Oppression: The Root of Terrorism

Jean Paul Sartre’s point regarding how oppression is “so tragic… that it forces the oppressed to adopt methods as brutal as those of their oppressors, in order to win their share of human freedom,” gets to the heart of the terrorism issue. Stern states in Terror in the Name of God, that “suffering can lead to sin.” While Allen in Terrorism in History states that, “the source of evil cannot be intentionality, but helplessness.” Both of these authors seem to come to the same conclusion that by being oppressed, people are more likely to take whatever action they can to get the job done in their desperation. Oppression has even managed to encourage citizens to take up arms to oust a regime or otherwise make changes to a government for hundreds of years. Yehuda uses examples of political assassinations being sometimes the only way for these fighters to “gain power, publicity and attention.”

Attention is at the core of terrorism due to its flashy nature. As the phrase goes, “if it bleeds, it leads.” Due to this

fascination with death and violence, this does everything but discourage groups from using violence in their attempts to garner attention to their plight. The media, while giving terrorists a platform to share their grievances, also gives them a place for them to persuade the world toward their vigilante-style of justice. Often they may claim that “resorting to terror is a ‘no-choice’ alternative, implying that the road to paradise must be paved with misery and tortured corpses,” as Yehuda explains.
Oppression exists around the world from more civilized countries to the “developing world” like Ethiopia and Sudan as was discussed in lecture. Syria is an excellent example of a contemporary conflict pushing citizens of a country to take up arms against oppression. While more of a complicated insurgency with terroristic elements than a pure terrorist organization, many Syrians were encouraged to join a militia (with some being more violent than others) in order to push their own idea of what should occur once Assad is deposed. Some of the more violent groups like al-Nusra Front are seeking to establish a pro-Sunni Islamic state and they likely gain many of their members as a result of a repressive, Shia regime run by Assad. On a smaller scale, the recent terror attacks in Paris were also a result of oppression. Many Arabs in Europe are treated like outsiders, even prior to 9/11 and are subject to extreme racism as a result. For those people that are more susceptible to these negative attitudes, this could drive them toward a general hatred of those who wronged them all their lives and encourage them to join an organization like ISIS or Al Qaeda.
This is not to say that every oppressed group will be violent as a result of violence and hatred being used against them, however, in terms of discussions regarding terrorism there is a high correlation between terrorism and oppression.

This fact does not change no matter where one is, who is being oppressed or who is the oppressor. When cornered, people will lash out in an attempt to make any sort of change. If peaceful actions do the trick, then they may resort to that, but in some regimes, people may immediately jump to violence due to being surrounded by it, and will not stop until they have made the changes they wish to see. Thus, in 1962, the Algerians did not have to use violence in order to encourage the French to leave, but due to the violent situation they had found themselves in for so long, they saw it as the only option to get the job done. If they had sought a peaceful solution first, they may not have gotten a chance to try another

tactic.