Terrorism

Terrorism thrives in an ambience of social, economic and political injustice. This is true for both national and international terrorism. The sense of frustration is so intense and pervasive that the outrageous means chosen by them acquire a moral justification for them. In the eyes of the establishment, these terrorists are criminals. But their sense of commitment to their own conviction elbows out any alien concern, and convert their negative stance into a positive accomplishment. Sometimes terrorism is sparked by a feeling of outrage, when they believe that a specific code of values is being supplanted by unjust intrusions from the outsides. It was presumably this sense of hibernating indignation that triggered the London, Mumbai, Pakistan and forced the only super power to launch a fully – fledged war against the poor and defenseless country like Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq.

Historians and social scientists contradict one another in defining it. The glaring implication is that, since perceptions vary; one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. However, most of them agree that it is a special form of politics philosophy or movement. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Political thought claims: Terrorism is a form of political violence, directed at government but often involving ordinary citizens, whose aim is to create a climate of fear in which the aims of the terrorists will be granted by the government in question. The term is sometimes twisted by government themselves to install a sense of fear in their subjects. To some western political and strategic analysts, a terrorist is a cross between a criminal and guerrilla. A terrorist kills civilians to create terror in support of his political struggle, while a common criminal lacks political motives and a guerrilla flights by the rules of war today, terrorism is directly accountable for creating a sense of insecurity of life, short-circuiting economic development, curtailing civil liberties and generating a climate of fear and terror. Restricted largely to third-world countries, it has now spilled into the advanced countries and the terrorist acts in New York and Washington have further extended its scope and area of operation.

Terrorism is the cruelest of crimes; it feeds off the personal suffering by luring governments into actions that abandon hard-earned freedoms of modern civilization. Massive budgets committed to security mock the lives lost in poor countries to preventable disease and hunger. The dark complexity of suicide attacks has exposed inadequacies of security forces, moral philosophers, psychologists and theologians alike. Failing to take advantage of the universal revulsion at the events of September 2001, the "war on terror" has instead magnified the global threat of terrorism. The exasperating inability to define terrorism is betrayed in the UN 2006 Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy - "we, the States Members of the United Nations...strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes". The UN has been striving for decades to find a wording for terrorism which, instead of "all its forms and manifestations", narrows down to a specific profile of violence which can be condemned regardless of the circumstances.

Categories of Terrorism with respect to their procedures are: Bio terrorism; use of bio toxic hazards to harm innocent human civilization, cyber terrorism; use of computers to harm government or non government networks, Nuclear terrorism; use nuclear weapons or giving threats of use of nuclear weapons, Narco terrorism; use of illegal drugs like opium, Eco terrorism; damaging the natural ecological cycle, economic terrorism; to destroy economies for vested interests or gains. The basics behind terrorist activities are: Secession of a territory to form a new sovereign state, Dominance of territory or resources by various ethnic groups, Imposition of a particular form of government, Economic deprivation of a population, Opposing a domestic government or occupying army. Terrorism has occurred throughout history for a variety of reasons. Its causes can be historical, cultural, political, social, psychological, economic, or religious or any combination of these. In broad terms the causes that have commonly compelled people to engage in terrorism are grievances borne of political oppression, cultural domination, economic exploitation, ethnic discrimination, and religious persecution, perceived inequities in the distribution of wealth and political power. Probably the most contested cause of terrorism is an aggrieved group resorting to violence for nationalist or separatist reasons; depending on one's point of view, this can be considered as resistance against an (external) oppressor.

There is a relation between ethnic minorities and the likelihood of conflict, for example to establish or assert language rights, religious beliefs and symbols, but there are other factors like "civil and political rights and privileges, regional-ethnic parity in the economy. What then generates perceptions of unfairness is rivalry when an ethnic group is subordinated or disadvantaged in economic opportunity, social status, political voice and rights, or cultural expressions. However, the cited factors are not unique for ethnic minorities. To generalize it further, ethnic conflict arises from a "complex combination" of class, inequality, political opportunity, mobilization resources and "ethnic strength". A more important factor may be the social stratification i.e. inequalities in the distribution of scarce resources. When a group is absolutely or relatively deprived they rebel. It is one of the major cause fuelling terrorism - proof by contradiction: roughly 15% of the population consumes 85% of the resources; UN statistics show that citizens in the Third World are worse off now than 30 years ago, while a small faction in those countries enriched themselves. The rich states ought to be continuously subject to terrorist acts by people from the deprived class.

Terrorist attacks are incessantly carried out by Third World deprived citizens against the rich countries. In fact, the amount of terrorist incidents increased since 9/11. This was the start of this century (a century of uni-polar or capitalist world). Absence of Democracy is yet another reason of terrorism. A democratic government is supposed to represent the people and provide political means to voice grievances, hence essentially providing a sphere where terrorism has no place. For this reason, in theory, there 'cannot' be an aggrieved group that is not adequately represented; otherwise, it is a violation of the doctrines of democracy and constitutionalism. Political violence happens in a democracy on two occasions: Firstly, there is the case of the minority whose basic rights and liberties are denied or taken away by arbitrary action of the government or its agencies. Secondly, when one minority is attacked by another and the oppressed does not receive adequate protection from the state and its forces of law and order.

Then there are those who are the subjects of a liberal state, but who are not admitted to its rights of citizenship cannot be morally bound to obedience to the state. They are not bound by political obligation for they have not been accorded any rights by the state. Religious terrorism is terrorism performed by groups or individuals, the motivation of which is typically rooted in the faith based tenets. Terrorist acts throughout the centuries have been performed on religious grounds with the hope to either spread or enforce a system of belief, viewpoint or opinion. Religious terrorism does not in itself necessarily define a specific religious standpoint or view, but instead usually defines an individual or a group view or interpretation of that belief system's teachings. Although many people today believe that that religious fanaticism "causes" terrorism, it isn't true. It may be true that religious fanaticism creates conditions that are favorable for terrorism. But we know that religious zealotry does not 'cause' terrorism because there are many religious fanatics who do not choose terrorism or any form of violence. Present evaluations link the phenomenon to militant Islam, some elements of whose followers seek to establish a theocratic Islamic state by attacking and undermining the existing order that is dominated by the West. Two observations need to be made on this theory.

 Firstly, Islam, whose name means "religion of peace", does not preach violence, but seeks to create a harmonious society, in which the rights of all, Muslims and non-Muslims alike are protected. Secondly, terrorism has existed over the centuries, and was practiced by the Jews in Palestine in the period immediately after the Second World War, while a terrorist act by a Christian triggered the First World War. The current tendency to view the war against terrorism as a conflict between civilizations distorts realities to justify what is seen as a neo-imperialist drive to dominate the Islamic world. So there must also be other conditions that in combination provoke some people to see terrorism as an effective way of creating change in their world. The most important aspect of terrorist attacks is the ‘target’. Most of the time innocent citizens are the victims of these attacks.

Terrorists target innocent citizens to create fear. By generating such an atmosphere of fear they claim ‘power’. Sometimes, some specific people like government officials, business men, transport and vehicle facilities (air craft or train), building etc are also the victims of terrorist attacks. Second type of victims is targeted to draw more attention; sometimes these types of victims are freed after negotiations but many times the attack results as killings. The most common examples of these terrorist attacks are 7/7 London, Mumbai attacks, killing of a prominent Pakistani leader (Benazir Bhutto), attack on Sri Lankan Team, ISI office and Rescue 15 buildings in Pakistan. The attacks were carried out in such a way as to maximize the severity and length of the psychological impact. Each act of terrorism is a “performance” devised to have an impact on many large audiences. Terrorists also attack national symbols, to show power and to attempt to shake the foundation of the country or society they are opposed to.

This may negatively affect a government, while increasing the prestige of the given terrorist organization and/or ideology behind a terrorist act. Terrorists is to exploit the media in order to achieve maximum attainable publicity as an amplifying force multiplier in order to influence the targeted audience(s) in order to reach short- and midterm political goals and/or desired long-term end states."  It is commonly held that the distinctive nature of terrorism lies in its intentional and specific selection of civilians as direct targets. Specifically, the criminal intent is shown when babies, children, mothers and the elderly are murdered, or injured and put in harm's way. Much of the time, the victims of terrorism are targeted not because they are threats, but because they are specific "symbols, tools, animals or corrupt beings" that tie into a specific view of the world that the terrorists possess. Their suffering accomplishes the terrorists' goals of instilling fear, getting their message out to an audience or otherwise satisfying the demands of their often radical religious and political agendas. State Terrorism is used as a tool to maintain a country/ state’s influence on a particular area. Well known examples in this regard are the Indian occupation on Kashmir and Israel’s policy for Philistine. In both the cases hundred thousands of people have been killed, women have been raped, the basic rights of the natives have been denied. Regarding state terrorism we can’t forget US policy for Afghanistan and Iraq. But in case of Afghanistan and Iraq, the objective of the act is a little different, i.e. the natural resources found in these regions.

Terrorism may be broadly analyzed into two dimensions: international terrorism where the people of more than one country are involved and internal terrorism where the people of a single country are its unfortunate victims. But both forms virtually overlap and the distinction seems to be only semantic. Throughout the world, terrorism reinvents itself in new and more dangerous forms. As older groups are defeated or exhausted, more radical and more violent successors often take their place now terrorists pursue unconventional means of attack, such as chemical, biological, or radiological weapons, or nuclear weapons. The latest terrorist tactics include cyber-terrorism, using computers to destroy computer networks or systems; in future it may be electronic warfare that targets critical infrastructure, such as communications and power facilities, or societies in general although terrorism likely can never be completely eradicated, countering its threat requires continuing vigilance.

The highly individual nature of terrorism’s causes, the diversity of its perpetrators, and the complexity of its fundamental characteristics present enormous challenges to those who must effectively counter this menace. It is just not enough to take the following steps only: targeted laws, criminal procedures, deportations, and enhanced police powers, Target hardening, such as locking doors or adding traffic barriers, Preemptive or reactive military action, increased intelligence and surveillance activities, Preemptive humanitarian activities, More permissive interrogation and detention policies, Official acceptance of torture as a valid tool The following measure, if sincerely adopted and implemented, may help upstaging terrorism. First, terrorism must be handled with an iron hand. Second, government should offer no concession to terrorists. Third, an intensified effort should be made to legally prosecute terrorists. Fourth, firm measures are needed to penalize state sponsors who provide terrorists safe haven, weapons cash and diplomatic support. Fifth, terrorist intimidations should not be allowed to derail political and diplomatic efforts. Sixth, civil aviation must take concrete steps to plug the major loopholes. Seventh, the world bodies like the united nation must play their role to check international terrorism. If terrorism is not checked in time, and if it turns into pure bio – terrorism, it can literally convert the world into a hellish spot.

It is admitted that injustice is hard to eliminate completely, but the irony is that no concerted. Effort is being made to create an environment where justice may flourish and injustice festers. The international community, through a sincere  and dynamic pooling of its varied resources, can still recapture the lost sense of true human splendor and glory and in one unprecedented leap of will and faith can steer the tortured mankind towards a new Eldorado.