ree that terrorists groups have a political agenda and use violence as a means to achieve their aims (Perera). While most experts believe that it is wiser to define terrorism by the act rather than by the identity of the group, the consensus definition of terrorism is:
Terrorism is a method of combat in which random or
symbolic victims become targets of violence. Through
the previous use of violence or the credible threat of
violence, other members of a group are put in a state
of chronic fear (terror). The victimization of the target
is considered extranormal by most observers...which in
turn creates an audience beyond the target of terror....
The purpose of terrorism is either to immobilize the
target of terror in order to produce disorientation and/or
compliance, or to mobilize secondary targets of demand
or targets of attention (Criminology 2005).
During the late nineteenth century, Mikhail Bakunin met with political thinkers and philosophers throughout Europe as he formulated his ideas of radical anarchism, coining his famous phrase, "The passion for destruction is also a creative passion" (Wave 2002). Armed with bombs and guns, the anarchists chose targets that would generate the most publicity for their cause and create as much instability as possible (Wave 2002). In 1881, the revolutionary group, Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), killed Russia's Tsar Alexander II by throwing a bomb into his carriage (Wave 2002). In 1886, a bomb was thrown into a crowd in Haymarket Square, Chicago, and during the gun battle that followed, seven police officers and many civilians were killed (Wave 2002). United States President William McKinley was shot and killed in 1901 by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. Between 1890 and 1901, the anarchist's hit list included King Umberto I of Italy, Austria's Empress Elizabeth, French President Sadi Carnot, and the prime minister of Spain, Ant...