Why is there so much terrorism in the world now?
Why is there so much hatred?
Have you ever thought seriously about the subject of terrorism and why
there are so many terrorists killing innocent people, regardless of their
religious beliefs, in many parts of the world?
The threat from terrorists and extreme militants is now very real.
No peace loving person is immune from their attacks.
No country is safe because these terrorists can strike at any time.
The governments and the public must always be alert, be on guard
and take counterterrorism and preemptive action to prevent attacks
from taking place in public areas and avoid great losses in lives and
damage to properties.
We must not allow terrorism to make us so scared that our daily
lives are disrupted.
And must not let the fear of terrorists cause us to lose our freedom,
time or money.
Why are people, some very young, so easily radicalized?
Why are they so easily brainwashed and influenced to join terrorist
and extreme militant groups?
What is motivating these extremists to kill innocent bystanders?
There are no easy answers.
We can perhaps find some clues if we read how some terrorist groups
started and have changed.
More than 30 years ago, before the 80’s, terrorism was not frequently
heard of. There were only isolated incidences such as those in Spain,
Munich Olympic Games, Japan, Ireland, Philippines…
Air travel was quite safe in the 1980s and 1990s. We rarely heard of
many hijackings or big attacks by terrorists concentrated on a lot of
people at any one time.
Then came 9/11, when on September 11, 2001, two 110 stories towers
of the World Trade Center in New York in the United States collapsed
because two hijacked planes were deliberately piloted to smash into
them, killing about 2600 people. Another hijacked plane crashed into
the Pentagon. The fourth one, which was reported to be directly aimed
at Washington DC but did not hit its target because of the bravery of
some passengers who tried to overcome the terrorists, crashed in a field
in Pennsylvania.
It was reported these attacks resulted in the deaths of about 3000 people,
including the 19 hijackers.
This highly coordinated massive scale suicide terrorist attack in America
completely changed the way how many people used to look at terrorism,.
Terrorist acts could no longer be treated as quite rare or isolated incidents.
They were seen as real threats which can occur anywhere and at anytime.
The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror,
to find the terrorists responsible for the attacks and bring them to justice.
Security was greatly tightened worldwide to guard against terrorist tactics
of using rogue pilots, suicide bombers, shoe bombs, dirty bombs… and even
possible mass attacks with chemical, biological and weapons. Surveillance
and intelligence were increased to detect and identify terrorist threats.
Unfortunately, some people used racial and religious stereotyping which
resulted in the loss of lives of innocent, peace loving people, who were
indirectly blamed for the attacks.
Many world leaders and moderate religious groups have come out to say
clearly that religion should not be blamed for terrorists’ crimes. We must
all join together to fight terrorism and defeat it, regardless of our racial
and religious backgrounds.
What is the root cause for terrorism?
There are many possible causes.
How to stop the terrorists?
Many terrorists claim they are fighting for good causes and try to justify
their actions on religious or ideological grounds or because they say they
are severely oppressed. These reasons could have been valid when they
first became terrorists to get attention from the world to help them and
when they thought they had no other way to let the world know about
their problems.
Some terrorists have actually been able to come to the negotiating table
with different governments and have abandoned their terrorist activities.
However, many terrorist groups have now clearly shown that they do not
respect the religions they claim they are fighting for because they are now
destroying properties and killing peace loving people who belong to the
same religion.
Terrorism has no religion because truly religious people love peace and do
not commit murders and massacres.
We must not blame any religion for terrorism.
So what are these extremist terrorists really fighting for?
What are the most likely reasons why some of the very hard core terrorist
groups are getting more violent?
Many people who are following the news about their activities have come
come out with the following findings about extremist groups of terrorists.
They are now not fighting for religious causes because they are very cruelly
killing people of the same faith. They are probably also not fighting for any
strong political or ideological causes because they have not clearly stated
their objectives.
Many people say that the main most likely reason they are still fighting and
spreading terror is they want to take revenge for their losses in the military
attacks which have been launched against them and their comrades, which
has created a very vicious cycle which will be very difficult to stop.
There are also groups now who are motivated by money and they are busy
capturing people and holding them to get huge amounts of ransom money.
It is obvious that extremist terrorist groups are very desperate and dangerous.
They will do anything to keep on fighting and killing innocent people.
They are really hard core criminals and very cruel mass killers who will stop
at nothing to continue to cause many innocent lives to be lost.
This scourge must be eliminated if those of us who are peace loving people
are to be able to live without fear of sudden attacks when we go about our
daily lives.
It is good that the governments and citizens of many countries have agreed
to unite to take a strong stand against terrorism and combat terrorist threats
on many fronts.
Many proactive measures are now being taken.
The governments of many countries have taken action to cut off monetary
support and funding for the terrorists.
It is known that many people joined the terrrorists to escape from poverty.
Many young people were easily influenced by attractive promises of better
lives away from poverty. They were also thrilled at being able to have guns
and power over other people and also to be able to kill at any time.
These mind bending tactics have been used by the terrorist groups to get
many new members.
This is very dangerous and must be stopped quickly.
The authorities are now taking action to prevent the spreading of propaganda
by terrorist groups in social media to stop them from recruiting online.
Preemptive measures are also being taken to prevent attacks before they can
happen. The sharing of intelligence information by the various government
agencies is resulting in the arrests of many suspected terrorists, preventing
many potential threats from being carried out.
The counterterrorism measures are now including exposing the lies in the
deviant ideologies and rehabilitating the captured extreme militants, so that
the false ideas are not easily accepted and spread.
The public can also play their parts by being alert at all times to potential
attacks without panicking or fearing to move around daily.
Many people say that there is really no other choice but for the governments
of different countries to unite to use air strikes and military force to eliminate
these extremely violent radicals in their home bases.
Do you agree with all these steps that are being taken?
Or do you think it is still possible to have a good dialogue with these wicked
mass murderers to work on a peaceful solution?
Do you have any other good suggestions how to counter and defeat terrorism
and violent extremism ideologies?