The War on Terror has contributed to the growing abuse of

human rights.

Introduction:

a) Everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s really an

easy way: Stop participating in it.”(Noam Chomsky)

b) In December 1795, Edmund Burke used the word "Terrorists" in a

description of the new French government called 'Directory'.

c) The terms "terrorism" and "terrorist" gained renewed currency in the

1970s as a result of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict,( "Terrorism in the
Middle East: The Case of the Arab-Israeli Conflict")the Northern Ireland
conflict, the Basque conflict,( "Political Violence in a Democratic State:
Basque Terrorism in Spain) and the operations of groups such as the Red
Army Faction.

d) American political philosopher Michael Walzer in 2002 wrote:

"Terrorism is the deliberate killing of innocent people, at random, to
spread fear through a whole population and force the hand of its
political leaders".

e) The first Mesopotamian empire, that of Sargon of Akkad, was founded

on terror. The same was later true of antiquity’s first military empire,
the Assyrian, whose brutal methods of reprisal were intended to crush
the spirit and break the will.
 f) Terror remains suspended like a sword in times of peace over the heads
of all who dare to rebel. In the despotic societies that make up the
major portion of history’s fabric, it has served as the tool of enslavement
and guarantor of mass obedience.

g) “There is no moral difference between a Stealth bomber and a suicide

bomber. They both kill innocent people for political reasons.”( Tony
Benn)

Ancient History of Terrorism:

a) The terrorism starts when cain killed abel it was the first act of
terrorism in the history of mankind.The legacy of that act prevails but
with sinister form.

b) The clearest indications of early uses of terrorism in ancient times

came from the internal politics of Rome during some periods of the
Republic, Jewish revolts in the Eastern Mediterranean first against the
Seleucid Greeks and then against its incorporation into the Roman
Empire, and battles between different factions in the Eastern
Roman/Byzantine Empire.

c) The terrorism in ancient Greece, during the long Peloponnesian

Wars,between the sparta and Athens(the two city states).The Athens
supported the democratic govt while sparta supported aristocratic
culture.

d) The Jewish Zealots were a political movement in 1st-century which

sought to incite the people of Judea Province to rebel against
the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms,
most notably during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–70). One
particularly extreme group, a subgroup of the Zealots, was known
in Latin as sicarii, meaning "violent men".The Sicarii are regarded as
 one of the earliest known organized assassination units of cloak and
daggers, predating the Islamic Hashishin and Japanese ninja by
centuries.

e) The Order of Assassins played a singular and sinister role in the

Middle East. The charismatic and ruthless leader Hasan-i Sabbah
forged this small, persecuted sect into one of the most lethally
effective terrorist groups the world has ever known. Even the most
powerful and carefully guarded rulers of the age—the Abbasid and
Fatimid caliphs, lived in dread of the chameleonlike Assassin agents.

f) ‘Terrorism has no religion, terrorists have no religion and they are

friends of no religion.”( Manmohan Singh)

Revolutionary history of Terrorism:

a) French Revolution: The Reign of Terror refers to a period during

the French Revolution after the First French Republic was
established in which multiple massacres and
public executions occurred in response to revolutionary fervor, anti-
clerical sentiment, and frivolous accusations
of treason by Maximilien Robespierre and his Committee of Public
Safety.Approximately 40000 people were killed during that 1 year
between 1793 to 1794.

b) Bolshevik Revolution:This revolution take place in Russia in 1917.

The Red Terror was a period of political repression and mass killings
carried out by Bolsheviks after the beginning of the Russian Civil
War. The term Red Terror is usually applied to Bolshevik political
repression during the Civil War (1917–1922). It was modeled on
the Terror of the French Revolution. The most reliable estimations
 for the total number of killings put the number at about
100,000(Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War.)

c) Facism: It is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism

characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of
opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the
economy[3] which came to prominence in early 20th-century
Europe.Thousands of people were killed during facism.

Colonial Terrorism:

a) Encomienda,Repartimiento and Trajin:All these were

colonial forced labor system imposed upon the indigenous
population of Latin and South America. The natives were forced to
do low-paid or unpaid labor for a certain number of weeks or
months each year on Spanish-owned farms, mines, workshops ,
and public projects.Because of this terrorism in previous centuries
most of the Latin and South American Countries have poor
economic and administrative situations.

b) East India Company:Same is the case with subcontinent.East India

company create trade monoply and exploit the resources of the
subcontinent. Saltpetre used for gunpowder was one of the major
trade goods of the company.High taxation on the people.
Company tax collectors were guilty of what today would be
described as human rights violations. A senior official of the old
Mughal regime in Bengal wrote in his diaries: “Indians were
tortured to disclose their treasure; cities, towns and villages
ransacked; jaghires and provinces purloined: these were the
‘delights’ and ‘religions’ of the directors and their servants.”
 c) “Terrorism will never cease in a country where the so called
leaders are criminals and terrorists in disguise.”( Michael Bassey
Johnson).

Is Terrorism a muslim Monoply:

a) ‘Terrorism has no nationality or religion”.(Vladimir Putin)

b) The slogan (Islam and Terror) is a recent phenomenon, it

became universal term about three decades ago otherwise it
was Islam verses Terror.

c) Islam does not come to tell the ‘Arabs’ how to fight with each
other or against infidels, instead it comes to end their fighting
or put limits to it.

d) The history is witness the reality that there was not any single
terror performance by Muslims since the beginning of Islam till
the middle of twenty centuries.

e) There was a small number of terror attacks occurred and

interpreted that Muslims were behind it.

f) According to the Oxford dictionary that it says “terrorism

means the use of violent action in order to achieve political
aims or force to government to act”.

g) Also “Terrorism is a crime against humanity it targets innocent

people it’s aim is to spread fear by killing people and draw a
line for his political wishes” (Yahya, 2002).

h) Today, international Media use a very common statement that

“all Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims”.
i) Explanation of upper statement: Terrorism has been exercised
by the right and left wings and by all religious, from atheist to
agnostic, Christianity, Jews, Muslims and Hindus. It happens in
rich and poor countries, countries with democratic system and
states with authoritative regimes.

j) When we look at the record of 19th century we can hardly find

any terrorist attacks have been done by Muslims.(The
Islamophobia).

k) In 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and it became the headline

of many Presses ‘Meddle East Conspiracy’, later on they came
to know it was two right wings activists Christens, they were
non-Muslims.

l) From 1941-to-1948 after World War II 259 terrorist attacks

occurred which were conducted by Jewish Terrorists by many
organizations like Agnon, Stan gun and Hagan. (Ben, 2006)

m) King David Hotel bombing in 1946 by Menachem Begin, who

was ignorant. The ignorant group test up as Arabs to show
that Muslims did the Bombing, the person was responsible
Menachem Begin, and at that time Begin titled the biggest
terrorist in the British. Later on, after a few years he became
the Prime Minster of Israel, and later on after a few years he
got Noble Prize for Peace. (Ben, 2006)

n) In Germany from 1968-1992 the Baader Meinhoff Gang killed

several innocent human beings they were non-Muslim.

o) In Italy the Red Brigaders killed many innocent being and they
were non-Muslim.
p) AUM Shinrikyo Buddhist Gang in Japans and used nerve gas in
1995 by Buddhist Cult in the Tokyo Subway, they were Non-
Muslims.

q) In UK For hundred years IRA (Irish Republic Army) made bomb

blast against UK but never called Catholic terrorist they called
IRA, and they were Catholic, they were Non-Muslims.

r) Tony Blair was more afraid of “Muslim terrorists” than IRA

who were conducting Terrorist attacks for more than a
hundred years.

s) In Spain and France the terrorist organization of ETA

conducted 36 terrorist attacks they are non-Muslims.

t) In Africa the Lord Salvation Army (LSA) which is a Christian

terrorist organization in Uganda, they train young children to
commit terrorist attack.

u) In Sri Lanka LTTE Tamil Tigers is the most notorious terrorist

organization, they are people who expert in suicide bombing,
and train children to take suicide bombing they are Hindus not
Muslims.

v) In North India there are Christian terrorist organization like

ATTF, (All Tripura Tiger Forces) and NLFT (National Liberation
Front of Tripura) ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) in
16 years they have conducted 749 terrorist attacks they were
Christians not Muslims but nobody called them Christian
terrorists, because Muslims don’t own google and a Media like
CNN.(All the above examples are from Books Islamophobia
and Inside Terrorism).
 w) It’s simply the game of Western Media which owned by
politicians.

x) All the religion condemn killing innocent people. Islam

condemns all forms of terrorism. Islam says you cannot justify
of killing any human beings.

y) “Terrorism is what we call the violence of the weak, and we

condemn it; war is what we call the violence of the strong, and
we glorify it”. (Sydney J. Harris)

z) “God does not forbid you from showing kindness and dealing
justly with those who have not fought you about religion and
have not driven you out of your homes. God loves just
dealers”. (Quran, 60:8)

aa) The Prophet Muhammad(S.A.W) said. .Do not betray, do

not be excessive, do not kill a newborn child.

What is Jihad in Islam?:

a) All the knowledge of Muslims comes from two main sources,

Qur’an Allah’s revelation to his prophet (Muhammad), and
Hadiths the narratives of Muhammad’s sayings and actions.
The word of Jihad has been mentioned in both sources. The
word Jihad is derived from Arabic root ‘jhd’ means ‘to strive’
or ‘to struggle’, it doesn’t mean ‘holy war’ because holy war
in Arabic would be ‘harb-al-muqaddas’.

b) According to Marranci, 28 verses have some reference to

Jihad and the term Jihad has been mentioned 41 times. But
after all verses there are also claims to peace.
c) Such as the Qur’an says “If someone kills another person
unless it is in retaliation for someone else or for causing
corruption in the earth, it is as if he had murdered all
mankind. And if anyone gives life to another person, it is as if
he had given life to all mankind” (Qur'an, 5:32).

d) Ibn Taymiyyah and Yusuf al-Qaradawi narrated the hadith

that prophet said “we came back from the lesser Jihad to
the bigger Jihad” prophet was coming back from the war (al-
Qaradawi, 2011). Second, the external Jihad is a smaller
Jihad, which is an effort against vehemence and cruelty by
means of words and actions.

e) There are contexts that talks about war in the Bible, Ch.31
V.1-19, the Book of Exodus Ch22 V.18-20, the Book of Exodus
Ch. 32 V.27-28, Isaiah Ch. 8: V 9-16, Ecclesiastes 9:11,
Deuteronomy 20:8, Joshua 23:10 ("One of your men puts to
flight a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for
you, just as He promised you.), Peter 3:14, 1 John 4:18 and
Jesus himself in the Book of Gospel of Luke Ch.22 V36 said
“take the sword go and fight”.

f) Difference between Jihad and Terrorism:

1) First, in Islam Jihad can only be applied when there is an

established authority to prevent violence, that’s why
prophet never fought in Mecca because they didn’t have
any established authority. On contrast, terrorism has no
legal authority but rather committed by individuals or
groups, non-state actor mostly without public support.
 2) Second, if the Jihad is done in form of fighting there is
limitation like don’t kill women and children. On the other
hand, terrorism kill civilians indiscriminately and arbitrary.

3) Third, Jihad is overtly declared while terrorism is a covert

act. So how the West portrayed this term that become
global issue.

How the West defines the term of Jihad?:

g) In the West, the word 'Jihad' has come to be recognized as

something exclusively Negative. It has been somewhat
simplistically defined as conducting a sacred war against
infidels. Conversely, in Islam, Jihad is something that is
positive because Islam is 'not addicted to war.

h) Gream Wood contributing editor of the Atlantic magazine

and the author of what really ISIS wants says, what ISIS is
doing it has its root in Islamic tradition, and it is ‘very
Islamic’, because they claim that they are representing Islam
(Wood, 2015) that is true they call themselves Islamic, they
tell Western journalist we are very serious about our faith
but we can’t believe them because North Korea call
themselves the Democratic People Republic of North Korea
we don’t consider them to be democratic.

i) 113 out of 114 chapter of the Qur'an begins with: In the

Name of God, The Most Compassionate, and The Most
Merciful. Religion commands love, mercy and peace. But
Terror, in contrast, is the opposite of religion; it is cruel,
merciless and demands bloodshed.
j) Harun Yahya the author of Islam denounce Terrorism says
“the identity of the culprit is not significant, If he can kill
innocent people without blinking an eye, then he is a
nonbeliever, not a believer”.

k) So we don’t need to say that terrorism is monopolized by

specific religion because a certain bunch group of people do
bad things and paint them all with a single brush.

l) Rezan Aslan the scholar of religion and the author of

(Zealot the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth) argues that
“religion is a matter of identity when you say I am a Jew or a
Muslim you making an identity statement far more so than
things that you believe and practice”.

m) . Dr. Sigrid Hunke in her outstanding books: "the sun of

Islam shines on the West" and "faith and knowledge" and
"God is not the case, argues that “the Islamic Jihad is very
much wider than the fighting, and it is different and contrary
to holy religious war that the West has ever known, and
sparked the Western Church.”

n) Jamal Badawi, Islamic scholar asserts that “jihad is permitted

only in self-defence or against tyranny and oppression not as
a tool to promote Islam.”

o) Yusuf quoted the Prophet Muhammad(S.A.W) saying that

“there are people who kill in the name of Islam and go to
hell.

p) Let’s assume that there are 16 thousand suicide bomber in

the world, there aren’t, that is 0.001% of Muslim population
globally what about the other 99.99% which West try to
 ignore or smear. Western Media is the source of all these
views.

How Western media portrayed Islam?:

a) Islamic Science University of Malaysia defines the role of
the media “the role of media is to shape opinions and
presenting a particular version as reality. They also play an
important role in structuring the audience perspectives
about the issues that happen around the world.”

b) Dr. Zakir Naike says “international media are projecting

Islam as though it is a religion of terror.”

c) International media pick up black sheep of the community

and portray them as exemplary Muslims.

d) American media have played significant role in

stereotyping Muslims with terrorism, they are responsible
for creating the image that Muslims and terrorism are
synonymous.

e) Daniel Johnson the Chancellor of Oxford University who is

an atheist in his book ‘It is Islam’ says that “anti-Semitism
prevail in some parts of Muslim world and it is because of
Islam Muslims carrying out all these terrorist acts as a
reaction to it”.

f) Does Christianity promote violent because of what Hitler

did, or Mussolini, or Stalin, of course not, Christianity like
any other religion talks about peace and love.?

g) To recapitulate, terrorism has nothing that is related or

even close connection to religion. Islam is a religion
 practiced globally and has followers from a quarter of
humanity. There are minority take quotations from Quran
and interpreted as they like to justify their behaviour.

h) “Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and

demanding it at gunpoint”.( Christopher Hitchens)

Sociology of Terrorism:

a) “While nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer,

nothing is more difficult than to understand them.”
(Dostoevsky)

b) “unlawful use of force or violence against person and

property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian
population or any segment thereof, in furtherance of
political or social objectives.” (FBI)

c) Terrorism as Political Violence: History of colonialist

exploitation.e.g encomienda,trajin,repartimiento and East
india company. Terrorism is the use of indiscriminate
violence for political ends. It has a logic, even if it is one
we mostly do not care to understand. (Jonathan Cook)

d) Terrorism as Communication: Terrorism has become not

merely a political act, but a carefully designed and
rhetorically sophisticated attempt at
communication. Specifically, there are six areas within
which the communication takes place (1) mass media, (2)
applied communication, (3) small group/interpersonal
 communication, (4) rhetoric, (5) intercultural
communication, and (6) the ethics of communication.

e) Socializing Terrorists: Giving exposure to the terrorists on

social media,electronic media and print media.

f) Stages that lead to terrorism: 1) Crisis of confidence 2)

Conflict of legitimization 3) Crisis of legitimacy.

g) “Understanding the individual who commits terrorism is

vital, not only for humanitarian reasons but also to decide
how best to deal with those individuals while they are
engaged in planning or carrying out terrorist acts.”
(Combs).

h) Motivational propensities for terrorists:

1) Needs, wants, interests and desires.

2) Approach-avoidance dynamic.
3) Push/pull factors.
4) Motivational clusters
i) Status-related
ii) Identity-related
iii) Thrill-related
iv) Revenge-related
v) Material-related.

i) According to Relative Deprivation Theory high

expectations and aspirations and hopes for upward
mobility,causes terrorism. Absence of opportunities to
meet heightened expectations.
 j) Effects of Globalization: Accelerated globalization and the
news media facilitates communication between
globalization’s victims.

k)Social identity Theory: Suggests that the identity of

individuals who engage in terrorism derives from three
different sources—personal, social and group/collective.
Explains roles of individuals within the organizations, as well
as the role of the organizations within the culture.

l) Frustration Agression Hypothesis: Violence as a result of a

real or imagined underprivileged, disadvantaged status and
an aggressive response arising from a failure to have their
grievances resolved. Includes a gap between rising
expectations and need satisfaction. Violence is always a
response to frustration (Davies).

m) Opression theory: Actors often cite the injustice of their

treatment by governments that rob them of identity, dignity,
security, and freedom as the motive for their joining a
terrorist group.

Religion and Terrorism:

a) According to Juergensmeyer, religion and violence have

had a symbiotic relationship since before the Crusades
and even since before the Bible.

b) Religious terrorism is intimately connected to current

forces of geopolitics.
c) David Kupelian wrote, "Genocidal madness can't be
blamed on a particular philosophy or religion."

d) Religion is not the root cause of conflicts, but is rather a

tool used by terrorists to achieve their goals.

e) Reasons why religion serves as an effective mechanism

for terrorists:

1) Framing the conflict: Juergensmeyer (2003) argues

that while religion is not the cause of most conflicts
involving terror, religion is the means by which
terrorists translate a local political struggle into a
cosmic war. This transformation from political to
religious struggle encourages actors to perceive that
they are participating in something of divine
significance that transcends individual self-interest.
Bin Laden, for instance, has been particularly
successful in transforming his local grievance into a
cosmic clash between civilizations.

2) Moral justification: Religion also facilitates terrorists’

goals by providing moral legitimacy to their cause.
Indeed, one consistent predictor of suicide terrorism
is a religious difference between the perpetrator and
victim (Pape 2005). This occurs even when the
terrorist group appears to have secular motivations,
such as the LTTE, who are Hindus fighting a Buddhist
majority.

3) Spiritual and eternal rewards: Religion not only

provides a divine dimension and moral legitimacy to
 terrorist activity; it also defines the rewards that
combatants can attain.

4) Critical Analysis: Bruce Hoffman has characterized

modern religious terrorism as having three traits:1)
The perpetrators must use religious scriptures to
justify or explain their violent acts or to gain
recruits.2) Clerical figures must be involved in
leadership roles.3) Perpetrators
use apocalyptic images of destruction to justify the
acts.

ii) Robert Pape argues that "There is little connection

between suicide terrorism and Islamic
fundamentalism, or any one of the world's religions".

iii) Riaz Hassan wrote, "It is politics more than

religious fanaticism that has led terrorists to blow
themselves up."

iv) All the world religions criticize such brutal acts.No

religion can allow barbarism and
vandalism.According to Quran “Soon shall we cast
terror into the heart of unbelievers”.(3:151).

Education and Terrorism:

a) “Ideologies are not defeated by guns, but by new

ideas”.( Obama)

b) Education can eradicate terrorism but so far it

has failed.This is because there are several flaws
in the educational system around the world.This
 is the reason why so many educated person join
terrorist groups.

c) The education system's attempt to conform the

way students think and control every aspect of
their learning and life is causing more harm than
good.

d) Although, we do not find any society in today’s

world which can be declared “free from
radicalization”.

e) Similarly, radicalization according to the

European Commission is “embracing opinions,
views and ideas which could lead to acts of
terrorism”.

f)