Essay on The Psychology of Terrorism - DB

Terrorism is a very serious problem in the present and even more significant threat in the future. Anyone and anywhere can feel safe and secure while terrorism will not be defeated. Already, terrorism can be called a “plague of the XXI century”, because it is not inferior to this disease in a destructive force. According to statistics, a terrorist act occurs every two days. As a result, a lot of innocent people are killed, buildings are destroyed, and peace and tranquility is broken. Hoffman (1998) defined terrorism as “on one point, at least, everyone agrees: terrorism is a pejorative term. It is a word with intrinsically negative connotations that is generally applied to one’s enemies and opponents, or to those with whom one disagrees and would otherwise prefer to ignore.”

Thus, in this paper we are going to introduce the conditions, which can create a propitious climate for the development of terrorism, and to define and discuss the political, religious, economic, cultural conditions that can lead to the development and recruitment of terrorists.

Let us focus our attention on one terrorist organization, such as Al-Qaeda. It is believed that in addition to carrying out terroristattacks, this organization actively creates new Islamic institutions and conducts the radicalization of existing ones. The main purpose of Al-Qaeda is to overthrow secular regimes in the Arab countries, to establisha theocratic system of Sharia (Islamic law), and tounite all Islamic countries into one single Caliphate.

The main conditions why Al-Qaeda creates a terrorist are the following ones:

• The destruction of Arab and Islamic countries’ current leaders;
• The destruction of cultural and economic influence from Islamic countries and the Middle East, as well as removing American military, slackening Israel, which is an American ally, is a final goal.

The most common conditions that can lead to the development and recruitment of terrorists include:

Political: political instability is a major condition of the development of terrorism. According to statistics, the number of terrorist acts increases dramatically in a period of political instability. In addition, the main political conditions, which lead to the development of a terrorist, can be considered to be the lack of measures taken to ensure the safety of the population, which provoke terrorists, impact on the public consciousness of totalitarian, dictatorial legal regimes (e.g., the Taliban regime in Afghanistan).

Economic: terrorism today is a business that can bring considerable revenues to its organizers, which can be compared with income from oil businesses. International trade in weapons can make huge profits.

Religious: currently, there are religious groups that promote violence. The most common of these is Wahhabism (a radical movement of Islam). It identified the main enemies of Muslims: Jews and Christians. They must fight against them – jihad. All those who do not follow Sharia, deserve death. Besides, there is another interesting idea: Islam is younger than Christianity for 8 centuries. Hence, the Muslims now have the 13th century. If we draw a parallel with Europe, then we can see that the Inquisition was dominated in the 13th century, in fact it is the same struggle against the unbelievers. The Koran rejects violence. The commandment “Thou shalt not kill” is in Islam. In most cases, terrorists only conceal their true intentions through religious slogans.

Cultural: the crisis of modern society, the distortion of legal and human values. For example, children bring up under the slogans of terrorism in some Middle Eastern countries. In addition, the most frequent conditions of terrorism are conflicts based on ideological grounds, separatism.

In summary, it is possible to draw a conclusion that terrorism can be defeated only with the help of the whole world.It is a destructive force and we must make every effort to overcome this huge problem around the world. In the first place, it is necessary and important to fight against the conditions and reasons for its occurrence.