Chapter Four: The Advent of Religious Terrorism

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Chapter FourThe Advent of Religious
Terrorism
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Analysis of Religious Terrorism
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Analysis of Religious Terrorism

• Religious fanaticism and technology
• Terrorists behave differently from regular
  criminals, religious terrorists behave
  differently from political terrorists
  
• Religious terrorists are not constrained by the
  same factors that inhibit other types of
  terrorists

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Analysis of Religious Terrorism

• Holy Terror vs. Secular Terror
• Secular terrorists operate within a dominant
  political and cultural framework
  
• Secular terrorists would rather make allies than
  indiscriminately kill their enemies
  
• Holy terrorists see the world as a battlefield
  between the forces of light and darkness
  
• Holy terrorists see killing as a sacramental act.
  Examples can be found in
  
• The Koran
• Christian Old Testament
• Hebrew Bible

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Analysis of Religious Terrorism

• True believers
• Religious terrorists dismiss the religious views
  of others
  
• When a person becomes a true believer and a
  religious doctrine sanctions the use of violence,
  deified terrorism results, that is, the act of
  terrorism itself is made sacred and holy

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Analysis of Religious Terrorism

• Other dangerous trends in holy terror
• Religious terrorists are not utilitarian that
  is, they are not a person seeking the greatest
  amount of good for the greatest number of people.
  Religious terrorist seek the greatest good for
  themselves
• Religious terrorists demonize their enemies that
  is, they equate their enemies with the ultimate
  source of evil

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The Social Characteristics of Terrorists
Juergensmeyers Terror in Gods Mind
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The Social Characteristics of Terrorists
Juergensmeyers Terror in Gods Mind

• Holy warriors
• The call to violence is a call to purify the
  world from the nonbeliever and the incorrect
  interpreters of tradition in a holy war
  
• Those who do not stand with the holy warrior are
  evil
  
• If the holy warrior falls, the warrior becomes a
  martyr for hope if the holy warrior is
  successful, it is a victory for the deity

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The Social Characteristics of Terrorists
Juergensmeyers Terror in Gods Mind

• Commonalities of holy warriors from different
  faith traditions
  
• Al Qaeda, the Covenant, the Sword, the Arm of the
  Lord
  
• Manuals begin with theological passages
• Manuals quote U.S. Army manuals

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Religions That Kill Sterns Terror in
Gods Mind
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Religions That Kill Sterns Terror in Gods Mind

• Myths
• A myth is a sacred story that conveys deep-seated
  truths it explains the basis of belief
  
• Terrorists use myths as a story to explain a
  religious struggle

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Religions That Kill Sterns Terror in Gods Mind

• The return to the sacred story
• People around the world are returning to their
  religious roots as a means to escape the
  complexity of modern life
  
• Old truths in one society may collide with the
  truths of another society. When mythological
  truths compete, violence often results

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Religions That Kill Sterns Terror in Gods Mind

• Changes in the structure of terrorist
  organizations
  
• Stories change the nature of terrorist
  organizations, and they help to produce a number
  of different group organizations and styles
  
• Some center of rigid structures
• Some grow when a number of insecure people gather
  around a strong personality
  
• Some groups are informal, and everybody has a
  leadership function
  
• Some loners loosely affiliate with a group but
  tend to act on their own

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Religions That Kill Sterns Terror in Gods Mind

• Professional terrorists in religious
  organizations
  
• Leaders originally join a group because they
  believe in the myth, but after a time the
  lifestyle produces the need for professional
  behavior
• The power of the myth becomes less important, and
  the day-to-day job of terrorism grows
  
• The impact of religion on the lone wolf
  avenger
  
• Lone wolf avengers have a special, narcissistic
  relationship with their deities. In essence, they
  create a god in their own image

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The Logic of Religious Terrorism
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The Logic of Religious Terrorism

• Killing and nonkilling religions
• Killing religions were based on the premise that
  a deity would help the community in a time of
  crisis. In the killing religions, gods
  slaughtered enemies
• The nonkilling religions embraced enemies and
  developed elaborate ideologies to justify
  violence as a last resort
  
• Nonkilling transcendence is often transformed
  into a militant ideology designed to protect a
  state or some other social group by this
  rationalizing of the use of violence as a last
  resort

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The Logic of Religious Terrorism

• Ordinary and extraordinary worlds
• We use language and logical concepts to describe
  the ordinary or everyday world
  
• We use symbols and myths to talk about the
  extraordinary or spiritual world
  
• It is difficult to put extraordinary events into
  words, so we are forced to use everyday language

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The Logic of Religious Terrorism

• Paul Tillich
• Because we put spiritual experiences in common
  language, we literalize symbols- the symbol no
  longer represents the sacred experience because
  it becomes the experience
• The symbol becomes the object of worship, and has
  taken the place of the sacred

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The Logic of Religious Terrorism

• The Promised Land
• In the sacred story of the Israelites, God
  promises the Hebrews a land flowing with milk and
  honey
  
• The everyday language of the story makes it look
  as though God promises the Israelites a
  geographical location
  
• The story is misinterpreted as God promised
  Abraham the state of Israel

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The Logic of Religious Terrorism

• The Balkan Peninsula
• The Balkan Peninsula has been devastated, and the
  fundamental reason for the conflict is based on
  three interpretations of religion Islam,
  Christian Roman Catholic, and Eastern Christian
  Orthodox Church

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The Logic of Religious Terrorism

• The Turner Diaries
• A fictional work by white supremacist William
  Pierce in which the main protagonist has a
  religious experience
  
• The main character, Earl Turner, joins The Order.
  The Order gives Turner The Book, a holy book
  describing Gods plan to create a racially pure
  world in the face of Jews and people of color
• Turner admits to having a transcendent
  experience, but he cannot express his thoughts in
  ordinary language. He comes to realize that he
  can only experience the extraordinary by doing
  something spectacular, so he goes on a killing
  spree
• Terrorism and religion are fictionally united,
  and the Turner Diaries inadvertently illustrates
  the logic of religious violence.

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Huntingtons Clash of Civilizations and
Espositos Response
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Huntingtons Clash of Civilizations and
Espositos Response

• Huntingtons historical epochs
• Medieval Europe from the Reformation (1517) to
  the Thirty Years War (1618\-1648)Characterized
  by religious wars
  
• After the Peace of Westphalia (1648), dynastic
  rights and territorial needs dominated
  international conflict
  
• Nationalistic wars after the French Revolution
  (1789\-1799)
  
• In 1918, ideological conflict moved to the
  forefront
  
• Capitalism vs. Communism (until 1991 with the
  collapse of the Soviet Union)
  
• Clash of civilizationpost\-Cold War era

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Huntingtons Clash of Civilizations and
Espositos Response

• Eight primary cultural paradigms or civilizations
  dominating the modern world
  
• Western
• Confucian
• Japanese
• Islamic
• Hindu
• Slavic-Orthodox
• Latin America
• African

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Huntingtons Clash of Civilizations and
Espositos Response

• Huntingtons Thesis
• International peace will be threatened in torn
  countries. These are regions where more than one
  civilization exists within an area
  
• John Esposito
• Disagrees with Huntington on Two Levels
• Culture or civilization is defined by more than
  religion
  
• There is no Islamic civilization

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Huntingtons Clash of Civilizations and
Espositos Response

• Daniel Pipes
• When looking at Islam, the major clash is not
  between civilizations, but rather within Islamic
  civilization
  
• Thomas Barnett
• Divides the world between a functioning economic
  core and an excluded, nonintegrating gap that is
  not included in the global economy. Terrorism
  comes from the nonintegrating gap
• Believes Huntingtons clash comes between
  economic rather than cultural civilizations

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Role of Eschatology
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Role of Eschatology

• Eschatology
• Derived from the Greek word eschatos, a concept
  dealing with the end of all material and purpose
  in time and space
  
• In the Greek Hebrew Bible, it is interpreted as a
  final judgment and the realization of Gods
  purpose for creation
  

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Role of Eschatology

• John Domonic Crossans four commonly held
  eschatological frameworks
  
• Ascetic Self denial
• Apocalyptic Gods destruction of the existing
  order
  
• Ethical Calls for followers to embrace radically
  moral behavior in recognition of Gods imminent
  reign
  
• Political Combines expectations of religious
  judgment with political action

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Role of Eschatology

• Political Eschatology
• Daniel Pipes says that traditional Islam is
  concerned with political morality
  
• If one is expecting apocalyptic or ascetic
  eschatology, there is no need to worry, because
  God will make the final judgment. On the other
  hand, some forms of ethical and almost all forms
  of political eschatology rely on the actions of
  human beings
• Gunter Lewy argues that linking political beliefs
  with an end-of-time theology is a prescription
  for violence

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Two Views of Islam and Terrorism
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Two Views of Islam and Terrorism

• Reuvan Paz
• Islamic fundamentalism is related to political
  violence
  
• There is an Islamic terrorism
• Islam sees itself in a global war with the West

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Two Views of Islam and Terrorism

• David Kibble
• Islamic fundamentalism seems to be a threat at
  face value
  
• The pockets of Islamic extremism in the that
  sustain terrorism Middle East are isolated and
  divided

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Two Views of Islam and Terrorism

• Clarence Bouchat
• American fears and misunderstandings of Islam
  make it appear as if fundamentalists were united
  and threatening to gather the Middle East in a
  war against the West
• Daniel Pipes
• American political leaders have had bad political
  advice from academic experts who told the West
  not to worry about militant Islam

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Two Views of Islam and Terrorism

• John Esposito
• There are a variety of Islamic political groups,
  and most of them see violence as
  counterproductive
  
• It is not possible to rely on stereotypes or
  classify Islam as a violent religion