Terrorism

Terrorism has become mistakenly synonymous with the Muslim faith and religious fanaticism since the emergence of high-profile attacks of the past 20 years, and has become a truly global threat with the majority of nations now able to claim a direct link to the effects of a terrorist incident, be it their own citizens killed, or an attack on their home soil. The word terrorism can be traced to the Latin terrere, translated as “to frighten,” used in Rome during 105 B.C.E. to describe a state of emergency in response to armed attack.

The principal issue to date is a universal definition of terrorism that adequately fulfills the specific types of terrorism without counteracting other types of violent or criminal acts. The United Nations (UN) Security Council passed resolution 1566 in 2004 that provided a lengthy and straightforward definition of terrorism:

“That criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act, which constitute offences within the scope of and as defined in the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism, are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature.”

This definition has been debated by many nations on the lack of clarity and failure to address sanctions against nations that use terrorism or harbor terrorists.

Terrorist organizations or individuals do not identify themselves as terrorist, rather justifying their actions as a necessity. Many nations could be classed as terrorists when undertaking actions in the name of self defense in previous and current internal conflicts, including revolutionary attempts and quelling groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have been attempting to create a separatist state in the north and east of Sri Lanka since 1976, utilizing guerrilla warfare and acts of terrorism to influence the national government. Nations such as Palestine have denied undertaking terrorism, claiming actions of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) are justified as a freedom-fighting defense against oppression and occupation from Israel. Palestine and Israel accuse each other of terrorist attacks while denying their similar actions are acts of terrorism.

A more functional definition of terrorism from Australian Professor Clive Williams is “politically motivated violence with the intention to achieve a premeditated outcome through terrifying others.” The consensus of many nations and organizations is that the act terrorism has the following features: it is unlawful; violent in nature; intentionally attempts to kill civilians; and is undertaken to achieve a political, religious, or ideological goal.