Terrorism: Factors That Contribute to Religious Terrorist Groups and Their Behavior
The question of whether the terrorist attacks of September 11th could have been prevented with proper detection techniques still plagues modern law enforcement. Often, the question of terrorist profiling focuses on racial or ethnic stereotypes rather than particular sociological or psychological profiles endemic to fundamentalist or nationalist terrorists. However, law enforcement must face the fact that not all Muslims, Palestinians, or Arabs are terrorists, and thus additional factors must be necessary to create the necessary conditions to foster terrorism within a community. Why do some individuals decide to become terrorists? Do terrorists share common psychological traits? Is there a terrorist personality? Can a terrorist profile reliably help security personnel to identify terrorists? (Hudson, 1999, p.14) If these questions regarding the contributing factors that give rise to a terrorist psychology could be answered, law enforcement will have an additional, valuable tool in detection.Foreign terrorist groups tend to fall under one of the following four typologies: nationalist-separatist, religious fundamentalist, new religious, or social revolutionary. (Hudson, 1999, p.18) Thus the early manifestations of the Palestine
(Marighella, 1970)Although by no means perfect a graphic display of the contributing factors for detecting terrorists might be as thus:Environmental FactorsRapid societal changeProliferation of subculturesAlienationLack of opportunityImproved communicationImproved transportationAccess to weaponsSituational FactorsHistorical, situational disappointment'Us versus them' mindset within a commonly shared religious ideologyA strong subculture with a historical grievancePsychological FactorsBlack-and-white thinkingPersonal disappointmentsFeeling/Perception of alienation(Even if presented with apparent opportunities for education, etc. 19) Urbanization may exacerbate the stresses of such frustrations, and facilitate contact between similarly angry individuals. Indeed, there appears to be a general agreement among psychologists who have studied the subject that there is no one terrorist profile. 28) Thus, individuals may appear to have stable jobs and lives, but feel alienated, or individuals may dwell in a context that normalizes what would otherwise be abnormal, like the Palestinian's alienated people-without-a-state situation in Israel. Improved communication channels, also often accompany urbanization access to media outlets, weapons and airplanes for easy flight. Although some theorists have suggested that modernization lessens the attractiveness of terrorism because it improves opportunity, economic modernization also often also often creates an environment that requires the exclusion of other groups or philosophies, and can a source of stress as well as opportunity. (Looney, 2002) Some of the emphasis on terrorism as either facilitated or encouraged by urbanization, however, may be rhetorical, as rural 'terrorism' might simply be labeled as guerrilla warfare. But more educated youths may be motivated more by genuine political or religious convictions, or may feel similarly 'out of place' in society, for personal reasons, or for ideological reasons not immediately apparent. They may enjoy the excitement of violence and find terrorist aggression to be a way of relieving the tensions and frustrations of his or her life. There are also some individual psychological traits that can predispose one to terrorism, such as prejudice and authoritarianism, as well as fanaticism. An unwillingness to compromise, a black-and-white mindset, rigid beliefs with a disdain for alternative views, and a tendency to externalize problems, project them to an 'other' and to split the good and bad parts of the self and others (bad, secular government versus good, pure religious ideals or past), are all common cognitive traits. In contrast, a situational as opposed to an environmental factor for Palestinian radicals would be the loss of their homeland of Palestine. Although this mindset may seem to predominate in a right-wing religious subcultures, even the leftwing terrorist Carols Marighella proclaimed with us versus them thinking: "The urban guerrilla is characterized by his bravery and his decisive nature.
Common topics in this essay:
Islamic Al-Qaida,
Gaza Strip,
London Transit,
Palestinians Arabs,
Carols Marighella,
,
Factors Historical,
Christians Muslims,
Factors Black-and-white,
Alienation Lack,
hudson 1999,
law enforcement,
environmental factors,
situational factors,
terrorist profile,
terrorists environmental,
psychological traits,
alienated individuals,
improved transportation,
especially attractive,
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