Analysis of the Word Terrorism - Essay Example

Analysis of the Word “Terrorism” As d by Jacques Derrida in his "Of Grammatology," language is a tool through which human beings are able to communicate with other human beings (Schutz). Language is not limited to speaking; rather, it may have many forms, such as the language of signals or the body language. Yet, language, in whatever form it is, must consist of words or symbols and a set of rules, usually referred to as generative grammar. While some words may have simple straightforward meanings, there are other words and expressions that usually have rich meanings and deep connotations. An example of such expressions is the word “terrorism.” Obviously, whenever this word is uttered, negative and bad feelings come to one’s mind, such as fear, insecurity, and lack of safety. While the first thought that comes to one’s mind when reading or hearing the word “terrorism” is related primarily to physical terrorism that causes fear, yet, a deeper analysis of this word would broaden one’s mind about the various meanings of the word that are related to the various types of terrorism that exist in the world. Essentially, there are various types of terrorism from which almost all countries of the world have been suffering. The September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States is one of the worst terrorist attacks ever in the human history. It has resulted in thousands of deaths and billions of Dollars loss. These sever attacks have led the world to pay attention to such a growing phenomenon in the whole world in an attempt to analyze its reasons and prevent its causes. Thus, protecting national security requires us to conduct thorough analysis of the types of terrorism and motives of terrorists. Basically, there is religious terrorism, which can be subdivided into Islamic, Christian, and Jewish terrorism. Also, there are political terrorism, and criminal terrorism. All these types of terrorism require a deep understanding of the motives and approaches of terrorists and the various meanings of terrorism. The first type of terrorism is religious terrorism. It means the kind of terrorism and violence that are executed under the name of religion. A clear example of this kind of terrorism is represented in Osama Bin Ladin and his organization, which is named "Al-Qaida." Although Al-Qaida’s name and news do not come to the knowledge of many people in the world before the attacks of 11 September on USA, it is established, as a terrorist group long before that date. Al-Qaida’s name has always been associated with terrorist attacks, bombs, and the use of violence around the world. Its leader, Osama Bin Laden, was very well known, for the violence and disturbance, to which he has led the whole world. So, one of our main security concerns is to study and analyze the background of Al-Qaida and its leaders, with an analysis of its beliefs, motives, principles, and its expected future after the world war on terrorism. To define Al-Qaida, we can say that it is a multi-national organization, with members from around the globe and with a worldwide presence. Many analysts and politicians see Al-Qaida as a network of many different fundamentalist organizations in various countries.  The common factor in all these Islamic organizations is the use of terrorism for reaching their political goals, and an agenda whose main priority is the overthrow of the governments and regimes of Moslem countries and the establishment of Islamic governments based on the rule of Islam, as strictly interpreted by the fundamentalists. Another meaning of terrorism has to do with the political arena, referred to as political terrorism. It is the kind of terrorism that is executed by political organizations, groups, or leaders in order to achieve a certain political gain. For example, some political regimes adopt terrorist approaches by trying to possess weapons of mass destruction to terrorize their opponents. A clear example of this case can be found in the Iranian regime. Actually, attempting to build or buy a nuclear weapon is so urgent for some countries from a strategic point of view. In the beginning, it is important to study the current situation of nuclear weapon ownership in the countries of the world. Reports show that countries with acknowledged nuclear weapons capability include Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States. On the other hand, there is only one country with unacknowledged nuclear weapons capability, which is Israel. In addition, countries that abandoned nuclear weapons development are South Africa, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. Therefore, in order to protect our national security, we must address the issue of WMD deeply, trying to convince other nations to abandon the notion of possessing or working to possess WMD. A deeper meaning of the word terrorism is actually related to the concept of devotion, formulating what is known as dogmatic terrorism. People usually resort the crimes committed by a terrorist to his blind adherence to a certain principle, idea, or thought. More specifically, this concept of excessive devotion is usually linked to the Islamic religion. As many terrorists are discovered to be orthodox Moslems, it is usually claimed that the problem lies in their strong devotion and commitment to Islam. In other words, throughout history, some people used to defend their beliefs violently, even if this defense involved massacres or mass killing and suicide. Terrorism around the world is caused primarily by an excess of devotion. The degree of severity and violence used by terrorists depends on the degree of the devotion they hold to their religion or political ideology. That is to say, a person whose devotion to his religion or idea is strong would not easily accept any notion or act that may contradict his religious or ideological beliefs. So, the probable result in that case would be a violent reaction from that person. Then, if his devotion becomes excessive, he may commit killings, violence, or even massacres, in order to defend his devotion. However, most thinkers and political analysts argue that one can hardly give a comprehensive definition of terrorism that fits all situations, and similarly, it is hard to give one cause of terrorism (Kenneth). For example, Long Kenneth, in his essay "Understanding and Teaching the Semantics of Terrorism," conveys the message that no one can give a comprehensive definition of terrorism that fits all situations because the causes of terrorism are varied and unique to every group of individuals. Consequently, terrorism has been subject to a wide variety of interpretations and causations. Therefore, contrary to Pfaffs argument, "courses in international relations, American foreign policy, comparative politics, and other areas of political science that touch upon terrorism have a need to include careful analysis of the concept" due to the various interpretations it has (Kenneth). The various meanings and interpretations of the word “terrorism” can be easily spread among young people through media. In that sense, media can be extremely detrimental for young peoples mentalities as it may misguide them with ideologies of terrorism and intolerance. For example, terrorism ideas and methodologies may be spread among young people through the internet. As more and more kids, juveniles, and young people access the internet everyday, there is high probability that some young people may pass through internet sites that call for violence and terrorism as an approach to express oneself. Prior to the emergence of the internet, the chance that young people may be affected by terrorist ideologies was lower than the case with the internet. Thats because the internet provided young people with easy ways to be subjected to terrorist ideas from the comfort of their homes while in the past, physical contact was necessary to get with terrorists and their ideologies. Thus, the effect of the internet on directing young peoples mentality towards terrorism, violence, and intolerance is undoubted. Extremist media channels give an easily accessible podium for individuals from around the world to spread hate ideas and violent ideologies. Before the emergence of the Internet, it was extremely difficult for the advocates of hate ideologies to spread their ideas the way it can be done in recent years, as "at the click of a mouse, a full spectrum of hate is available" (Etchingham). The role of the Internet in spreading hate ideas is evidenced in the case of the Ku Klux Klan, which is a hate group that advocates supremacy of the white people over all the other ethnic origins. Don Black, one of the leaders of this group, declares that "the Internet gave him the power he was looking for" (Etchingham). Besides, another hate group that is spreading their ideas on the Internet is the Skin Heads. To visualize the threat that haunts us with the spread of their ideas on the Internet, it is important to know that "to get into the Skinheads you may have to kill a black person or you may be told to stab a gay man." By giving hate groups the chance to publish their views on the Internet, these groups are actually selling their ideas to a greater public than before. Thus, one of the serious negative effects of violent websites is that they help in spreading extremist ideologies that may seriously threaten the security and safety of the world by leading to terrorism. The threat of hate media channels reaches its climax when they publicize ideologies that advocate the use of violence and killing. Realizing the effective role of the Internet in spreading ideas, violent groups, such as Al-Qaida, started to launch websites to attract new followers and introduce their hate ideas and violent approaches. For example, Mohammed Alkhereiji, a Saudi journalist, states that Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, before being killed by the Saudi policemen, used the Internet "calling on his supporters to engage in terrorist activities" (Alkhereiji) Besides, violent groups use their websites to declare victory in their illegal war against humanity by showing videos of killing and slaughtering of their hostages. In that sense, hate websites are not destructive for individuals only, but also for societies and governments, which find themselves pressured to take quick actions against such groups to calm the feeling of anger in the public, caused by the watching of such violent videos. After presenting the various meanings and interpretations of the word “terrorism,” it is important now to move to an important concept that comes to our mind whenever the word “terrorism” is mentioned in any context; namely public safety. Actually, public safety against terrorism cannot be reached without sincere cooperation with all countries of the world. In our age of globalization, international cooperation is the key concepts for national security protection. For example, the terrorism threat can never be fought successfully on individual basis. Rather, various countries should cooperate and exchange information in order to win their war against terrorism. However, not all countries believe in the importance of international cooperation. They see the world as if it is in a state of competition among all the countries. John Baylis, for example, believes that "because all states will be attempting to maximize their gains in a competitive, mistrustful, and uncertain international environment, cooperation will always be very difficult to achieve and hard to maintain" (Baylis, p.198) In addition, public safety can be reached if the media channels that spread violent ideas are strictly controlled. The role of individuals and societies in fighting the violent media channels is as equal as that of both internet providers and the government. Adequate education given by schools and parents for the young children about the danger of extremist websites can act as a protection for those children from falling as victims of violent ideas. As Licia Corbella declares, "we need to be aware of whats out there, be diligent to educate our kids on how to discern legitimate sites from hate and terrorism sites, and work towards finding ways to purge terrorist sites from the web entirely" (Corbella). Besides, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States suggests that "concerned internet users install filtering software and alert authorities to threatening or violent messages online" (Anderson). Such filtering software would help parents detect any hate websites or messages sent to their children in an effort to protect them from being negatively affected by these hate ideas. In conclusion, the word “terrorism’ is multi-meanings due to the various connotations and concepts it entails. Within our final remark, it can be said that the war against terrorism can be won with the cooperation of individuals with governments. However, the role of the government remains of extreme importance because it has the authority to strictly ban websites that advocate violence and extremist ideologies. Hence, countries such as the United States must not consider hate websites as an implementation of free speech in order to protect the world from the extreme dangers of these sites. While the bombardment of information through the internet benefits young people by enriching their critical and analytical abilities, yet, this huge amount of information can have negative effects when it contains hate ideas or promote terrorist ideologies. Hence, the role of education systems in all countries is to teach students how to evaluate information sources in order to search for the reliable and valuable information only, regarding biased and irrelevant information. If young people develop their critical abilities to evaluate the sites they navigate online, the probability that they will be negatively affected by the hate ideas contained in these sites will be minimized. Works Cited Alkhereiji, Mohamed. "The Pros and Cons of Extremist Websites." The Daily Star. 04 Jun. 2004. 13 Apr. 2012. Corbella, Licia. "Hate Just Click Away: Internet Used To Finance And Plan Evil." 10 Dec. 2004. 13 Apr. 2012. LexisNexis Etchingham, Julie. "Hate.com Expands on the Net." 12 Jan. 2000. 13 Apr. 2012. Goldberg, Joseph E. "Understanding the Dimensions Of Terrorism." Perspectives on Political Science. 1045-7097. March 1, 1991, Vol. 20, Issue 2. Academic Search Premier. Hayes, Laura. “Al-Qaeda: Osama bin Ladens Network of Terror.” 13 Apr. 2012. Kelley, Jack "Devotion, desire Drive Youths to Martyrdom." USA TODAY. 07 May 2001. 12 Apr. 2012.   Long, Kenneth J. "Understanding and Teaching the Semantics of Terrorism: An Alternative Perspective." Perspectives on Political Science. 1045-7097, September 1, 1990, Vol. 19, Issue 4. Academic Search Premier Mazarr, Michael J. "The Psychological Sources of Islamic Terrorism." 26 Dec. 2005. 12 Apr. 2012. Pfaff, William. “The Violence that Comes from an Excess of Devotion.” Editorial. Herald Tribune. 4 Oct. 2004 12 Apr. 2012. Rumsfeld, Donald. "Terrorism." Vital Speeches of the Day; Agust, 15th, 2004. Vol. 70 Issue 21, p642. EbscoHost Schutz, Richardo. "Language Acquisition – Language Learning." 14 Apr. 2012. Schweitzer, Yoram. "Suicide Terrorism and the September 11 Attacks." 13 Apr. 2012. Read More