Terrorism and Ira free essay sample

How is terrorism today a result of past events? Terrorism is a planned illegal act for religious or ideological interests involving serious violence against people or property. The main motives for the terrorists groups are religion, political ideology and nationalism; these are the main factors of the terrorist groups. The terrorist groups I will be analyzing are Al Qaeda, IRA, and PLO. I will examine about how their past events have shaped the way they are today and what I think the main motives are and how there are other factors for these groups. One of the factors that contributed towards the motives of terrorism is religion which was one of the reasons for the formation of Al Qaeda. The terrorist group Al Qaeda was motivated by the factor religion as Al Qaeda wanted the religion Islam to be stricter- this could be seen as their own brand of Islam. The American influence in the Middle East, for example in Saudi Arabia, led to some people in the Middle East wanting to westernize which entailed the religion becoming less strict. We will write a custom essay sample on Terrorism and Ira or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Al Qaeda’s political ideology is to have a perfect country which is ruled by their specific religion which will be anti-western. Al Qaeda wanted American influence to be removed from the Middle East which is supported by â€Å"Repel America’s aggression against them and overcome them. † The different views of both Al Qaeda’s way of living and America caused the upcoming terrorist acts of 9/11 and the 7/7; I believe this was due to USA’s large involvement with westernization in countries like Turkey which were Islamic. America’s opposing views caused Al Qaeda to want to take action against them especially after their interference in Afghanistan when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and threatened Saudi because they saw their pro-westernization as an insult to their religion. Evidence to show this is a statement by Al Qaeda Osama Bin Laden ‘the ruling to kill the Americans and their allies-civilians and military- is an individual duty for every Muslim’ this could be one of the factors behind the huge political threat against the USA in the 9/11 bombings. However, when using Bin Laden’s speech it is important to remember that this view is because trying to persuade people to join Al Qaeda therefore it is not completely reliable. A lot of the speeches made by the leaders of Al Qaeda, for example Abdullah Azzam, contain religious language: ‘Allah’ their Islamic god and ‘Jihad’ meaning holy war. The significance of religion for this terrorist organization states that they would do anything for their beliefs- a statement by Osama Bin Laden reiterates this extreme faith â€Å"fight them until there is no turmoil or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah† suggesting that Muslims die for their religion. Al Qaeda’s motives of religion link in with another motive of political ideology, because it connected with the way they wanted their government to be run as Abdullah Azzam believed that the Muslim government was not strict enough! This shows how central to their beliefs religion is. Personally I believe that religion was the most important motive for Al Qaeda as all of their aims such as to destroy the American influence in all Muslim nations’ links to religion as they wanted to stop westernization and prevent the Islamic religion becoming less strict. Furthermore, Al Qaeda is against Communism because they believe Muslim countries should be run by a religious secular one- this political ideology is written in Azzam’s bitter attack against communism called The Red Cancer. The PLO’s motives were not connected to religion like Al Qaeda’s, they were not trying to convert people into the Islamic religion or change a religion however there was conflict between Muslims and Jews with different religious beliefs. The PLO were fighting against the Jewish people because they believed that the Jews had taken over the Palestinian homeland which was in Israel. This then lead to the formation of PLO as they wanted to reestablish their land for nationalist purposes- â€Å"Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation. † The Irish Republican Army (IRA) were also fighting with a contributing factor of religion, IRA were fighting against a religion. The Northern Ireland was mainly Protestants and they wanted to stay under the influence of Britain however the south of Ireland was inhabitants and they were mainly Catholics and they wanted liberation. The nationalistic motives were similar to the PLO’s hopes of re-establishing their homeland and also Al Qaeda’s attempts to remove American influence. Britain sent lots of Protestants over to Ireland in order to keep power by winning the vote however the Catholics in Ireland did not like this and decided to rebel. Although religion was not a factor that caused the formation of the IRA but there was tension between Catholics and Protestants. The British were mainly Protestants therefore they wanted British influence in Ireland which left the Catholics feelings powerless. Bernadette Devlin stated in 1969: â€Å"We refused to accept the politician’s logic that the problems could be seen in terms of Catholic versus Protestants†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This shows that they felt quite powerless due to their religion and this is when civil rights marches began to occur in Ireland. Strength of the enemy is also a motivation for these terrorist groups as all terrorist groups face immensely powerful enemies for examples in Northern Ireland the IRA was up against a large, modern army and a well organized police force so this lead to them using unorthodox military action . This is because the Southern Ireland was too strong to defend any other way therefore the strength of the enemy is a motivating factor as it leads the terrorist group to take action in a more chaotic way in order to defeat the enemy. Another terrorist group motivated by the factor of strength of the enemy is PLO which had support from many Arab states however it faced the most up-to date Middle East army which was very powerful who were supplied by the USA. The PLO or Arab state clearly could not defeat Israel in conventional warfare. For the IRA the factor of powerlessness is a very strong motive as the Irish fighters felt powerless because they felt the British government was not listening to their views. This led to Ireland wanting its own government as they believed the British did not listen to them and it made them feel like they didn’t have a say in their own country. Also nationalism links in with the motive of powerlessness as if the Irish didn’t feel powerless then they wouldn’t have wanted liberation away from Britain. Another motivational factor towards the formation of terrorist groups is nationalism which means a sense of identity either cultural group or as a nation. The PLO wanted identity and they wanted to establish their own homeland on the land they believed to be theirs, however it was occupied by Israel so this lead to the formation of the Palestinian liberation organization. Evidence to show this is from the Palestinian National Charter from the 1968 ‘Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people’ this shows that the Palestinians believed that the land was theirs and an essential to the Palestinian people. Another piece of evidence is from a poem written by Mahmoud Darwish when he says ‘I belong there’ this shows it was not only the government who thought these views, however the evidence is both from Palestinian people therefore they are saying this as the PLO wanted more people to join them. The PLO was fighting to create their own nation whereas the IRA was fighting against an external power who was ruling. Irish republicans wanted an independent island without British control. Shane O’Doherty an IRA volunteer joined the IRA because of the ‘injustice of British rule in Ireland against the wishes of Irish people’. Many nationalists felt discriminated against by the British or as Brendan Hughes says (a future IRA commander) ‘were under attack’. This view can be supported by and ‘foreign invader’. By using this evidence to support that of the IRA we can see that the evidence is more reliable because it is from the British point of view. After the meeting in Parliament Britain came up with an agreement to keep Northern Ireland and give the rest to Ireland this meant that Ireland owned land back. The IRA was motivated politically by the desire for independence, but also the political ideologies of Republicanism and socialism. The IRA stands for the Irish Republican Army with the Republican party showing their belief in elected government rule rather than monarchy. Many activists also hold socialist ideologies believing that wealth should be distributed equally. Those who believed in this ideology believed that wide spread support for independence could be gained by recognition of socio-economic problems linked to socialism. Another motive for the IRA is political ideology as they wanted their own government and to not be ruled by the British. Poverty links in as a motivational factor for example the PLO resulted in poverty which was a consequence; it was a motivational factor for the PLO because poverty caused them to be more aggressive and angry just like the IRA after the Great Famine of 1840 when the British failed to help dying civilians. Most of the PLOs recruits came from refugee camps and a photograph taken in 1982 presents the bodies of Palestinian refugees after a massacre, showing how horrific poverty was and the injustice that Palestinian refugees faced. Catholics were higher in poverty than Protestants and their housing conditions were so horrific that the unjust treatment made a British private feel ashamed at the prejudice â€Å"I felt that I was invading a man’s home. I felt guilty and ashamed. † this inequality then lead to Catholics to feel quite victimized. The IRA not only wants their land which they believe belongs to them back without any influence of Britain, but they also wanted equality for Catholics as they felt that they did not belong in their own country. It was easy for the Provisional IRA to recruit members, â€Å"gave the community in the lower falls the opportunity to see the IRA as their saviors. † to many people recruiting to the IRA so that people could have a sense of identity by joining in an attempt to come out of their awful conditions and also the Palestine’s in refugee camps followed the same course of action as this mis-treatment could spark anger. In addition this sense of powerfulness against the strength of the Great British army (a lot like the PLO’s lack of strength against the Israelites and injust treatment in poverty as refugees) meant the Irish were dominated by the British monarch despite their motives for the country to be run by an elected government. Al Qaeda’s fortune and connections mean the movement is very rich however Osama Bin Laden complained because the USA got rich at the expense of ordinary Muslims. For example- In Kuwait, US oil companies took the wealth and shared it with a few loyal allies while ordinary people saw little wealth which is a sense of injustice and lights the spark of revenge. During the conflict between Ireland and Britain, the Irish unemployment was extremely high between 35% and 45% but this only motivated the IRA to try harder to fight against the Britian’s unfair ideas as that was initially their main purpose and also the IRA felt it was the only way possible to avoid an economic crisis along with other main factors. The PLO and IRA propaganda poster shows the two terrorist organisations orming an alliance as â€Å"one struggle† because they both have the same nationalistic motives and can empathise with the similar situations. By uniting they are attempting to find a way to overcome the strength of their enemy, to be as threatening as possible to evoke change. In 1973 an event known as ‘Black September’ caused people’s awa reness towards the Israelis and Palestinians whom wanted liberation for their people in prisons. At Munich Olympic games eleven Israeli athletes were held hostage and killed when German police tried to rescue them. This attack will have publicized the organization and created a powerful network or support among fellow terrorists. Terrorism today is a still an ongoing problem of society, one of the most worldwide known act of terrorism of the Al Qaeda is the 9/11 attack and also one of the most significant event linking to Al Qaeda was the death of Osama Bin Laden whom was killed in Pakistan in May 2011 by the US navy seals . Osama Bin Laden’s death lead to his dedicated worshippers to threat to take their lives as revenge for his assassination. Thus because of his death there has been several drone strikes lead by the US president whom approved of them. On the 3rd of December one of Al Qaeda’s main commander was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan. Because of the attack of Al Qaeda in 9/11 this lead to an increase in things such as awareness especially on planes because of Al Qaeda and when they in 2001 crashed two planes into the twin towers it caused airlines and airports to become more securitized. Also because of what happened it lead to more discrimination of those of the Islamic race and this lead to people becoming more racist. A more recent attack was when Al Qaeda made a militant group who were going to attack the bus of Algerian workers. They were 30 militants whom were in search of foreigner, they were quite intelligent according to the prime minister of Algeria and had inside information and had plans for the 15 hectare sites. The militants wanted to destroy the gas facility, this happened on the 16th of January. This reflects that Al Qaeda is still an ongoing terrorist group and is a result of past events. The attacks are related to their main motive of destroying westernization and removing American troops from their land. Algeria were recently hit by Al Qaeda’s terrorist attack in January 2013 to attack buses of British men who worked on the site. This attack is purely against westernization and revenge against the British who they perceive as their enemy and want out of their land. The fact that the organization is still active is a result of the history behind the organization’s foundations and still poses them as a threat against society, probably the deepest fear regarding terrorism points at this organization who have made the biggest impact on the world’s knowledge of terrorism. Another recent even occurred regarding terrorism in June 2012 when the Queen shook hands with the former IRA commander Martin McGuiness which showed recollection between the former enemies. However on the 9th of January 2012 there were riots in Northern Ireland which suggest that the past revenge hasn’t settled for good and that the Irish will not back down until they achieve their goal of freedom from British control. Ongoing issues is Palestine are apparent as although the ceasefire agreement meant both sides promised to stop attacking one another however since several months of â€Å"proximity talks† no progress was made and the Palestinians disallowed building of Jewish settlements on occupied land before they can come to a final agreement. On the 29th of November the Palestinian president requested for Palestine to be a â€Å"non-member observer state† which caused Israeli and US governments to be infuriated as they say the only way to achieve independence is through direct negotiation. Since then Obama stated that if the conflict was to worsen â€Å"the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future. † This leads me to believe that tension will not simmer and there will be an up rise and the past will be mirrored if the situation is ignored. CONCLUSION To summarise my thoughts: I believe that the most significant influence of terrorism is caused my nationalism. JUSTIFY THE POINT STATE THE DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS OF TERRORISM- how some violent actions is the past have been perceived in very contrasting ways, Emily Davison the suffragette protester was part of a violent organization but is seen by most people as a martyr for fighting for her beliefs therefore this makes terrorism practically impossible to control and define which is why issues, that were not resolved years and years ago, are ongoing in today’s society. FINAL POINT RETURNING TO THE QUESTION: Terrorism today is derived from the buildup of revenge that the past events have caused, the past reflects the issues and the constant desire for something the organization thinks is achievable and a necessity. â€Å"Terrorism is an insulting term; it is a word with intrinsically negative associations that is generally applied to one’s enemies†.