive research service. Retrieved May 2, 2004, from Terrorist Attack by Al Qaeda: http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/033104.pdf. Gunaratna, R. (2005, September). Retrieved September 2005, from http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/articles/05spring/henzel.pdf. Gunaratna, R. (n.d.).
Al Qaeda, or Al Qaida, is a global militant Islamist organization. It was agreed upon as a terrorist organization by almost every nation such as the United States, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty), the European Union, United Kingdom, United Nations, India, and many more countries. Al Qaeda is a organization or network comprising of both a stateless and ruthless army with a radical Sunni Muslim movement that has a strict interpretation of Sharia Law, moral law, and their main goal is to achieve global Jihad, the religious duties of all Muslims.
The word terrorism was first used during the French Revolution from the reign of terror inflicted by the French from 1784-1804 ("International Affairs"). It was used to describe the violent acts perpetrated on the French that inflicted terror on the various peoples and instilled fear within them. However, at the time it had a more positive connotation than the term that instills fear today. During the French Revolution this was because it referred to state-sponsored terrorism in order to show the need of state instead of anarchy, sometimes promoted by other groups (Hoffman 2). Therefore, even though terrorism has taken a new nature, terrorism can refer to official governments or guerrilla groups operating outside national governments ("International Affairs"). In order to encompass terrorism’s various sectors and explain it to the public, in both positive and negative aspects, many analysts have tried to put it into a few words. Terrorism is a method used by tightly of loosely organized groups operation within states or international territories that are systematic in using deliberate acts of violence or threats in order to instill...
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 reasons but religion has been linked to the violence as well.
Terrorism is one of the most extensively discussed issues of our time and at the same time it is also one of the least understood. The term itself “terrorism” means many different things to different people, cultures, and races. As a result, trying to define or classify terrorism with one universal definition is nearly impossible. The definition of terrorism used in this research is a reflection of much of the Western and American way of defining it. The definition of terrorism is,
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