Moroccan Islamic Combatant group Profile - Essay Example

Aligning itself with al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11th in the United States of America, the GICM is a Sunni Islamist jihadist organization which seeks the overthrow of the reining institutions of the Moroccan state and the imposition of dogmatic Islamic rule in the country. Seeking to explore the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, this essay will define the term terrorist and explore the ideology behind this militant organization. An analysis of its targets, tactics and capabilities will conclude with a summary of its overall goals.

Finally, we will conclude with a precise overview of this organization and its links to the global terror phenomenon. What is a terrorist and how does one define terrorism? The age old adage that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” (Bergesen & Lizardo 39) remains true and the term terrorist has been notoriously difficult to define. Despite the definitional challenges surrounding the terrorist phenomenon, a definition of “terrorism” is integral to this essay and this term must be defined so as to provide a theoretical basis to this analysis of the GICM.

Bruce Hoffman, world renowned terror scholar and expert of the use of terror as a political tool, understands the slippery nature of defining the term and argues that first and foremost, terrorism is a political concept. Secondly, terror is about power and the use of this power to enact political change (Hoffman 14-15). Another prominent international terror theorist, Gérard Chaliand, terror is a tool which targets the mind. From this perspective, terror is “the most violent form of psychological warfare” (Chaliand et al. 2007) and terrorism is a means to power and control through violent means.

While both of these definitions shed insight into the terrorist phenomenon, Dr. Mia Bloom, the world’s foremost expert on