Ideological, Nationalist, and Religious Terrorism - Case Study Example

Ideological, Nationalist and Religious Terrorism The Montana Freemen were a Christian Patriot Movement that had declaredthemselves free from the authority of any outside government. The group started in the 1990s and believed that citizens could become fully sovereign by rejecting the federal government alongside other forms of authority. This movement did not use militants and guns but used legal briefs and the uniform commercial code. They believed they were kings and queens, and nobody was allowed to tax them. The U.S government was viewed as a foreign corporation and did not have citizens, but franchises. Some of the founding members included Leroy Schweitzer, who was the head of the group, Skurdal and Daniel Petersen, and had been inspired by a former group called Posse Comitatus. Members of this group defaulted taxes and resisted the Internal Revenue Service, which auctioned most of their property to recover the taxes. However, the public feared the group and some property marked for auction remained unsold for several years (Combs, Cindy and Martin, pp. 186). The group created complicated schemes which involved filing liens worth millions of dollars against property owned by the federal or local government in Montana. This was a strategy to raise money to sustain their movement. The movement set up its own common law court and a government in Montana. The government issued arrest warrants for the members, but most of them remained in their farms, and the authorities could not arrest them. The most radical members regrouped at Clark ranch in Jordan from where they ran the movement. In 1996, the Freemen wanted to set up a radio antenna to facilitate their communication. The contracted installer was an undercover FBI agent, who lured Schweitzer and Peterson from their houses to the installation site. On reaching the site, the two Freemen were arrested by federal agents who were waiting for them. Most of the other members were arrested later and sentenced on account of several crimes. The Kurdistan Workers’ party or the PKK was founded in 1974 by Abdullah Ocalan and was initially known as the Kongra-Gel. The group, mainly composed of Turkish Kurds, began armed violence in 1984 as part of its campaign. The main objective of this movement was to establish an independent Kurdish state and government in Turkey, Northern Iraq, parts of Syria and Iran. The groups’ founder members adopted the Marxist theory as part of their liberation campaign. PKK collaborated with other militants in this region to conduct attacks against the Turkish government alongside other extremist sympathizers. The group operates in several countries and runs several training camps in Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. Their campaign involves spreading propaganda against the government, explosives and violence, sabotaging government activities, and spreading their anti-government ideologies (Balci, pp. 172). The group has been involved in several bomb attacks in Turkey, drug trafficking and kidnappings. The founder Abdullah Ocalan was arrested in 1999 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Several European countries such as France and Germany sympathize with PKK and have allowed them to open offices in their countries and offered its members support and training. The Turkish government condemns the group by referring to it as a threat to national security. Other sister organizations such as PJAK have come up and are involved in terror activities within Turkey and Iraq. PKK fighters operate from the Qandil Mountains in Iraq in a bid to limit government attacks. The Turkish government has offered the movement an opportunity to negotiate for peace, which has not been fruitful. The U.S government has been accused of giving Iraq PKK members a safe haven for the operations since the fall of Saddam Hussein (Mannes, pp. 179). The Al-Qaeda is an Islamic terror group that was founded by Osama Bin Laden in 1988. The group was founded to free Islamic countries from the profane influence of the west, especially USA and Britain. Al-Qaeda is an international terror organization responsible for several attacks in several countries around the world. After the September 11 attacks in New York, the US government launched a war against Afghanistan, which is the main operating base for al-Qaeda. The Taliban government in Afghanistan cooperated with al-Qaeda, harbored its leaders, and gave it an operation base in the country. Bin Laden together with other religious leaders in Pakistan recruited several mujahedeen fighters, to fight a holy war against the western countries. The main operation areas are Pakistan and Afghanistan, but it has spread it cells to other parts including North and East Africa. Al-Qaeda has several affiliations with other Islamic terror groups fighting in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East (Burke, pp. 20). In May 2011, the U.S military managed to kill Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, which has affected the operations of Al-Qaeda, but it is stilled termed as a threat to security. This group together with affiliated militants strives to establish Islamic laws in Islamic countries around the world. The United States government alongside other European countries such as Britain has launched several attacks that have killed several Al-Qaeda leaders and advisors. Other leaders have been captured and are serving jail terms and detentions in Iraq and Guantanamo bay in Cuba. Other governments around the world continue to hunt down members affiliated to Al-Qaeda. The U.S has offered its assistance to several countries to enhance their security to prevent attacks by the terror group. American soldiers continue to fight in Afghanistan in order to paralyze the group’s activities. Collaboration with Islamic governments such as Pakistan has led to the destruction of several training camps and the death of several Al-Qaeda leaders (Atwan, pp. 60). The three terror groups have been founded along the theory of absolute freedom for their members. There terror groups recruit their members and carry out their strategies in order to fight against an authority considered as oppressive and domineering. The Montana Freemen were campaigning against taxation by the federal government. The founders had defaulted taxes for several years and wanted to establish a state where members were free from taxation. They used these ideas to commit fraud and recruit more members to their course. PKK was started to free the Kurdish tribesmen in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. The Turkish government had banned Kurdish media broadcasts and speaking of the Kurdish as the national language. It is believed most PKK members are of the Kurdish ethnicity, but the movement has received support and membership from other ethnic groups around Europe. The A-Qaeda was formed to free Islamic countries from the influence of western countries and aims at establishing Islamic rules in Muslim countries around the world. This has led to the belief that most Muslims are terrorists and Muslims have experienced discrimination and other injustices especially in USA and Britain. All Al-Qaeda leaders and militants belong to the Islamic faith, but not all Muslims are terrorists. Terrorism can be viewed as the use of terror, physical and ideological, to cause coercion. The Freemen of Montana spread the idea that every citizen above 21 years was a king or queen and was not eligible for taxing by the federal government. The members spread this idea to recruit more members and engaged in fraud against government authorities to generate cash for their campaign. They also engaged in cash fraud against banks and other financial institutions. Spreading these ideas to encourage a revolt against the IRS can be viewed as an act of terror. PKK has been involved in several attacks against Turkish troops and the government. These attacks have been executed in order to force the government to honor their course and consider them a free Kurdish state. The Al-Qaeda has also carried out several attacks against the western countries and fight for the establishment of Islamic laws in Muslim countries. They major their activities on Islam teachings and convince their fighter they are serving Allah. This notion encourages its followers to carry out terror attacks including suicide bombing. The notion or beliefs held by each group encourages its followers to conduct different terror activities against the government and other institutions of authority. The three groups can be considered to engage in terrorism due to their ideologies, briefs, and tactics used to fight for their course. Convincing citizens to default tax and engage in fraud to generate capital denies the central government its revenue, and this is also against the law. According to American laws, every citizen must pay taxes, and convincing people otherwise can be regarded as an act of ideological terrorism. The PKK has engaged in several violent attacks against government troops and civilians. This group engages in violence in order to liberate the Kurdish citizens from the authority of the Turkish government. This group has been involved in several attacks in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, which have caused civilian deaths and destruction of property. These activities are conducted to force the government to recognize the movement and allow them to become independent. The Al-Qaeda has also been involved in several terror attacks around the world. The group uses religion to justify its course and recruit more fighters of the Islamic faith. Al-Qaeda has carried out terror attacks in Washington, New York, London, Nairobi, Turkey, Tanzania, and other regions of the country. This group can, therefore, be considered to be a terrorist organization based on Islamic religion. Works cited Atwan, Abdel B. The Secret History of Al Qaeda. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. Print. Balci, Faith. Politicization of Kurdish Question Through Human Rights Discourse in Turkey. Ann Arbor: ProQuest, 2008. Print. Burke, Jason. Al-qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam. London: I. B. Taurus, 2005. Print. Combs, Cindy C, and Martin W. Slann. Encyclopedia of Terrorism. New York: Facts On File, 2007. Print. Mannes, Aaron. Profiles in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004. Print. Read More