Terrorism

Introduction

Terrorism is the use violence based on certain religious beliefs in order to create disunity amongst people in the world. This is therefore an unlawful act which aims to further divide people among religious lines, for the advantage of the certain individuals. Terrorists therefore target unarmed citizens of a given country in order to pass a message to the country. The term terrorism became popular during the September 11 attack in New York City, when the members of the fourth estate started using it while describing the attack. Terrorism has since then been used as a term of condemnation by both the terror groups and also governments while addressing each other. Different organizations have therefore used terrorism as a means of furthering their objectives. Ruling governments, and nationalist groups have therefore used terrorism for their own interests. Terrorism itself is symbolic, and it can therefore be used by a certain group of people in order to create fear, thus being able to benefit in dissimilar ways. Terrorism will therefore be discussed in this paper fully, in order to create an understanding of what it really is.

There are major terrorist groups which have evolved over the years and they include the following, Al-Qaeda, the Al-Shabaab, ISIS, and Boko Haram among others. This groups have therefore been the deadliest in the world history, and when you pronounce such names, most people would definitely understand what you are really talking about (Law, 45). Osama Bin Laden, who is commonly known as the father of terrorism in the world, was the leader of the major terrorist group which was commonly known as the Al-Qaeda. Osama was against the invasion of the US in Iraq during the reign of President Sadam Hussein. In order to discourage the US from restoring peace after the country had been hit by civil wars, Osama bin Laden had to come up with a possible way of discriminating the citizens of the US (English, 51). Osama therefore formed a terrorist group which was based on the Islamic religion. The teachings of the Quran would therefore be manipulated in order to favor the terror attacks.

Osama became very successful in using the religion as a means of recruiting his members. According to the teachings of the Quran, it was justified to kill a person who was not a Muslim. This is because Muslims are the only people who worship the God, and the rest of the people in the world are atheists, they should therefore be killed (Zulaika, 24). Through manipulating the Quran in such a way, most people were therefore recruited into Al-Qaeda, thus making the group to be very strong. Osama was a very intelligent person, since he understood very well the way the US security teams operated, and he also understood the loop holes that it had. Moreover, Osama was also able to recruit some of the retired US soldiers, who also provided the group with a lot of information on how the US soldiers operate and respond to certain attacks (English, 51).

On September 11, in the year 2001, the US experienced a massive terror attack where a very huge number of people lost their lives. The South Tower was hit by a United Airlines Flight 175, thus leading to the death of all the passengers aboard the plane, and a huge number of the people who were in the building (Law, 45). This was one of the successful missions which the Al-Qaeda under the rule of Osama Bin Laden was able to achieve. The move was aimed at instilling fear in the US government, in order to make the US to withdraw its soldiers from Iraq. Immediately after the attacks, the Al-Qaeda was very proud and it therefore announced through the media, that it was behind the attacks. The group even went further to threaten the US government with more attacks if the country failed to oust its soldiers from Iraq. The US did not do according to the dictates of Al-Qaeda, but it decided to hunt down Al-Qaeda until the year 2013 when Osama Bin Laden was murdered by the US Seal team six (Zulaika, 25).

Terrorist groups are usually funded by different organizations, people and even countries, in order to be able to gain certain benefits (English, 52). For instance, organization manufacturing firearms, may fund terrorist groups, in order to cause war, a move which would ultimately lead to the sale of firearms and other war equipment’s. When a terrorist group attacks a country, the country will always try to defend its citizens, and in so doing it will have to repulse the terrorists, through declaring war on terrorism. Companies manufacturing firearms, would therefore give the terrorist group weapons which are more advanced compared to that which is used by the soldiers of the target country (Law, 47). When the target country realizes the types of weapons being used by the terrorist groups, they would therefore contact the arms making company and purchase the same types of arms. Purchasing arms of a similar kind or even more advanced arms therefore means that the country can be able to win the war against the terrorist group. In the end, the arms making companies realize very huge profits as the war continues.

Conclusion

Terror activities and attacks are currently being used to create havoc in the world, and thus benefiting a certain groups of individuals. Through instilling fear in the citizens of a given country, the citizens of the country tend to join terror groups in order to avoid losing their lives. This move therefore weakens the strength of the country since most of its citizens are joining the enemy groups. The world has therefore become a place where people do things for their own interests, regardless of the number of deaths registered due to such actions. The US, for instance, funded the rebels of the Libyan government, under the rule of Muammar Gadhafi, in order to overthrow him from power. The rebels were successful, and after the war, the rebels reorganized and formed the current terrorist group known as the Islamic State or ISIS.

Work Cited

Law, Randall D. Terrorism: A History. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009. Print.

English, Richard. Terrorism: How to Respond. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.

Zulaika, Joseba. Terrorism: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Print.

White, Jonathan R. Terrorism and Homeland Security. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.

Purpura, Philip P. Terrorism and Homeland Security: An Introduction with Applications. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007. Internet resource.