Characteristics Of Terrorism

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Terrorism is the use of violence as a means to create terror or fear in order to achieve political, religious or ideological aim. Moreover, the violence is usually against unarmed civilians with the goal of undermining the state control. Additionally, to separates terrorism from ordinary violence, it is important to know the key characteristics of terrorism - political or religious objectives, usage of violence against civilians, attacks have far-reaching repercussions beyond the targets, and conducted by an organization with identifiable chain of command or cell structure. Some of these terrorist methods are the usage of explosive devices seen in recent Manchester attack, shootings and close quarter attacks which were recently seen in the…show more content…
For instance, there are killings of Romans and Jews which usually took place in daylight and in front of witnesses, with the perpetrators using such acts to send a message – a tactic that would also be used by subsequent generations of what would become known as terrorists. In recent times, long before the outbreak of Word War I in Europe in 1914, what would later be termed state-sponsored terrorism had already started to manifest itself. For instance, many officials in the Serbian government and military were involved (albeit unofficially) in supporting, training and arming the various Balkan groups which were active prior to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo – an act carried out by an activist from one such group, the ‘Young Bosnians’ and credited with setting in progress the chain of events which led to the war itself. Today, we have active terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, a group inspired in advocating a return to the ways of the first Muslims. Al-Qaeda's ideology, often referred to as "jihadism," is marked by a willingness to kill "apostate" —and Shiite—Muslims and an emphasis on jihad. Although "jihadism" is at odds with nearly all Islamic religious thought, it has its roots in the…show more content…
Islamic State is an al-Qaeda offshoot in Iraq booted out for its excessive brutality. Although, there are several similarities between al-Qaeda, such as their ideological opposition to the West, they differ significantly in their approach to violence, how they choose to capitalize on anti-Western sentiment, and their ultimate aims as terrorist organizations. Unlike the self-proclaimed Islamic State, al Qaeda — led by bin Laden until his death in 2011 — was never overly concerned with the immediate formation of an Islamic caliphate. Furthermore, whereas al Qaeda's primary enemy has always been the United States, ISIS targets are much closer to home: Namely, apostate Shi'ite regimes such as Bashar Assad's government in Syria and Haider al-Abadi's in Iraq that impede the creation of a "pure", radically sectarian Islamic state. Another stark contrast of the two groups is its propaganda, ISIS' mastery of social media and online propaganda has given it the ability to recruit tens of thousands of young jihadists in a way that al Qaeda was never able to do. Moreover, other terrorist groups aim to associate themselves with

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