What drives individuals to resort to such violent acts as hi-jacking a plane, bombing a building, and/or assassinating a religious or political figure? How do individuals and organizations justify these acts of terror? These acts can be described as terrorist actions. Terrorism is a growing international problem. During the last twenty years, new terrorist groups have sprung up all over the world. Governments have had little success in their attempts to resolve issues in which terrorism is used. In the following report I will be discussing extensively problems of religious terrorism within the United States, a focus on the religious terrorist group al-Qaeda and their primary victims and perpetrators, the types of punishments given for acts of terrorism.
             A major problem in discussing terrorism is establishing a generally accepted definition. Terrorism can be described as," the unlawful use of fear or force to achieve certain political, economical, or social aims." (Blain, pg. 417) A broad legal definition of the word terrorism is found in the American Law Institutes Model of the Penal Code which states, "a person is guilty of a felony if he threatens to commit any crime of violence with purpose to terrorize another or to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation or otherwise to cause serious public inconvenience, or reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience. (Reid, 223) Because it is so hard to define terrorism, organizations like the United Nations have had great difficulty drawing up policies against terrorism.
             Within recent years, terrorism has been an increasing trend for major countries throughout the world. Over the last ten years, the United States has become a key target for many terrorist groups. A single individual, a certain group, or even governments may commit terrorist actions. Most religious terrorists, unlike crimin...