Domestic Terrorist Group vs International Terrorist Organization - Research Paper Example

Comparing and Contrasting a Domestic Terrorist group with an International Terrorist Organization Introduction Terrorism is increasing day by day in different countries of the world. Terrorism is the other name of violence act. Religious, ideological, political and different other factors play a vital role in promoting and increasing terrorism. Huge number of people is losing their lives for terrorist attacks. Terrorism influences the people in performing violence acts. In the current scenario there are many terrorist groups present in different countries of the world which try to fulfill their goals by attacking people through various means. Terrorist groups are divided into domestic and international groups. Domestic terrorist groups perform their terrorist activities by causing violence human life. Domestic terrorist groups do not follow the federal laws of the state. This type of terrorist group wants to destruct the government of the state by causing destruction and damage to various things of the country or by kidnapping, assassination etc. International terrorist group are very dangerous. They cause mass destruction to different counties for achieving their goals or for spreading their messages. Their attacks and terrorist activities are not limited to any particular nation. In this paper a detail comparison of international and domestic terrorist group will be discussed in detailed with the help of two terrorist groups. These groups are Black Liberation Army and Al-Qaeda. Research statement The research statement of this research paper is, “To contrast and compare an International Terrorist Organization with a Domestic Terrorist group”. Research aims and objectives The aims of this research paper are as follows: To compare domestic terrorist group with international terrorist organization To highlight the origins of the terrorist groups. Analyzing their goals Highlighting the methodology that the terrorist groups are following. To focus of their tactics. Literature review According to the authors Enders, Sandler and Gaibulloev, the presence various terrorist group are hindering the peace and safety of the people. Terrorist groups are causing huge trouble in people’s lives. Both domestic and international terrorist groups are responsible for the increase of violence activities. These authors state the dangerous activities of the terrorist groups are increasing are day by day. Domestic and international terrorist groups are creating threats among the people and taking their lives. Both of these terrorist organizations of different countries are playing a vital role in hampering the normal lives of the people and increasing global terrorism. These authors state that there are some basic difference between domestic terrorist groups and international terrorist organizations. A domestic terrorist group performs their activities within the boundary of a state. This type of terrorist groups is concerned about fulfilling their goals and demands by the state government. For this reason domestic terrorist groups performs the activities which can create more impact on the state government. But the international terrorist organizations want to spread their messages throughout the world by performing terrorist activities in different countries of the world. This type of terrorist organizations wants that the whole world should accept their view, ideas and demands (Enders, Sandler and Gaibulloev, 2011). As per the writers Sánchez-Cuenca and De la Calle, domestic terrorism has become very common in various nations of the world. Earlier the existence of domestic terrorist groups were present in developing countries of the world but in now a day’s domestic terrorism has created its strong existing in developed countries of the world. The members of domestic terrorist groups reside in the same state where they are performing their terrorist activities. Most of the domestic terrorist groups have a specific command structure which guides the groups for performing their terrorist activities. These authors state that, in USA the presence of domestic terrorist groups has increased a lot. These terrorist groups are trying to create pressure on the government for becoming powerful and changing the social or political system of the country. Black Liberation Army is one of the famous domestic terrorist groups of USA. This terrorist group is entirely against the U.S government and tries every possible way to create problems in the rules and regulations of the state (Sánchez-Cuenca and De la Calle, 2009). According to the authors Bergesen and Lizardo, huge amount of money and many people are associated with the various international terrorist groups. The members of international terrorist groups receive extensive training for performing terrorist actives throughout the world. The international terrorist groups are very much advanced and they apply different modern tactics and techniques for doing their terrorism operations. International terrorists do violence in different countries of the world but not in their own countries. They try to hinder or damage various things of different countries for fulfilling their goals and objectives. These authors state that international terrorist groups cause more damage and kill more number of people than domestic terrorist groups. Al-Qaeda is the most dangerous international terrorist group of the world. With its huge amount of recourses this terrorist group has created several terrorist attracts on various countries of the world. According to these writers, Al-Qaeda has a huge contribution in increasing Global terrorism. A terrorist group has different types of values and believes which influences the terrorist in performing violence acts (Bergesen and Lizardo, 2004). Research methodology Methodology is one of the important parts of a research paper. With the help of effective methodology techniques a researcher is able to able to gather relevant and important information and data regarding the research topic. There are two types of research methodologies. They are qualitative and quantitative research techniques. Qualitative research methods focus on collecting data from various secondary sources like book, internet sites, journals etc. In this research method the views and opinions of different researchers are analysed in details. In quantitative research method, the researcher collects data from different primary sources by conducting interview, survey etc. Data are analysed with the help of various statistical tools in quantitative research method. In this research paper qualitative research method has been used for collecting data and information. Various books, journals and internet sites are used for comparing international and domestic terrorist groups. Finding and analyses Group origins Al-Qaeda group was formed around 1988. Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam formed this group. This international terrorist group was formed in Afghanistan. Several militants are associated with this group for performing terrorist activities around the world. Al-Qaeda terrorist group are associated with different other domestic terrorist group for performing violence acts. By making allies with various domestic terrorist groups of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Al Qaeda acquire huge power and created its strong presence. This group was formed with the help of Saudi wealth, expert military training from Egyptian militant and Islamic views and ideas. From 1991 the group started doing violence attract on people under the supervision of Laden. The leaders of Al Qaeda group take decision for performing terrorist activities. This international terrorist group is involved in doing global jihadist movement. On the other hand the domestic terrorist group, Black Liberation Army is formed in USA. This terrorist group was formed around 1970s. This domestic terrorist group was formed for promoting equal right for American and African people. The leaders of this group were Assata Shakur and Eldridge Cleaver. This terrorist group was formed in United States with huge number of black people. This terrorist group believed in the idea of taking up arms for establishing liberalization for black people in U.S. Form its very beginning this group was involved in doing huge number of bombing, robberies and murder for fulfilling the goals and objectives of the terrorist group. Another name of this group was Black Panther Party. Ideologies Al Qaeda believes in the Ideology of Islamic religion. This international terrorist group tries to develop Islamic movement from past three decades by performing extreme violence acts. Afghan jihad was formed against pro soviet government. This influenced the rise of Salafist Jihadist movement. Al-Qaeda mainly follows the ideology of Jihadist movement. This international terrorist group follows the rules and regulations of Muslim religion. The enemies of Islam are mainly attacked by this organization. The leaders of this group are strongly influenced by the by views and concepts of Salafist jihadism, Pan-Islamism and Qutbism. The leaders of Al Qaeda train the group members by influencing them with religious views and principles. The ideas of Qutb also have a strong influence on the ideology of Al Qaeda terrorist organization. On the contrary the ideology of Black Liberation Army was to benefit the black people and establishing liberalization and self determination. The members of this group believed that American and Black African people are same. Therefore there must not be any discrimination in between them. The main ideologies followed by this domestic terrorist group are Anti capitalism, Anti racism, Black Nationalism, Socialism, etc. Based on these ideologies this domestic terrorist group performed various activities within U.S. Black Liberation Army tries to reduce the class struggle by attacking the American people and damaging various things of the country. Therefore the ideology of both of these terrorist groups differs from each other based on their ideologies. The ideology of Al Qaeda is mainly based on religious views but the ideology of Black Liberation Army was based on social values and principles. Goals The main goal of Al Qaeda terrorist organization is to promote Islam religion in different countries of the world. Spreading Jihad is the main aim of Al Qaeda. This international terrorist organization is trying to establish Muslim Brotherhood in different countries of the world with the help of corrupt form of Islam. This terrorist group also wants to remove American military from various Islamic countries and Middle East countries. Al Qaeda wants to reduce the power of America. For this reason this international terrorist organization has done several attacks on American and the countries which support America. Beside America the Arab countries are very powerful. They are holding a strong position among various countries of the world in terms of money, resources etc. Removing Arab countries from its strong position is one of the aims of Al Qaeda. This terrorist also desires to a transnational government of all the Muslim people. Israel is another powerful nation of the world. Al Qaeda had a goal to demolish the power of Israel. All the goals of this international terrorist organization are related to different countries of the world. On the other hand the goals of the domestic terrorist group, Black Liberation Army had some goals which were related to U.S. The main goal of this terrorist group was to establish equality among Black African and American people. This organization performs various crimes for fulfilling its goals and objectives. Black Liberation Army wants to benefit the black Africans who were residing in USA. This domestic terrorist group believed that the violence activities which were performed by this group will have helped African black people in various ways for staying in USA (Cleaver and Katsiaficas, 2014). The goals of this domestic terrorist group were entirely confined within America and its societies. Methodologies Al Qaeda’s main enemy remains the United States of America. The terrorist group follows a highly organized organization structure. The group has a council or majlis al shura at the centre who decides on all the actions that are taken by the group including the study of the feasibility of a terrorist activity (PBS, 2014). The terrorist group also has a military council who decides on the military actions that are taken up by the group. The group also has affiliation with other terrorists group who have a common ideology to attack the infidels or in particular their enemy which they consider as America. In inducing terror amongst the citizens and the nations the most common practice that is used by the terrorist group is the use of suicide bombers. The group provides extensive training to the terrorists or the members in remote areas in Afghanistan which also teaches them the art of disguise. After the major act of terrorism that was undertaken by the group that included the attack on the twin towers the method in which the group operated has changed. Now days the operations are carried out by different groups who are either trained by the Al Queda or those whose objectives are same as that of AlQueda but have no connection with the group. On the other side, the main objective of the Black liberation army is to achieve the equality of the Blacks living in America. The terrorist group used bank robberies and murder of police officers in order to create terror. The most important crime was to hijack a plane in 1972. Tactics Every terrorist group follows several tactics for fulfilling their goals. All the tactics of this terrorist organization create violence. The tactics are mainly developed by these groups for threatening and killing people. The international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda follows different types of tactics for achieving their goals. Public attacks are done by this organization. It first stated killing people through bomb attacks. It is one of the main tactics of this terrorist group. Al-Qaeda followed the tactic of hijacking flight and attacking the World Trade Centre in New York. Apart from this Al-Qaeda killed mainly people by directly firing them. This international terrorist organization influenced people with the help of religion. Most of the people get easily influenced by religion. For this reason Al-Qaeda use corrupted form of Islam for provoking Muslims to kill people for spreading jihad. On the contrary the tactics followed by Black Liberation Army were Bombing, aircraft hijacking, robberies, assassinations etc. This domestic terrorist group killed many people with the helped of these tactics. Black Liberation Army was against the torture of black African people by America. For this reason this terrorist group influenced the black African people residing in America for attacking and killing American people. This terrorist group tried to establish socialism by killed people brutally in U.S. Conclusion This research paper focuses on the differences of international and domestic terrorist organization. For discussing the differences the views and opinions of the different authors has been considered in this paper. Various research aims and objectives of this paper were highlighted is detailed way. Secondary research method was followed for doing this research paper. In this paper the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda and Black Liberation Army were discussed in a details. The origins of both of these groups are mentioned here. The international terrorist group follows the ideologies, methods and tactics which are very different from the domestic terrorist group Black Liberation Army. Al-Qaeda performs its terrorist activities by taking religion as its main weapon. It influences many people to perform terrorist activities and to join the terrorist group by for spreading corrupt form of Islam religion. But the domestic terrorist group Black Liberation Army performs its terrorist activities for creating strong position of the black African people in USA. The terrorist activities of this group were limited within the state. This group mainly tried to change the social system of this state by pressuring U.S government through violence and attacks. References Bergesen, A. J. and Lizardo, O. (2004). International Terrorism and the World‐System. Sociological Theory, 22(1), pp. 38-52. Cleaver, K. and Katsiaficas, G. (2014). Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party: A New Look at the Black Panthers and Their Legacy. New York: Routledge. Enders, W., Sandler, T. and Gaibulloev, K. (2011). Domestic versus transnational terrorism: Data, decomposition, and dynamics. Journal of Peace Research, 48(3), pp. 319-337. PBS., (2014). Bakgroud Al Queda. Retrived from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/network/alqaeda/indictment.html Sánchez-Cuenca, I. and De la Calle, L. (2009). Domestic terrorism: The hidden side of political violence. Annual Review of Political Science, 12(1), pp.31-49. Read More