Causes of Terrorism By: Khalil Azar Abstract
The term 'terrorism' came into use at the end of the 18th century, primarily to refer to violent governmental acts designed to ensure popular submission. 1 Terrorism comprises acts of violence meant to instill fear; that fear then generates alarm of future attacks perpetrated by individuals, groups, or governments against a civilian population, their symbols of power, and property. Rachel Monaghan, writes in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism that terrorism is the "use of violence in an attempt to achieve a change in, or the maintenance of, the status quo."2 Perpetrators of these acts are human beings acting against other human beings with the intention to physically harm, psychologically terrorize, and inflict general destruction. Groups denied human rights, such as certain ethnic groups in submissive states, like the ANC (African National Congress) in South Africa, nationalist groups like the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) in Palestine, and certain religious groups, such as Christian fundamentalists in the U.S., have resorted to acts of violence over real or perceived injustices against their groups. Precursors to terrorist acts include poverty, persecution, lack of human rights, oppression, occupation, and ideologies, such as secular beliefs, and religious and ethnic discrimination. This is a timely and controversial topic. This paper provides an overview of the precursors and plights that culminate in these violent acts. Factors that Cause Terrorism
Extremes in psychology, secular ideology, religion, ethnicity, and nationalism often lead to terrorism. Also, the perceived political grievances of occupation, poverty, religious influence, and military oppression are often precursors to terrorism. The reasons for the complaints by the aggrieved parties are based on factual evidence, as well as beliefs, or are fabricated by the strong. Most of these complaints are declared by the aggrieved in the form of harm done to them. The aggrieved may be responding in kind to those who inflict the harm on them or they want to attract attention or recognition. The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), for example, is trying to establish a Palestinian state on part of their land while struggling under occupation. The Palestinian Arab group's military resistance against Israeli occupation is justified. Some of this violence is legitimate defense, protected by the U.N. rules--the right of people to use all means to defend them. "The principle of 'armed struggle' derived from the right of resistance accorded universally to all peoples suffering national oppression."3 "Yet like
all people (including the Jews) the Palestinians responded on occasion to spectacular outrages, in order to dramatize their struggle and to inflict pain on an unremitting enemy."• International Injustice
An example of this international injustice is the response to the United Nation's action to create the state of Israel on Palestinian land after WWII. "Exhausted, the British turned the problem over to the United Nations, where the Soviets and Americans banded together to force a solution on the Arabs." 5 Cooperation occurred between the Soviet Union and the U.S. in the UN, where "the superpowers made the Arabs pay a part of the price for the German death camps." 6 The "Solution was the partition of Palestine to create a Jewish state along the Mediterranean coast, with almost indefensible borders."1 The U.N. legitimized a group of people (Jewish immigrants) on other people's land (Palestine). The Jewish groups believe that God gave them the land. "Zionism became a driving force among world Jewry only in response to the Nazi Final Solution."0 "Zionism, a [political] movement born in Russia, advocated that Jews return to their homeland in Palestine after two thousand years of wandering, in order to establish their own nation."9 The Jewish groups expelled the Palestinians from their homeland and forced them to become refugees at the border of their country (called Israel today). This happened to the Palestinians by the Jews despite the help Palestinians extended to Jews after WWII, only to have Israel turn against them. The root causes are "a tragic legacy of mutual fears, suspicions, prejudices, passionate recriminations, preposterous self-righteousness, and blindness to the legitimate rights of an adversary." 10 The adversary is the Palestinian refugees that Israel expelled. The actions of the U.N. resolutions created turmoil in the region of these two groups and resulted in violence. The Jewish groups received help to settle on Palestinian land from the colonizing power of Great Britain at the time and later by the United States. During the first Arab-Israeli war, The Israelis asked the United Nations for help, and once again the United States and the Soviet Union worked together to bring about a four week truce. During this time, the Israelis procured quantities of heavy arms from Communist Czechoslovakia. When the shooting started again it was the Israelis who drove their ene-