Factors That Lead to Religious Terrorism - Essay Example

Religious Terrorism Religious Terrorism It is true that no religion teaches violent lessons, in fact all religions justify violence in different ways and perceptions, I believe it has more to be associated with human psychology rather than religion. In my opinion there is only one main factor behind every religious violence, i.e., 'Brainwashing'. Today, most of the brainwashing is done this way not only by several cults but also by different political parties. The most common resort to violence occurs when a religious group feels threatened and thinks of itself as the people choose it. Religions also spawn sects, cults, alternative religions and religious terrorism likewise tends to spawn offshoots and factions. However there is a major difference between sect and cult. A sect is a consequence of an established religion where mostly people either die off or expand into a major denomination so a sect-based religious group is more likely to play the role of the victim, not the aggressor.A cult, on the other hand, is a more dangerous, spiritually innovative group headed by a charismatic leader who usually motivates his group and has several aims other than to become a major denomination. (http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/429/429lect13.htm) Today's terrorists are ultimately more apocalyptic in their perspectives and methods. For many violent and radical organizations, terror has evolved from being a means to an end, to becoming the end in itself. The National Commission on Terrorism quoted R. James Woolsey: "Today's terrorists don't want a seat at the table, they want to destroy the table and everyone sitting at it." (Matthew, 2004) Another feature of religious cults that makes them incredibly dangerous is the personality-driven nature of these groups. Cultist devotion to one leader leaves followers less able to make their own moral decisions or to consult other sources of reasoning. If that leader is emotionally or mentally unstable, the consequences can be catastrophic. The more dangerous religious terrorist groups from traditional faiths may often share this feature of the cult as a charismatic leader who exerts a powerful influence over the members of the group. (Matthew J. Morgan, 2004) Again I would like to link the acts of religious terrorism to brainwashing, as to how it relates to terrorism. Cults usually possesses one main aspiration in mind i.e., to motivate and inspire their groups to the utmost till a stage comes where the groups no longer needs to be motivated and appear in one of the following categories: Intentional Brainwashing - the victim knows as to what he is doing in terms of rights and wrongs. He is aware of all the consequences and still likes to be brainwashed. Unintentional Brainwashing - the victim is deeply inspired by the aggressor to the utmost that he is unaware of his own condition. (Uncertainty) Causes It is important to distinguish religious terrorists from those terrorists with religious components, but whose primary goals are political. Religiously motivated terrorist groups grew sixfold from 1980 to 1992 and continued to increase in the 1990s. Hoffman asserted: "The religious imperative for terrorism is the most important characteristic of terrorist activity today." Today's terrorists increasingly look at their acts of death and destruction as sacramental or transcendental on a spiritual level. The pragmatic reservations of secular terrorists do not hold back religious terrorists. Secular terrorists may view indiscriminate violence as immoral. For religious terrorists, however, indiscriminate violence may not be only morally justified, but constitute a righteous and necessary advancement of their religious cause. As Hoffman observed, the constituency itself differs between religious and secular terrorists. Secular terrorists seek to defend or promote some disenfranchised population and to appeal to sympathizers or prospective sympathizers. Religious terrorists are often limited to their own constituencies, having no external audience for their acts of destruction. (Matthew J. Morgan, 2004) Factors that lead to Religious Terrorism Cultural The evolution of today's religious terrorism neither has occurred in a vacuum nor represents a particularly new phenomenon. It has, however, been propelled to the forefront in the post-Cold War world, as it has been worsen by the explosion of religious conflicts and the rapidly approaching new millennium. The current scale of religious terrorism is totally unprecedented in militancy and activism and is indicative of this perception that their respective faiths and communities stand at a critical historical juncture. Not only do the terrorists feel the need to preserve their religious identity, they also see this time as an opportunity, which they should utilize to fundamentally shape their future. There are a number of factors that have contributed to the revival of religious terrorism in its modern and the most lethal form. (Magnus Ranstorp, 1996) Political and Organizational Factors A number of developments on the international panorama have created perfect conditions for terrorism. Gross inequalities in economic resources and rising standards of living along with a touch of unemployment and poverty in different parts of the world are a popular reason for the viciousness of contemporary terrorists. (Matthew J. Morgan, 2004) Religious Terrorism - History Religious terrorism offers its increasingly suffering and impatient constituents more hope and a greater chance of vengeance against the sources of their historical grievances than they would otherwise have. This is most effectively illustrated by the 1985 Sikh in-flight bombing of an Air India airliner, causing 328 deaths, as well as by Hizb'allah's twin suicide bombings of the U.S. Marine barracks and the French MNF headquarters in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 and 56 soldiers respectively. Violent acts give these groups a sense of power that is disproportionate to their size. The basis for this feeling of power is enhanced by a strategy of anonymity by the religious terrorist, which confuses the enemy. (Magnus Ranstorp, 1996) Religiously motivated terrorist groups grew sixfold from 1980 to 1992 and continued to increase in the 1990s. (Matthew) The history begins with the awareness of the U.S. public towards the training of terrorists in the 1980s in which youth were the prime target of Ayatollah Khomeini. Where else could one find such vulnerable sincerity, fervor, hunger for action, and commitment to live or die for a cause Similar indoctrinations under the Taliban and al-Qaeda may have resembled what Christian anarchist Jacques Ellul labeled as indoctrination by saturation so globally pervasive that they possesses terrorist centers and torture cells. Like Khomeini, Sayyid Qutb is well known for his impact on Muslims, Arab youth. The typical age of the religious terrorists involved in the tragedy of September 11, 2001, spanned the early twenties. None of these young people became terrorists in action without previous indoctrination of their minds and emotions. Religious and secular terrorists enlist youth because they perceive them as more readily swayed by emotional indoctrination and propaganda. The indoctrination of youth stands in high profile within groups whose religious context is not limited to Muslims, they are open to any religion or every religion whether it is Catholic or Protestant Irish, Hindu militants, or self-immolating Buddhist monks. As I have mentioned above, terrorism whether it is of any kind, it has nothing to do with religion. Terrorism has no religion of itself; it is only based upon false propagandas. It also stands in high profile among new religious sects as well as new political, military, and ecological movements. Concentrating on youth constitutes no irregularity within the educational history of larger religious groups and other power structures, just as contemporary religious wars, terrorism, and propaganda have been prefigured for centuries in religious inquisitions. (Roderick Hindery) Many of the terrorist groups are compelled to undertake operations with a distinct political agenda for organizational reasons to release imprisoned members. Nonetheless, the targets are almost always symbolic and carefully selected to cause maximum psychological trauma to the enemy and to boost the religious credentials of the terrorist group among their own followers. It is clear from the selection by Muslim terrorists of western embassies, airlines, diplomats and tourists abroad that they symbolically keep striking at the heart of their oppressors. This was evident in the selection of major New York City landmarks by Sheikh Rahman's followers or the multiple attacks by Hizb'allah against U.S. diplomatic and military facilities. In many instances, these groups have adopted a multipronged approach of using terrorism. For example, in Algeria the FIS has targeted foreign tourists, businessmen, diplomats, as well as Algerian officials and other Algerians who engage in un-Islamic behavior. (Magnus Ranstorp, 1996) Today's Religious Terrorists Fundamentalist Islam "cannot conceive of either coexistence or political compromise. To the exponents of Holy Terror, Islam must either dominate or be dominated." (Amir Taheri) A recent study that traced the Islamic theological doctrine to the middle ages noted recent philosophical developments by modern terrorist cults that explained the preponderance of religious mass-casualty terrorism coming from adherents of Islam. (Matthew, 2004) In an article published shortly after 9/11, Steven Simon and David Benjamin noted that many al Qaeda attacks, including the major planning phase of the 9/11 attacks, took place during favorable times for the Palestinians in the Middle East peace process, and that no foreign policy changes by the US government could possibly have appeased the bin Ladenist radical. While Islamic terrorists are the most notorious of today's violent radicals, others such as right-wing Christian extremists also exhibit many characteristics of the new terrorism. (Matthew, 2004) Approach to Modern Terrorism - Suicide Bombers When Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, many terrorists thought that this was the answer to their prayers, but theirs was a false hope. The trust put today in that new invincible weapon, namely suicide terrorism, may in the end be equally misplaced. Even the use of weapons of mass destruction might not be the terrorist panacea some believe it will be. Perhaps their effect will be less deadly than anticipated; perhaps it will be so destructive as to be considered counterproductive. Statistics show that in the terrorist attacks over the past decade, considerably more Muslims were killed than infidels. Since terrorists do not operate in a vacuum, this is bound to lead to dissent among their followers and even among the fanatical preachers. There are likely to be splits among the terrorist groups even though their structure is not highly centralized. In brief, there is a probability that a united terrorist front will not last. It is unlikely that Osama and his close followers will be challenged on theological grounds (Walter Laqueur, 2004) Terrorism related to Islam It is certain that terrorism will continue to operate. At the present time almost all attention is focused on Islamist terrorism, but it is useful to remember from time to time that this was not always the case. At present, Islamist terrorism monopolizes our attention, and it certainly has not yet run its course. But it is unlikely that its present fanaticism will last forever; religious-nationalist fervor does not constantly burn with the same intensity. There is a phenomenon known in Egypt as "Salafi burnout," the mellowing of radical young people, the weakening of the original fanatical impetus. Like all other movements in history, messianic groups are subject to routinization, to the circulation of generations, to changing political circumstances, and to sudden or gradual changes in the intensity of religious belief. This could happen as a result of either victories or defeats. It is the environment in which Islamist terrorism and terrorist support groups in Western Europe developed. There is little reason to assume that this trend will fundamentally change in the near future. On the contrary, the more the young generation of immigrants asserts itself, the more violence occurs in the streets, and the more terrorist attacks take place, the greater the anti-Muslim resentment on the part of the rest of the population. The rapid demographic growth of the Muslim communities further strengthens the impression among the old residents that they are swamped and deprived of their rights in their own homeland, not even entitled to speak the truth about the prevailing situation. Hence there is a violent reaction in even the most liberal European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. (Walter Laqueur, 2004) Afghanistan and Terrorism In the book 'Afghanistan - The origin of Terrorism', Ridley writes: "The story of Afghanistan is very much related to the subsequent growth of terrorism, of elements or organizations that today we call Al-Qaeda. The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan brought to it a massive resistance from the Afghan people. The Soviets came to impose an ideology on the Afghan people that was alien to us. Alien because it was against our religion, we were Muslims, very devout people in our beliefs in Islam. They came to impose Communism on us and to take away religion from us. Soviets also came to take our country. They came with their tanks and their soldiers and they occupied our country. So we had to fight them to regain our identity. That means home, values, culture, religion, and all parts of it. On the other side, on the side of our resistance, while the Afghan people were resisting the Soviet occupation, the rest of the world came to help us. From America, to Europe, to some countries in the Muslim world, to our immediate neighbors. There were two forces at work against our people. The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and those that were helping the Afghan resistance." (Lee Ridley, 2005) The engagement of the international community in Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States opened a new phase in the evolution of multinational peace operations. In initial discussions over establishing the force command for ISAF, the United States insisted that the operation must fall under the ultimate authority of the US Central Command. Since November 2001, the US Central Command has been responsible for the military campaign in Afghanistan, conducted by a multinational coalition whose goal is to root out the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The United States was concerned that ISAF might encounter coalition troops conducting other tasks related to the war on terrorism and wanted to make sure there was a clear chain of command. (Naomi Weinberger, 2002) Development In Afghanistan, a bitter civil war has been raging for several decades. After the collapse of the contested Taliban regime and in the absence of a stable centralized authority, the United States is leading an antiterrorist campaign, driven to reach its military objectives despite the inevitable toll on Afghan civilians. As the UN and the NGO community scramble to address the population's emergency needs, there is no adequate security presence equipped even to assure safety to international humanitarian personnel, let alone the Afghan public. Beyond the current emergency, a comprehensive long-term reconstruction and development program is vital if the international community is truly committed to address the root causes of conflicts in Afghanistan. In order to eradicate the conflict that escorts to religious terrorism, a rebuilding process must be initiated keeping in view the following points: Financial requirements include rebuilding Afghanistan's central bank and establishing mechanisms to coordinate foreign aid and investment. Infrastructure development must include repairs to roads and irrigation systems and clearance of thousands of mines. The near total collapse of education under the Taliban regime (with the exception of religious schools and madrasas open only to boys) must be reversed. (Naomi Weinberger, 2002) References Lee Ridley, 2005. Magnus Ranstorp, 1996. Terrorism in the Name of Religion. Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 41. Accessed from Questia Online Library Matthew J. Morgan, 2004. The Origins of the New Terrorism. Parameters, Vol. 34, no.1, pp. 29. Accessed from Questia Online Library. Naomi Weinberger, 2002. Civil-Military Coordination in Peacebuilding: The Challenge in Afghanistan. Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 245. Accessed from Questia Online Library. Roderick Hindery, 2003. The Anatomy of Propaganda within Religious Terrorism. The Humanis, Vol. 63, no.2, pp. 16. Accessed from Questia Online Library. Walter Laqueur, 2004. The Terrorism to Come. Policy Review, Vol. 126. Accessed from Questia Online Library Read More