Understanding Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Understanding Terrorism - Essay Example Understanding Terrorism According to the FBI terrorism is the illegal use of violence against people or property to coax the reigning regime, the civilian population or a segment of society in the pursuit of political or social objectives. The Al Shabaab is an extremist group; their actions do more harm than good and show why terrorism cannot be justified no matter the cause. Q2 There are diverse classifications of fighters centered on their devotions, ways and means of combat, whereby a terrorist is one who uses fear, that is, terror, to achieve their political and social goals. Whiles a revolutionary is one who believes in an over haul of the government and in the way people think. Therefore, a revolutionary does not necessarily resort to violence although many revolutions have been characterized with a lot of violence as was seen in the French revolution and the Arab spring. A freedom fighter is one who strives to acquire freedom of his social group who he believes is oppressed by the reigning government . When struggling for liberation in Argentina, Che Guevara resorted to violence however not all freedom fighters will choose warfare as their style of combat. Guerillas combat in small crowds if possible under cover or at nightfall choosing for an autonomous and lopsided style of aggressiveness. Their smaller units enable them to strike faster and escape before their stronger opposing forces can organize a counter attack. A terrorist can become a guerrilla but not all guerillas are terrorists as the Philippine forces resorted to guerilla tactics during the Vietnam War (Kramer 98). Terrorist action is the use of fear to achieve sociopolitical ends. Q3 A relationship has been observed between terrorism and the level of freedom within a regime, an authoritarian regime is more likely to experience acts of terrorism than a liberal regime (Cinar 3). The feeling of oppression and denial of human rights is all the motivation required to resort to violence but there are cases of liberal gove rnments facing terrorist activities. Polish workers demonstrated against the regime of Wladyslaw Gomulka In 1970 because of the government’s continuous oppression of opposition views due to the poor working conditions and the (Shlapentokh 171). In 2011, the Arab spring revolution occurred and saw several Arab leaders face disapproval and removal from power due to their human rights violation. Muammar Gadaffi of Libya faced the revolt of his people due to gross human rights violation. In Syria, there are daily riots as revolutionaries and freedom fighters resort to guerrilla tactics and terror to remove the incumbent president Al Assad who they accuse of using excessive force to silence his critics within the country. The leading motive for the terrorism seen in liberal countries is the failure of appropriate application of the philosophies of democracy. Ethnic terrorism is the main form of terrorism observed in liberal democracies as ethnic or religious minorities feel that t here are not given equal treatment, their values are not respected (Cinar 5), or that there is cultural erosion of their culture for the dominant group such as the September 11 Airline smash of the Twin Towers by Bin Laden. One of the grievances of the Al Qaeda group is the spread of western values and culture that is eroding Arabic culture as well as the development of America the expense of their own countries. Spain a country known for its good