Extremism and Terrorism - Assignment Example

Extremism and Terrorism Extremism and Terrorism Introduction When an individual is termed to be an extremist, he or she is believed to have views that are extreme to a certain subject. For instance, a Jew, Muslim or Christian who has a strong believe that what he or she is adhering to is the right path and what others are following is not the correct one; such a person can be termed to an extremist. In other words, extremism can be defined as the aspect of believe where people think that only their views are correct, and those of others are incorrect and they are not prepared to listen or respect to any other opinions. Extremism can be caused by either the peculiarity of the individual’s personality, the type of information one has been taught or the training one has underwent and probably the sense of feeling insecurity that may cause one to be inflexible or become extremist. There are some personalities that are prone to exhibit extremism (Awan & Blakemore, 2013). For instance, a person who is easily irritated or one who is completely obsessed by ideas or influences can turn to an extremist quickly. Again, individuals who are deprived of their rights can exhibit extremism tendencies as they react to the deprivation. Terrorism is an activity of violence intended to cause terror or fear, which is perpetrated for the religious, economic, or ideological goal and deliberately disregard the non-combatants safety. Terrorism can also be defined as the ideological, political or religious violence acts by non-state actors (Gereluk, 2012). Terrorism is emotionally charged and politically loaded. Terrorism can be staged by individuals to get their political, financial or religious gains. Many of the terrorist activities have been linked with the religion with the desire to enforce or spread the system of opinion, viewpoint or believe. The Relation between Extremism and Terrorism Terrorism and extremism are severe and associated threats that have emotional, cognitive and behavioral consequences and the causes in contemporary life. There is tangible evidence that extreme ideologies can lead to concerns that regard to the translation of the ideas to the acts of terrorism. Terrorism may result from acts of religious violence where groups like Jews, Muslims and the Christian use threats or instills fear to enforce their beliefs and their ideas. Attacks on the civilians by these groups of extremists are so strife and have been highly condemned by the religious groups (Southers, 2010). The terrorism typically occurs when the motivation of the ideology meets the capacity of the operation. The war on terrorism is more of an ideological battle with the radical extremists who use terror as their weapon and disrupt the conscience of the peace and freedom of the world. Much of the terrorism occurring nowadays is related to the religious extremists. Taking a case like the Boko in Nigeria is just a religious extremist group that is trying to impose their opinions on the country, since their religion tells them to do so. Such religious groups are so extreme such that the teachings that they profess are quite harmful to the society (Awan & Blakemore, 2013). Most of the extremists are Islam oriented; the teachings and the training that they took from the religion radicalize them, and they develop a high-radicalized nature that affects their perspective towards others. As at 2002 (Awan & Blakemore, 2013), most of the terrorist attacks were related to the nationalistic separatists who were responsible for them but currently, the number of nationalistic terrorism have remained stable as the number of religious extremist attacks is becoming more and more every day. In countries like Pakistan, Nigeria, Syria and the Iraq, the primary driver for the terrorist attacks is the extremists groups of the Islamist religion. The extremist groups have very strong beliefs about their opinions and the ideas, and they always find them clashing with the other people and this results in the terrorist attacks. Thus, under extreme conditions the religion can turn out or exhibit the terrorism. For instance, Islam as a religion has some values that its followers should acquire once they are professing it. Islamic extremist terrorists have been relying on particular interpretations of the Hadith and the Quran, giving examples of the scriptures that justify their violent conducts of mass killings, slavery and genocide. Currently, the most of the cases of extremities related to terrorist attacks is Islam related. There have been incidents of reported cases of the Islamic terrorism on a global scale. It has occurred in not only Islamic countries in Asia and Africa but also in Russia, Europe, and United States (Southers, 2010). The religious extremists are groups of people who are associated teachings of ignorance, insincere and misunderstanding. The late former terrorist Osama bin Laden was an Islamic graduate. The lessons and training he had radicalized his thoughts and turned out to the world threat to peace. There is no recorded example of the Christian extremism that has led to the terrorism. There are common characteristics of the extremists who result to become the terrorist. Some of the features include; some group of people isolate themselves from the rest of the society, and they operate in their ways. The extremist groups have their distinctive teachings and training that they undergo that radicalize their thoughts. The terrorist group has a strong feeling of themselves as the people who are always right on what they do and do not seem to agree with what others do and they dont respect them (Southers, 2010). The extremists do not have the humanistic attributes, and they always feel that the other people are a threat to them. In their response to the foreseeable threat from the other people, they use terror attacks to instill fear to the society and enforce their ideas concerning their religion that they profess. The extremist groups do not attack their people they target places where there are not members of their group. They terrorist carries out suicide activities that are effectively staged and executed. The leaders of the extremists are rational entities, and their followers are obeyed them and they seem to more irrational. Extremist activities have been used by activists as the champion their views or opinions on a matter. These extremist activities applied by the activist are sometimes justifiable as they try fostering their opinions to the governments. Sometimes the government may not be willing to take immediate actions towards some issue of national concern. When this happens, the activists may stage their activities to oppose or call for immediate action to be taken. In this case, the extremist behavior of the activists is more justifiable. In the cases of negligence and ignorance by the leaders, the activists may use radical acts to call action to be taken (Gereluk, 2012). These actions by the activists bring attention to the matter that they are staging mass action. Some of the cases of issues that have caused activists to use the extremist behavior are issues related to insecurity, payments, and issues of social, economic, political and the national interest. Conclusion Terrorism has been an issue of the global concern, as their networks have been increasingly getting high. These terrorist activities have been resulting from the extremist group of religion in the society. The most groups of extremists that are associated with the terrorist behavior are the mostly the Islamic religious groups. The activities of the extremists have lead to disruption of world peace. Many countries have tried to fight the terrorists, but tactics they use have not yielded any noticeable fruition. Extremism can also be applied in daily life situations by activists to champion for the issues and matters affecting the society. References Awan, I. & Blakemore, B. (2013). Extremism, counter-terrorism and policing. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Pub. Limited. Gereluk, D. (2012). Education, extremism and terrorism. New York: Continuum. Southers, E. (2010). Homegrown Violent Extremism. Read More