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Last updated January 2019

CSS with Mushtaq Mahindro

An Essay on ‘Extremism/Terrorism.’

Outline:
1. Introduction
2. Defining terrorism
3. The impact and extent of terrorist activities
4. Defining the terms of Extremism/radicalism
5. What terrorists aim at?
6. Ends can’t justify means
7. Viewing in the historical context ( Both religiously motivated terrorism and non-religiously
motivated)
8. Driving forces behind the terrorist activities - religious or political expediencies?
9. The real causes behind the phenomenon
10. The rationalized view to deal the menace

Terrorism is said to be ‘advancing one’s ideology through the use of force instead of
logic and reasoning.’ The issue is so severe that it has engulfed almost all the world. Religious
intolerance and hitting those who do not agree with your school of thought have become the
order of the day mainly in the backward societies of the poor world.

Terrorism may be defined as “any unlawful act resulting in loss of life and property carried
out in a dramatic way to attract publicity, exert pressure, and create an atmosphere of alarm that
goes far beyond the actual victims to realize certain objectives legitimate or illegitimate is termed
as a terrorist act.”

United Nations Secretary-General in its November 2004 report described terrorism as “an
act intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the
purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization
to do or abstain from doing any act.”

In briefest words, commenting on the Boston Marathon bombings of April 2013, Barak Obama
said, “Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror.”

The way it has grown and spread beyond limits during the last few years is a matter of great
concern for all of us. Though it has been condemned and denounced by leaders in international
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forums, but no serious effort is being made by the regimes that are at the helm of affairs at the
international level. It creates a doubt in the minds of many that perhaps they have their stakes in
keeping it there. That is why there seems no end to it. The terrorists and extremists use all sorts
of weapons and strategies to terrorize their adversaries. They target and blast indiscriminately
establishments, religious places, kidnap people, highjack buses and planes, to get their objectives
fulfilled.

Consequently, the world is becoming unsafe, insecure, dangerous and fearful place day by
day. Terrorism, violence, bloodshed, and killings, etc. have become the order of the day. India,
Pakistan, Middle East, Afghanistan, parts of Europe, Latin America, and Sri Lanka, etc. all seem
to be in the grip of this monster. According to ‘2018 Global Terrorism Index’ report developed
by the Institute for Economics and Peace the worst hit countries by way of terrorism and deaths
sustained by them were Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
However, deaths from terrorism fell for the third consecutive year, after peaking in 2014. A fall
in the intensity was reported due to the decline of ISIS and an increase in counter-terrorism
activities notably in Pakistan. According to the report, the total number of deaths from terrorism
fell by 27% to 18,814 in 2017 against 25,673 during 2016. Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab have
been reported as the most violent terrorist groups most active in Nigeria and Somalia
respectively.

Terrorists aim at achieving political power by overthrowing and destroying the democratic
and lawful governments. They try to create disturbance and unstable conditions on a vast scale to
meet their political ends. They are trained, inspired and financed by many regimes. They receive
deadly weapons and ammunition from these powers and create havoc. This terror mindset has no
limits on land, time, race, religion or creed. It is spread worldwide and is becoming more and
more popular among the politically frustrated groups, religious fundamentalists and misled
factions in the society. They indulge in all sorts of anti-social and anti-government activities to
achieve their narrow, sectarian and unholy aims. Sometimes, the terrorists may have outstanding
objectives, but then they resort to violence as they are unable to participate in the democratic
process because of their various inherent weaknesses. Their driving forces may be racial,
economic, psychological, linguistic, emotional, geographical habitats and religious.

‘Extremism’ as the word itself explains is taking something to the extremes. In the general
socio-political context, it is holding of extreme political or religious views on issues. This term
also equates with other terms like radicalism, fundamentalism, and fanaticism. Extremism is
exhibited mostly through one's beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, feelings, strategies, and reactions.
But sometimes it is difficult to draw a line between a normal act or an extreme act, as the same
act including a terrorist one for instance by a “freedom fighter” would be viewed a normal one
and an extremist by others. However, the most important distinguishing feature which put
extremism in contrast to the ordinary acts is that extremists mostly employ violent means to
realize their objectives. But targeting innocent lives to pressurize the real target cannot be
justified by any stretch of logic. It is in this context that we say ‘ends can’t justify means.’
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As regards the term “radicalism” basically mean going to the roots of a problem/issue
whereas the term ‘extremism’ is often used concerning using or advocating violent means to
realize the stated objectives. Such methods are mostly against the will of society at large or to
impose the will of the majority over the minority, such as killing incidents of Muslims and lower
caste Dalit Hindus in India by the Hindu fanatics/extremists.

Likewise, Islamic extremism is generally referred to Islamic view which entails the use of
violence and coercive means including bombing and assassinations for achieving perceived goals
in the name of ‘Jihad.’

When viewed in the historical context we see that non-state actors throughout the human
history have used guerrilla tactics but more vigorously creating havoc in the last half of the
twentieth century with the invention of technology particularly during the freedom movements in
the colonies of imperialists’ powers. The terrorist groups with their nationalist agenda cropped
up in all parts of the world. For instance, the Irish Republic Army was organized by the Irish
Catholics to form an independent republic, rather than being part of Britain.

On December 16, 1773, American colonists in favor of American independence boarded

three British East India cargo ships in the Boston Harbor and threw 45 tons of tea into the
harbor, rather than let the tea be landed. British considered this act/protest an act of terrorism
since it was property sabotage by a non-state group, the American colonists. But the same act
was considered one of the catalysts of the American Revolution. This event generally known as
“The Boston Tea Party” has its roots in the Tea Act of 1773, which gave the British East India
Company, the right to sell tea to the American colonies without paying taxes to the British
government. American colonial merchants, who did have to pay taxes on tea arriving in their
ports, were furious at the unfair protection given to the East India Company. To punish the
colonists, Great Britain ordered the Boston port closed until England was paid for the tea. This
was one of four punitive measures that together were called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists.
The reason for giving the concession of exemption from tax to East India Company by the
British Parliament was to keep the East India Company from going bankrupt. Hence East India
Tea became the cheapest tea to be imported by the colonies.

Similarly, the Kurds, a distinct ethnic and linguistic group in Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq,
formed the “Kurdistan Worker’s party” (PKK) in the 1970s to seek autonomy also made use of
terrorist tactics to realize its objectives.

In Sri Lanka, the ethnic Tamils distinct from the majority Sinhalese in the Jaffna peninsula
in the north of the country formed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam resorted to deadly bombing
and other violent tactics to seek independence from Sri Lanka. Similarly, groups such as the
weathermen in the USA turned violent to protest the Vietnam War in the 1970s.

Religiously motivated terrorism at present is considered the most dangerous threat. The
religious groups justify their violence on Islamic grounds. All religions including Islam,
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Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism have given rise to their forms of militant extremism. Al
Qaeda acknowledged Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.

In the late 1960s, Palestinian movements such as Al Fatah and the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) began to target civilians outside the immediate arena of conflict.
Similarly, brutal acts and violation of human rights against Palestinians by Israelis are also on
record. Political Islam, more open to progressive change, was also seen as a threat to
conservative Arab regimes. In the recent past, Iran turned to revolutionary Shia Islam under the
leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini eroded the power of the U.S.-backed authoritarian Pahlavi
regime, setting the stage for the Shah's downfall.

The year 1979 was a turning point in international terrorism. Throughout the Arab world and
the West, the Iranian Islamic revolution sparked fears of a wave of revolutionary Shia Islam.
Meanwhile, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent anti-Soviet mujahedeen war,
lasting from 1979 to 1989, supported by USA, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and UAE stimulated the
rise and expansion of terrorist groups. Indeed, the growth of a post-jihad pool of well-trained,
battle-hardened militants happened to be a key trend in contemporary international terrorism and
insurgency-related violence of which Pakistan also became a target. Volunteers from various
parts of the Islamic world fought in Afghanistan, supported by countries such as Saudi Arabia. In
Yemen, Riyadh backed Sunni Islamic Front and Iran Shia Houthis movement to have their
government there. The war is still going on which resulted in extreme human rights violations on
both sides. Such acts of violence are going on in other parts of the world in the name of freedom
or suppression of freedom movements. For instance, Egypt (Government versus the Muslim
Brotherhood whose democratic government was abolished through nondemocratic means),
Libya, Kashmir, Chechnya, China, Myanmar against the Rohingya Muslim minority, and the
southern Philippines where the Muslim liberation movement is going on in the Mindanao
Islands.

The 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, in which Libya was observed as allegedly involved
and subsequent imposition of sanctions against Libya. Similarly, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Saudi
Arabia supported various militant groups on the basis of the Shia –Sunni fault line in the region.
Here the USA and Russia also sided with the Sunni and Shia Islam respectively.

Bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar us Salaam, Tanzania, on August 7,
1998. Claims to have been involved in the 1993 killing of U.S. servicemen in Somalia and the
December 1992 bombings against U.S. troops in Aden, Yemen, and its Embassy personnel in
Libya are some other terror incidents.

As regards the causes, vacuums of stability created by conflict and absence of governance in
areas such as the Balkans in the past, Afghanistan, Colombia, and certain African countries
create a favorable environment to harbor and act as training centers of the terrorists/militants and
afterward export of the same worldwide. They also use drug trafficking to finance their
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resources. Recently mass casualty attacks, the use of lethal weapons even against the civilians in
Syria by both sides has reached new heights.

The region of Afghanistan has, mainly since the 1989 Soviet withdrawal, emerged as a terrorist
training ground. Unfortunately, even NATO forces stationed there for more than a decade have
badly failed to bring peace to the country. That is a big question mark for its performance.
Sometimes for their failure, they blame Pakistan, whereas it is very difficult to believe that
Pakistan has become bigger than NATO. However, it is a point of credit for Pakistan that it
wiped out the Taliban from North Waziristan during 2016 at its own without the support of any
other country. All the Taliban leadership fled to Afghanistan as a sanctuary. That was high time
for the NATO forces there to crush them, but it did not happen. That speaks as one of the leading
causes why the militancy is not being eroded worldwide.

While going deep into the real causes it will not be difficult to find that injustice,
discrimination, poverty, and exploitation by one community of the other and failure of the state
to take cognizance of the same, sometimes its involvement in these criminal acts inter alia give
way to the emergence of violence and extremism in the society. It means extremism/ militancy is
not confined and related to a particular religion, but its roots lie in injustice, economic
exploitation, and discrimination by one society/community of the other.

In the wake of those above, it is the considered view of all the political intellectuals that
nobody, institution, or a state has the right to impose its point of view/school of thought
coercively by use of force. The reason/logic/rationality has to prevail upon making use of the
democratic norms as envisaged by the UN charter to establish sustainable peace in the world.
Freedom of expression and preaching one's point of view must be the inherent right of
everybody. The truth has the power to prevail upon the falsehood. If anybody/institution believes
that it is on the right path let it follow the path of dialogue, the reason, logic and rationalization –
not the Gun, as it will not allow any other sect/school of thought to suppress and destroy it by the
use of Gun instead of fighting on the front of reasoning.

Ensuring fair play, justice, and impartiality at all levels could be the best check to stem the
growth of militancy in the world. The big powers, UNO and the civil society world around have
the more responsibility to play its due role instead of adding fuel to the fire by selling weapons to
the belligerents to keep their economies running. Economic and national interests must be there
but not at the cost of humanity. If we allow this norm to prevail someday, we could also be a
victim of the same by some other powerful nation.

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