Religion and Terrorism

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RELIGION AND TERRORISM

The world is filled with different religions and different ideologies formed around governments and political organizations. The problem that arises from not separating church and state issues is that the government tends to force the citizens of the nation to worship as the administration deems fit. Within these religious groups are extremist, and these members can be the deadliest of all the parishioners. Acts of religious terrorism are the responsibility of devout extremists that commit acts of horror in the name of many different religions. While many terrorist actions are committed in the name of religion, there is not one religion that is responsible for all spiritual acts of terrorism.

Islamic extremists, like Ramzi Ahmad Yousef, pose a large threat of religious terrorism and are very difficult to identify. These types of militants are very hard to trace, due to the fact that the Islamic faith does not sponsor the act of terrorism, but it is the individual’s inclination. In February 1993, Ramzi Ahmad Yousef was found to be responsible for the explosion of a massive van bomb in an underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York, which killed six and wounded over 1,000 (Combs, 120). This would later turn out to not be the only attack on the World Trade Center. Unlike the interconnected terrorist groups of the past, for example the Provisional Irish Republican Army, many of the Islamic militant mem...

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