Year 11 History, 2019

Unit 2 AOS2
In the Name of Faith:
Terrorist or Freedom
Fighter?
Introduction to Terrorism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lKZqqSI9-s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEJbxyfrzUo
In the Name of Faith: Terrorist or Freedom Fighter?
Unit 2 AOS2 Key Questions

1) What is terrorism?
2) What are the aims and
goals of terrorist groups?
3) Why do certain
individuals become
terrorists? Why do
terrorist groups form?
4) Do terrorists achieve A member of the Black
their aims? September terrorist
Case study: Al Qaeda group at the Munich
Assessment: Oral Presentation and Notes Sheet
Olympics, 1972.
Objectives of the Outcome
Using your class notes and inquiry into your chosen terrorist
groups, you are going to:
Understand the contexts in which terrorist groups form and
why the power of terrorists has increased.
Understand the motivations of terrorist organisations.
Understand the threat terrorism poses to society and the
difficulty of countering terrorism.
Evaluate the impact of terrorist groups and whether they
are justified agents of change.
Today’s Lesson (Double):
1) Define terrorism and create a usable definition for your
Outcome
2) Understand the difficulties associated with defining terrorism
3) Describe the changing nature of terrorism throughout the 20 th
century (doco discussion from last term).
4) Understand the conditions in which terrorist groups form
through Al Qaeda case study
5) Evaluate al Qaeda: What type of terrorist organisation?
Terrorists or freedom fighters?
What is terrorism? Class Brainstorm
Complete note taking sheet
 9/11
On the morning of11th September, 2001, 19
members of al Qaeda hijacked four civilian
aeroplanes.
Two of the planes (American Airlines Flight 11
and United Airlines Flight 175) flew into the
North and South Towers of the World Trade
Centre.
American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the
Pentagon (headquarters of the US Department
of Defense). Ruined section of the Pentagon building.
United Airlines Flight 93 was initially flown Built during WWII, the reinforced
towards Washington D. C. but the passengers construction of the building saved the lives
overpowered the hijackers and flew into a field of many of the employees inside by
in Pennsylvania.
delaying the time it took for the structure to
 2977 people were killed.
Among them were
employees inside the
buildings, all passengers
aboard the hijacked
planes and the first
responders
(approximately 400) who
arrived on the scene
immediately after.
Additional people died
of related cancer and
respiratory diseases in
the years after Firefighters raise the American flag
at Ground Zero in New York.
 Vice President Cheney with senior
staff in the President's Emergency
Operations Center (PEOC), the Cold
War-era bunker under the White
House.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,
breaking protocol ran to the Pentagon
and assisted in rescue efforts to recover
bodies and survivors.

The deadliest attack to occur on US soil.

President George W. Bush declared, “These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American
resolve.” On the 7th October 2001, US Forces led Operation Enduring Freedom to remove the Taliban from
power in Afghanistan and destroy Al Qaeda based there. The War on Terror had begun.
What can we learn about terrorism from 9/11?

Why did al
Qaeda choose
those buildings?
Why did it
target civilians?

President George W. Bush and his staff look out the windows of Air Force One at their F-
16 escort on September 11, 2001, while en route to Barksdale Air Force Base in
Louisiana. Initially, they were not sure whether the approaching planes were hostile,
aiming to shoot them down.
Definitions of Terrorism
“The unlawful act of force or violence
against individuals or property to
coerce or intimidate governments or
societies to achieve political, religious
or ideological objectives.”
US State Department
“Deliberately and violently
targeting civilians for political
purposes.” Richardson, 2007
“Terrorism is the systematic threat or use of violence
whether for or in opposition to, established authority, with
the intention of communicating a political message to a
group larger than the victim group by generating fear and
so altering the behaviour of the larger group. Either the
victim or the perpetrator, or both, will be operating outside
a military context. Terrorism is not an event within civil
war/conventional warfare situations.” Claridge, 1998.
“The use of violence by sub-state groups to inspire fear, by
attacking civilians and/or symbolic targets, to draw attention
to a grievance, provoke a severe response, or wear down an
opponent’s moral resolve.” Baylis, Smith & Owens, 2011.
Your Turn
1.What are the similarities and differences between these
definitions?
2.What are the similarities between terrorism and warfare? Is there
a difference?
3.What are the similarities between terrorism and crime? Is there a
difference?
4.A government agency concerned with national security has asked
you to devise a useful definition of terrorism. Using your notes,
draft a short definition of terrorism (no more than 200 words).
The Tobian government is very unhappy with the government of Ambar,
whose leaders came to power in a revolution that threw out the former Ambar
dictator. Tobian decides to overthrow the new Ambar leaders. It begins
funding a guerrilla army that attacks Ambar from another country next door.
Tobian also builds army bases in the next-door country and allows the
guerrilla army to use these bases. Tobian supplies almost all of the weapons
and equipment of the guerrilla army fighting Ambar. The guerrillas generally
try to avoid fighting Ambar’s army. Instead, they attack clinics, schools, and
cooperative farms. Sometimes they mine the roads. Tobian-supported
guerrillas kill and maim many, many civilians. The guerrillas raid Ambar and
then retreat into the country next door where Tobian has military bases.

1. Which (if any) of these acts can be considered terrorism?

2. Who are the terrorists in this scenario?
Terrorist?
Scenario Terrorist or Not
(cross or tick using your criteria
above)
A paramilitary group seeking independence blows up the military headquarters of the occupying force. The  
group's warning that there will be a bombing is ignored, and many people, civilian as well as military, are killed.

Rebels seeking to set up an independent state fire at occupying troops from concealed positions.  

Members of a particular ethnic or religious group are killed in order to frighten other members of their group into  
fleeing territory. 

A radical group makes a list of opponents it believes should be killed and distributes it to sympathizers, telling  
them that they will be rewarded in heaven for defending the innocent if they carry out these assassinations.

More than a dozen undercover agents of the state are killed in one day by a radical rebel group.  

A government routinely "disappears," tortures, and murders civilians as well as political and military leaders  
whom it suspects of opposing the regime.

A militant religious group attacks, among others, women it feels are acting in an immodest fashion in public in  
order to pressure other women to behave in a certain way.

Militants attack members of the government, including an assassination attempt on the president. The government  
responds by sending in troops and destroying an urban area where the religious militants are based, killing more
than 10,000 people in the process, including many civilians.
 Why is it difficult to define terrorism?
The United Nations has been trying since 1972
to come up with a definition for terrorism and
has passed 13 counter-terrorism conventions
since 1996 without managing to do so.
There is such a large range of violent acts,
perpetrators and purposes that it is difficult to
define what constitutes an act of terror and
what does not.

"The term 'terrorist' has expanded to the point
that it just means 'my enemy’. So we see things
from our own perspective -- if it is one of us:
freedom fighter, if it is one of them: terrorist.“
(Marc Sageman, an ex-CIA agent, psychiatrist
and
Whyauthor).
would some nations, such as the United States, be
reluctant to endorse a strict definition of a terrorist act?
"The widespread use of 'terrorism/terrorist',
led by the media and politicians,
consolidated it as a term used to describe
enemies of all kinds."
Sarah Marsden, University of Saint
Andrews' Handa Centre for the Study of
Terrorism and Political Violence.
Terrorist or Freedom Fighter?

Terrorism is the only form of

defence to which a minority,
strong only in terms of its
spiritual strength and in its
knowledge of the rightness of its
beliefs can resort against the
physical strength of the majority.
Alexander Ulyanov, 1887
Member of  Narodnaya Volya that tried to assassinate
Tsarmany
How Alexander III you name throughout history that have
groups can
attempted to overthrow a government regime?
Commonly Accepted Features of Terrorism: The use of violence to
create a climate of fear
 All terrorist acts involve destructive Non- State
Actors
attacks (or a realistic threat of them)
Planned,
to achieve a specific political goal organized Has a
and political goal
(not personal gain), such as systematic
changing a regime or policy.
 Terrorist groups are usually weaker
than their opponents, hence rely on Terrorism
Uses
Attracts
violence or
random attacks and creating a sense the threat of
media
attention
violence
of fear the attack could occur at
anytime unless the group’s demands
are met. Creates a
climate of
Targets
civilians and
 Attacks are never random and fear and
terror
non-
combatants
targets are symbolic.
 Commonly Accepted Features of Terrorism: Committed by non- state
actors and targets civilians and non-combatants
 A key aspect of terrorism the US does not
Non- State
refer to (why?) is that it is committed by Actors
non-state actors (such as al Qaeda). Stalin’s Planned,
purges are usually referred to as ‘terror’. organized
and
Has a
political goal
 Terrorism is ‘propaganda by deed’. Attacks systematic

on innocent civilians make powerful nations

seem helpless to protect their people and
Terrorism
magnifies the horror, therefore drawing Uses
Attracts
violence or
attention to the group’s cause. the threat of
media
attention
violence
 The media increases the size of the audience
of the attack to draw attention to the cause to
bring about political change. Creates a
climate of
Targets
civilians and
fear and non-
terror combatants
Types of Terrorist Groups
Many groups have a mix of motivating ideologies but usually one ideology or motivation dominates. Ideology is an inherent motivator of all terrorists because it
provides an explanation for their grievances, glorifies a future to work towards, provides a basis for action and a unifying purpose.
Goal
Left-wing extremist terrorists
Right-wing extremist terrorists
Separatist terrorists
Religious or “sacred” terrorists
Definition
Intertwined with the Communist movement. Designed to
overthrow capitalism and replace it with communism. The state is
illegitimate from their perspective and therefore violence against it
is morally justified.
Inspired by Fascism and the belief that democracy oppresses the
individual. Right wing extremists believe their opposition, rather
than the state, is illegitimate and that the government needs to
have greater authority to remove the threat of opposition.
The use of violence against government representatives to oppose
occupation by a foreign power. Usually associated with the wave
if decolonization that occurred post WWII.
Acts of terror with a religious motivation or justification. Sacred
texts usually provide a “call to action”, clerical figures occupy
senior positions and apocalyptic images are used as justification.
Fundamentalists believe that secularist, Western modernity
threatens their values.
Example(s)
Narodnaya Volya, which murdered Tsar
Alexander II of Russia in 1881.
Today, it usually involves the fear that the
“white” race will be tainted by immigration.
Brenton Tarrant, who murdered 51 people in
Christchurch mosques on the 15th March, 2019.
Irish Catholics (IRA) fought to govern their own
nation free of British rule.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) aims for a
separate state for Kurdish people from Turkey.
Viet Minh and Lashkar e Taiba (freedom from
Indian control Jammu and Kashmir regions).
Hezbollah seeking to remove Israeli troops from
Lebanon.
These groups usually employ suicide bombings
and promises of martyrdom to perpetrators.
Boko Haram seeks to install a pure version of
Islam in Nigeria.
ISIS sought to establish an Islamic Caliphate
based on Sharia Law in Iraq.
Doco discussion from last term
Crenshaw, M. (ed.) (1983), Terrorism,
Legitimacy and Power.
Morality can be judged in two ways:

“…morality of the ends and morality of the means. First, are the goals of the terrorists democratic or
non-democratic? That is, is their aim to create or perpetuate a regime of privilege and inequality, to
deny liberty to other people, or to further the ends of justice, freedom and equality…? Terrorism
must not, as the terrorists can foresee, result in worse injustice than the condition the terrorists
oppose… The morality of the means of terrorism is also open to judgment. The targets of terrorism
are morally significant; witness the difference between material objects and human casualties.”

Q1. According to Crenshaw, what is the criteria for whether an act of violence is terrorism or a
legitimate quest for political freedom?
Q2. Do you agree with Crenshaw’s criteria or feel there are other factors that should be considered?
Terrorism throughout the 20 th century
Era Nature of attack

18th and 19th Use of revolvers and dynamite with little impact upon national borders.
Centuries

Mid- 20th Century Expansion of commercial air travel, availability of televised news coverage and broader political and
ideological interests meant terrorism grew from a national to a transnational threat. Hijacking of planes
rocketed from five in 1966 to 94 in 1969.

1979 onwards After the US backed government of Iran was overthrown in 1979 and replaced with Islamic law, groups
began to target citizens and symbols of the US. Greater use of suicide bombings meant fewer attacks but
more indiscriminate and deadly. Ending of the Cold War means decline in Marxist- Leninist ideology and
a rise in religious fundamentalism that rejects secular Western values and materialism (also a surplus of
WMD).
Terrorists face the challenge of appealing to their supporter base- they risk fading into obscurity or else
being too horrific may turn away supporters.
Today Terrorism is truly trans-national- the rise of cell networks, lone wolf actors, and “copy cat” inspired
attacks. Motivated by promises of rewards in the afterlife, some terrorists are driven by religious
extremism to kill as many of the “non-believers” as possible. Al Qaeda used USA invasion of Iraq in
2003 as recruitment.
Analytical Questions
1. Explain how terrorist groups use acts of violence to communicate
their cause.
2. In your opinion, what has enabled terrorism to become a truly
global phenomenon?
3. What has changed in terrorism over the past half century and have
any factors remained the same? Based on your notes from your
documentary watching.
4. Why are terrorist groups not more successful in effecting change?
5. What are the primary challenges that individual states and the
international community face in confronting terrorism?
Year 11 History, 2019
Unit 2 AOS2
In the Name of Faith:
Terrorist or Freedom
Fighter?
Al Qaeda Case Study
Doc 2: al Qaeda Case Study