Majority of us have witnessed it over the TV or Internet at the safety and comfort of our warm cozy homes. Regardless of how bad the situation is, we can’t really empathize enough to understand what’s really going on. The chills and the feeling of our stomachs turning are only periodical, soon we forget and go to bed with smiles on our faces. But the reality is still upon those men, women and children directly affected. The scenes of demolished buildings and cars is nothing compared to the horrific view of lifeless bodies of people swimming in pools of blood scattered all over the place. In some cases, the body is completely vaporized with no remains at all. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunties or an entire families is vanquished. The survivors are left with two choices, either to flee or remain and face the devil. This is what modern terrorism has evolved to, something so ugly I luck words to fully describe.
Terrorism! What is really terrorism? It is not as straight forward to define as you may think, besides most of us haven’t really reflected deeply on this issue. Popularly, terrorism is described as use or threatened use of force against civilians designed to bring about political or social change. However, while we think of terrorism as being both a political and irrational act, terrorism can also be thought of as a rational act conducted specifically because of the impact — fear, confusion, submission — it will have.
To make it more complex, according to both the Department of Defense (DOD) and the FBI, terrorism is “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” The DOD definition adds that a goal of terrorism can be “inculcating fear” (thus the psychological dimension), while the State Department is more elaborate, specifying that terrorism may include the use of biological, chemical or nuclear devices as well as the act of “assassination.” Implication of this is that, should the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the use of Nuclear weapons on Japan and chemical weapons on Vietnam during World War II also be classified as terrorism?
The complexity of such a question is brought about by our moral compass and obviously our biasness. This is the grand conundrum of defining terrorism; it is very difficult to separate it from acts of war, just or unjust. We all have heard the saying, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Remember the Mau-Mau–Kenya– fighter were considered terrorist by British colonialist whereas, the native Kenyans regarded them as freedom fighters. Remember that in 1980s, Osama bin Laden and his comrades were branded as freedom fighters by American government whereas, during the same period the likes of Dick Cheney considered Nelson Mandela–South Africa– a terrorist. Does it make any sense to you now that terrorism seems to be all about the angle at which you view the act? This is dangerous!
How did we get here in the first place? Why the anger and hatred towards fellow humankind compelling us to plot and execute evil schemes against one another? There must but a root to this evil. People have their reasons, Mau-Mau fighters wanted their land back and Mandela was fighting against apartheid rule. Why would Al-Shabaab attack Westgate, Nairobi killing at least 67 people, and later attack Garissa University College, Kenya keeping hostage and killing students, not to mention Mpeketoni attacks? Why is it that some Middle East Arab countries are continuously at war and why would they want to attack western countries? Such organize acts are not just done randomly and without reason.
Borrowing from Washington State University publication on Roots of Modern Terrorism in the Middle East, published on January 18, 2015 by Calvin McClain, it is not paranoid to conclude that western imperialism is the major contributor to the modern terrorism. We might be in denial but the truth is wide open for all of us to see. The act of European imperialist trying to westernize the Middle East and its citizens and the creation of territorial boundaries across Middle East, has been the root of terrorism coming from Middle East in many decades. The fight for oil and other resources played a small part as well. But one of the most important aspect of this imperialism according to McClain was the creation of Israel following World War II. These people turned to their radical ways because they were frustrated with European imperialism and what was tied with it.
How will you react if someone invaded your home forcing you to conform to his/her own way of life? During the era of European expansion, the Muslim society became discontent with Europeans push for westernization in Muslim homeland, also, following the industrial era the need for oil round the world was astounding and European nation sought to take advantage of the Middle East oil. Many writers and historians agree to this. The European’s quest to imperialize the Middle East has had strong connection to radical terrorism. According to McCain, these people were being forced to change their way of life and become a “civilized” group of people, which seems to be a common goal of Europeans during any of their eras of expansion into foreign lands. After the discovery of the abundance of oil in the Middle East, western Europeans industries came fast and did not stop to look at the destruction they were causing to the Muslim society.
These industries partnered with some Middle East hierarchy like Abd al-Aziz lbn Saud in the early 1900’s. But were ran by Europeans and no respect for Muslim workers. What began as frustrated workers rioting would turn to a frustrated society where some individuals and small groups would take radical measures to achieve their goals. Most of these western nations and Soviet Russian were quick to turn to military action because of the negative connotation of the Middle East people also known as Orientalism– a way of seeing that images, emphasizes, exaggerates and distorts difference of Arab people and culture as compared to European and the U.S. (it often involves seeing Arab culture as exotic, backward, uncivilized, and at times dangerous).
Creation of Israel as a state and enforcing security measures in the borders restricting entry, has been frustrating to Muslim due to the fact that Israel is in the heart of the Muslim holy land. This has been a source of religious and political conflicts for decades, some of the Muslim people believed that they were being wronged or treated unfairly, especially concerning the holy land. This hatred is cemented by the fact that creation of Israeli borders by the Jewish after World War II was backed by western nations like the United States of America.
The imperialized laid the foundation for modern terrorism after which several terror groups with personal interests started springing up. Religious was used as fuel, terror sects used brainwashing techniques to recruit people into the sects with promises of reward from higher powers. They also used forceful means like kidnapping and holding hostage family members of a person they intended to use a suicide bomber. Young kids were and are still the most effective assets for the terror groups, not only do they look innocent and thus can penetrate and deliver a package into an enemies’ zone, but also gullible and can easily be duped and trick (some are made to believe that the explosives will not harm them since they explode outwards thus willingly take the role of suicide bombers). They also use human shields as a tactic to slow and confuse their enemies before they attack suddenly.
Currently there are several terror groups which have sprung up all over the world, but without a reasonable doubt there are a few outstanding ones. To begin with The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS or simply the Islamic State) — the world most dangerous organized terror group which has attracted the attention of every single country in the world– According to CIA, it has approximately 31,000 fighters. They captured Mosul– the second largest city in Iraq– swiftly and with ease. ISIS has single handedly swept across Middle East controlling an area the size of Belgium. They have achieve this by employing the most brutal and imaginable techniques that even Al Qaeda could not easily accomplish– rounding up and executing anyone who shows the slightest bit of resistance to its domination– At least four cases of mass killings by ISIS terrorists have been documented, including the execution of 250 Syrian troops in August after the group captured the al-Tabqa air base. Not long ago, over 200 Iraqi tribesmen were massacred west of Ramadi in what can only be described as an attempt by ISIS to extinguish any competitor, however passive, who dares to rise up and challenge its authority. They also get a revenue of about $1 million a day on sale of Crude oil. But to who do they sell to?
Boko Haram– a jihadist group in northeastern Nigeria– has killed at least 6,742 people since May 2011 according to The Council on Foreign Relations. They use brutal tactics of razing villages down to the ground, head shots and burning their victims alive. What caught the attention of the international community was when they raided and held captive over 300 school girls of a boarding school in the Nigerian border town of Chibok, threatening them with forced marriage and forced conversion. This group is at war with the Nigerian’s National government, but for what reasons? Then comes Al-Shabab, a Salafist jihadi organization operating in East Africa, predominantly in Somalia. The group is the reason for instability in Somalia, they control a large part of Somalia and continuously attacts and kill people in the Somali government control regions. They have staged attacks in Kenya resulting into several deaths and also involved in kidnapping of both Kenyan citizens and foreign tourists. They are alleged to be funded by powerful people and also involve piracy along the Indian Ocean coast and in illegal smuggling of goods across neighboring countries’ boarders.
Other terror groups like Abu Sayyaf Group Filipino jihadist, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) formerly affiliated to al-Qaeda and Hizballah or Hezbollah of Lebanon, are currently causing terror in their respective countries resulting into deaths of very many people and shuttered dreams of the many locals. They are increasingly acquiring high power weapons capable of causing serious damages, which are surprisingly manufactured in Western countries and the U.S. The question is, who is arming these militia groups and for what reason? Remember according to reports, The U.S. remains the lead arms supplier and patron of the Saudi regime, and was close to Pakistan during the Afghan war, while the dictator Zia ul-Haq (one of the world’s more ruthless) was in power. The CIA was a main funnel of over $3 billion in funds to the Afghan resistance, which became the core of the current terrorist network. The Soviet Union was likewise a supporter of the previous generation of Arab terrorists, such as Abu Nidal, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other Palestinian groups.
Just as I mentioned earlier, Terrorism is getting complex. The case of Russian government bombing a market full of civilians including children in Aleppo Syria is an act of terrorism in the eyes of the Syrians. Such careless actions are the contributors of radicalization, the individual affected by such attracts will be vulnerable to manipulation by terror groups due to their emotional breakdown and the urge to seek justice or revenge. So, has the fight of terrorism with terror yielded positive results or has it worsen the situation over the years? Be the judge.
Solving a complex problem like terrorism calls for rationalism. It is important to understand the roots of this menace and surgically eliminate it instead applying remedies which will only make the situation worse over time. Terrorism is a threat and disrespect to humankind and should be treated with a lot of caution since it is also a double edge sword. Countries which were once beautiful like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan have turned into real hell on earth, they are death traps. Peaceful countries like Kenya, Canada, U.S, France, and England among many others are continuously on the high alert due these terror groups which cause lots of injuries and deaths of their citizens. Respect for humankind is paramount in the war against terrorism. Terrorism is quickly getting out of hand regardless of the point of view you perceive it, something revolutionary must be done and quick, now that fighting fire with fire is not working as expected.
Taking the advice of Dean Ornish, “… in an era in which war and terrorism– at home and abroad– are often based on racial, religious and ethnic differences, rediscovering the wisdom of love and compassion may help us increase our survival at a time when increasingly divided country and world so badly need it.” We need more than weapons to stop terrorism!
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