International Terrorism Essay
Terrorism has caused untold suffering to the people of this world. Terrorists believe that their goals cannot be achieved without the use of terror tactics. In the past, terrorist attacks were localized to the field of achieving political aims. The UN Security Council, condemned terrorism in the following words, “the act of international terrorism constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security in the twenty-first century” (U.N.
Doc. S/RES/1377, 2001).The international community has been troubled by terrorism from quite some time.
Hitherto, terrorists were quite restricted in their choice of targets and political objectives and despite there being no change in their reasoning for indulging in terrorism, there is a difference in the very nature of present day terrorism.The main target of these terrorists is “the historical, cultural, traditional and natural reality; the existing system of relations among states; the world national and state order of human civilization and national identity”. Present day terrorism utilizes terror to accomplish political objectives by killing and maiming innocent people, by bringing about the psychological and social destabilization of the free world, by emasculating powerful organizations and by affecting the policies of nations and the behavior of its people.Further, terrorist attacks are not restricted to the U.
S or the developed world alone. Countries like India have been regularly subjected to terrorist attacks by Muslim terrorists trained in Pakistan by the ISI (Terrorism and Security, n.d).The Al Qaeda terrorist attacks in the US on 11 September 2001 served to alert the developed world to the changed terrorist landscape. The terrorist act of the Al Qaeda clearly indicated that it was a ruthless and implacable enemy of development, democracy and decency. These attacks have made it very clear that it is essential to bring about a world wide consensus to fight terrorism in an effective and efficient manner. Despite much discussion regarding the effects of terrorist acts on politics, economy and society terrorism has not been defined in distinctive terms in International law (Bantekas & Nash, 2003).The terrorist ideals and aims have been considered to be true and logical by terrorists.
Further, terrorists use the latest technological devices and facilities to perpetrate their global and unpredictable inhuman acts (Ali Khan, n.d.).The advance of technology and science has aided the terrorist immeasurably.
The terrorists have become highly proficient in using these tools. The availability of modern explosives has made terrorist organizations more mobile and lethal. Another dangerous development is the emergence of suicide bombers in terrorist organizations like the Hamas, Al Qaeda and Lashker e Toiba.These organizations believe and follow a fundamentalist religious ideology.
Suicide bombers with a bomb on their person detonate the same on reaching their target. Even as far back as 1993 the terrorists attacked the world Trade Center in New York and Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 persons.The worst of these terrorist attacks was the September 11, 2001 attacks in which Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes. Two of these planes were crashed into the World Trade Center complex in New York City and the third into the Pentagon.
The fourth was to be crashed into the White House, but the resistance from the passengers and crew thwarted this attempt. The casualties were 3000 innocent people.These terrorists are inspired and guided by the ideology developed by fanatics like Osama bin Laden. They require every Muslims to engage in a Jihad or holy war against the entire West as it represents a threat to Islam. Moreover, they believe that the directions of Islam are undermined by democratic institutions and values and should therefore be destroyed.
These terrorist attacks have clearly demonstrated that these terrorists are inhuman and that in order to achieve their aims they would kill indiscriminately. This led to a worldwide campaign against terrorism, mainly initiated and carried out by the U.S. This has led to the detention of hundreds of Muslim terrorists. Further, several major terrorist attacks were prevented.Despite suffering heavy losses, the Al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorists have conducted several major terrorist attacks.
An example is the March 2004, Madrid terrorist attacks on commuter trains. Since, several of these terrorists have not been caught the threat of terrorist attacks are still present. (International Terrorism, n.d).Terrorism is born out of frustration, changing social relations and regimes, instability, moral corruption and other such evils.
Globalization brings about the conditions that result in terrorism.An analysis of the globalization process reveals that terrorism results in world dominance and subservience of states to a global oligarchy. In other words terrorism aims to install the terrorist as the ruler of the world and the world will be ruled by the greatest amongst the terrorists.
In order to achieve global dominance, the Muslim fundamentalists have adopted terrorism. When the events of September 11, 2001, are viewed from this perspective, it becomes evident that, first, the persons and organizations responsible for these attacks wanted to make the world order unstable. Moreover, these persons had the ability to do so.Second, only secret services have the capacity to plan, organize and execute such complex and large operations. Moreover, secret services create, finance and control extremist organizations, which can neither exist nor carry out any terrorist attack in the absence of guidance from such secret services.Third, Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda could not have achieved so much without the help of secret services. The September 11 operation was in this manner extremely successful in making the world realize the potential for religious vendetta that Muslim terrorists possess (Ivashov, General Leonid, 2006).
Since, terrorism poses a grave threat to individuals’ lives and national security around the world the Interpol has provided several resources to help member countries to protect their citizens from terrorism. In this endeavour the Interpol collects, stores and processed data in respect of suspected individuals, groups and their activities.“Another important function conducted by the Interpol is the circulation of alerts and warnings on terrorists, dangerous criminals and weapons threats to its member countries. A chief initiative in this area is the Fusion Task Force, which was created in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks in the United States.
”Moreover, the Interpol has encouraged member countries to report on crimes that could possibly have a relationship with terrorist activities. Some of these activities are suspicious financial transactions, weapons trafficking, money laundering, traveling on false documents and the stealth of material which can be used to manufacture nuclear, chemical and biological weapons (Public Safety and Terrorism, 2006).The key to Muslim terrorism lies in Pakistan. After the September 11, terrorist attacks President Bush launched an anti – terrorism counter offensive in South and Southwest Asia, which was named as Operation Enduring Freedom. Although, this seemed to have yielded substantial results, the United States was forced to acknowledge that several members of Al Qaeda had sought and received refuge in Pakistan. This was mainly in the tribal areas of Pakistan, inhabited by ethnic Pashtuns who are sympathizers of Islamic fundamentalists.Further, the Al Qaeda combined forces with the local Pakistani terrorist groups that have launched several terrorist attacks against the Western and India.
The United States’ desire to bring about an end to cross-border infiltration into India by Islamic terrorists based in Pakistani, who kill and maim innocent Indians, was met with failure.The main aims of Operation Enduring Freedom were the “destruction of terrorist training camps and infrastructure within Afghanistan, the capture of Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, and the cessation of terrorist activities in Afghanistan”.The Muslim terrorists of Al Qaeda indulge in sporadic guerilla attacks on the U.
S forces in Afghanistan and then cross over into Pakistan where they are offered refuge. It is suspected that Osama bin Laden may be located in Pakistan. Being unable to withstand the pressure being imposed on it by the U.S, Pakistan in 2002 banned five extremist organizations. The most notorious of these are the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).Subsequent to Al Qaeda’s banishment from Afghanistan, several of its operatives found refuge in Karachi and Peshawar.
Many of these terrorists have combined forces with the LET, JEM and the SSP. Moreover, the Al Qaeda was a partner in several terrorist attacks made on U.S.
interests in Pakistan in the year 2002.The primary suspects in these attacks were Pakistani terrorist groups. Further, banned terrorist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad have changed their names and the LET is now Jamaat al-Dawat; JEM is now Khudam-ul Islam and Harakat-ul Mujahideen is now Jamiat-ul Ansar. In this way the ban on these groups has been circumvented. Moreover, the Taliban is provided with considerable logistical and other support inside Pakistan. This has been the warning note that was struck by Senators Richard Lugar and Joseph Biden; they also warned that some of the officers of the Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) could be colluding with the Al Qaeda.
In September 2003 Pakistani security forces apprehended 19 Indonesian and Malaysian nationals in an Islamic school or madrassa in Karachi. The arrested men were Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorists who had links to the Al Qaeda.There are some 10,000 madrassas in Pakistan and some of them have been found to be teaching militant “anti- Western, anti-American and anti-Hindu values”. A large number of these madrassas obtain financial help from Pakistani Islamic Terrorist groups like the Jamaat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI), which is a collaborator of the Taliban. The Pakistani President had assured the U.S that these madrassas would be closed down. However, till date nothing concrete has emerged from his promise.
Further, Muslim terrorists create havoc in India and are responsible for the death of several innocent people. The terrorist groups of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Harakat ul-Mujahideen, and Hizbul Mujahideen, which is on the U.S State Department’s terrorism watch list operate with impunity from Pakistan. Moreover, the U.S. government has indicated that several Muslim terrorist groups operate from Pakistan.
The Pakistan government’s Inter Services Intelligence or ISI is widely considered to be the supporter of these Muslim terrorists operating from Pakistan. The Indian government provided several documents to prove that Pakistan is home to more than 70 Islamic militant training camps and that the Al Qaeda was indulging in terrorist activities in India.The U.S government has seen through this double game being played by Pakistan and accordingly it has increased pressure on Pakistan to ensure that Muslim terrorists do not go scot free.
In this context the “U.S Treasury Department in October 2003 has branded the Pakistan-based Al Akhtar Trust as a terrorist support organization under Executive Order 13224”. This Muslim terrorist organization supports Al Qaeda and the Taliban in its terrorist activities (Kronstadt, 2003).All this goes to show that these people are fundamentalist Muslims who believe that non – Muslims should not live and that killing or murdering a non – Muslim ensures them a place in heaven. They are unreasonable, ruthless and merciless. Their objective is to conquer the world and make women a man’s chattel.
They detest the developed countries, where there is intellectual freedom; women are treated as human beings and other such egalitarian measures. These features, which are present in the developed countries, are detested by the Muslim terrorists. Therefore, they have decided to either destroy the developed and free world or to subjugate it. The horrendous and inhuman attacks on the innocent people of the world by these terrorists are an expression of this dissatisfaction. Furthermore, terrorism is an instrument to bring about the rule of the new world elite. “The target of the world elite is the historical, cultural, traditional and natural reality; the existing system of relations among states; the world national and state order of human civilization and national identity.” The objective of terrorism is to accomplish political purposes by the coercion of the people, “psychological and social destabilization, the elimination of resistance from power organizations and the creation of appropriate conditions for the manipulation of the countries’ policies and the behavior of people.” (Ivashov, General Leonid, 2006).
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