The source of terrorims:belief?
Throughout world’s history the word terrorism appears in every chapter of the universal chronics, always conveying its threatening meaning of a system or rule of terror. Nonetheless, the period of history or the geographical localization, terrorism has always cast off the same outcomes: bloodshed of innocent civilians, failure and deviation of the “main goal,” conveying more violence and more deaths. In its shortest form, the cause of terrorism is a strong belief. So, terrorism comes from a combination of religious, political and socio-cultural ideologies.
Political ideologies and believes became the predecessors of modern terrorism. The word ‘terrorism’ became part of the European languages approximately in 1789, with the wake of the French Revolution, which was the first violent movement that can be considered as terrorist. It consisted in the use of violence against a reluctant citizenry as the way in which the Parisian government tried to impose the new radical political system. With all that bloodshed during that terrible revolution, Sir Adam Roberts, Professor of International Relations at Oxford University (2000) concluded:”…terror is often at its bloodiest when used by dictatorial governments against their own citizens.” Terrorism inspired by political ideologies aroused conflicts in many countries all around the world. For example, in West Germany and Italy, terrorism was inspired by vague communist ideologies. In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, ‘Basque Homeland and Liberty’) was the responsible of a series of threatening attacks in the trial of achieving Basque regional autonomy and economical development. On the other hand, in Northern Ireland the riots began by the Irish Republican Army, who fought against the British rule in Ireland since before the establishment of the Republic; nevertheless, that conflict turned from a political to a religious mean. In Latin America, terrorist movements were perpetrated by guerrillas that fought against their governments, increasing the instability of their nations. In Russia, terrorist outbreaks provoked a confrontation between Russian troops and Muslim rebels for the control over the republic of Chechnya. In addition to all these political movements, one point that characterized to all of them is that one of their specific objectives was the assassination of political leaders and heads of state, which occurred in the majority of the cases, to increase the pressure and terror on the people who had the power and intimidate the citizenry. Unfortunately, all these local terrorist movements gave place to the development of international terrorism acts, which as the local conflicts, has only provoked more conflicts, violence and civilian bloodshed, showing that extreme political beliefs can convey fatal consequences.
Nowadays, the name of religion has provoked the actual terrorist conflicts. This religious terrorism has propelled the terrorism movement to international scenery, because their aims claim against everyone that has not the same beliefs. So, the adherents are willing to commit suicide, if they could damage or destroy the unbelievers. Religious terrorism was implicated as a huge threat during the 1990s, when the face of Osama Bin Laden emerged as the leader of a small fanatical Islamic movement called Al-Qaida (The Base). Osama Bin Laden has considered U.S.A. his enemy and the enemy of the Islamic world, so he began his “Holy War (Jihad)” in 1993, with the World Trade Center blast, and continued with a series of attacks: the assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarakin in Ethiopia, June 1995; a truck explosion in a military base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, June 1996; the simultaneous attack to U.S.A. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania, on August 7, 1998;and the bomb attack on the destroyer U.S.S Cole in Aden, Yemen, October 2000. Additionally, Bin Laden’s religious terrorism reached its climax with the attack of September 11, 2001 to the W.T.C. in New York, continued with the bomb attacks in Spain, on March 11, 2004 and London in June 2004. Nevertheless, prior to the emerging of Osama Bin Laden as terrorist, a terrorist organization called the Japanese Red Army was once of the most feared religious terrorist groups in the world. Its worst attack was perpetrated when members of Aum Shinrikyo, a religious cult, released nerve gas in the Tokyo subway system in March 1995. Showing that when faith is brought to an extreme can turn to the bad way.
The socio-cultural idiosyncrasy of the leaders and adherents of the terrorist groups is another factor in the source of terrorism. This is an interesting point, because is very important to know that almost all the terrorist attacks are previously well planned because of the heads of the terrorist groups come from a middle, high-class background and have at least some college education, which allows them to develop an organizational and leadership pondering. In addition, these leaders have apparent normal lives, which makes very difficult to find any suspicion and link with terrorist activities. Also, the majority of the leaders establish their training camps in locations where people have minimal resources for living, so people adhere the terrorist cause because of the money they can obtain by joining the acts and beliefs of these opportunists, extremists leaders. Surprisingly, why people of a good social-status act like this? In general, many of the terrorist leaders have never suffered any kind of personal damage, but they feel identified with others who they believe that have suffered some personal damage. As a result, their radical thinking speculates that the other people need them to avenge for them.
In short, a belief, either political or religious, serves as the foundation of terrorism, because, every terrorist conflict has been inspired by a set of beliefs. So, when these beliefs are converted in a superstitious thinking, they became dangerous thoughts, that endanger the liberty and safety of every person. That is the French Revolution or the attack on September 11 gives a prime example of the consequences of radical faith. So, man has to reconsider the manner in which he deposits his faith, doing it sincerely with clear and reasonable motives. Above all, man has not to allow that belief continues being the foundation of terrorism, but has to make their faith’s aims a peaceful reality. It is very horrid to see the entire radical terrorists devoting themselves to an unreasonable crusade, in which the “holy objective” has never been fulfilled and will not. All their attacks have only brought more troubles and not the expected benefit. So whomever that sacrifices his freedom for a senseless belief is only hindering the change for a better world, as stated by Jim Walker, writer of the article the Cause of Terrorism (2001):”…I have long observed that belief stands as the most powerful instrument against the change in the world.”
References
Walker, Jim. (2001). The Cause of Terrorism. Retrieved May 3, 2006 from http://www.nobeliefs.com/terrorism.htm
Adam, Roberts. (2002). The Changing Faces of Terrorism. BBC History Homepage. Retrieved April 26, 2006 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/sept_11/changing_faces_01.shtml
Terrorism (2006). History Channel Resources. Retrieved April 26, 2004 from http://www.historychannel.com/thcsearch/thc_resourcedetail.do?encyc_id=223920
