Terrorism Essay

Terrorism is the unlawful act to directly make common people fear of violent. Now-a-days people
are really afraid of the terrorism and terrorists attack all time. It has become a warm topic as it is
a big social issue. Here we have provided simply worded essay on terrorism for the students.
Terrorism Essay written here are in very easy and simple English language.

Essay on Terrorism

Terrorism Essay 1 (100 words)

Terrorism is the unlawful act of violence which is used by the terrorists to make people fear.
Terrorism has become a common social issue. It is used to threaten common public and
government. Terrorism is used by various social organizations, politicians and business
industries to achieve their goals in very easy way. A group of people who take support of
terrorism are known as terrorists. Explaining terrorism is not so easy as it has spread its roots
very deep. Terrorists have any rule and law; they only use violent acts intending to create and
enhance level of terror in the society and country.

Terrorism Essay 2 (150 words)

Terrorism has become a big national and international problem all over the world. It is a global
issue which has affected almost all the nations throughout the world directly or indirectly.
Opposing terrorism has been tried by many countries however; terrorists are still getting support
by someone. Terrorism is a violent act of terrifying the common public anytime in the day or night.
Terrorists have many objectives such as spreading threat of violence in the society, fulfilling
political purposes, etc. They make civilians of the country their primary target.
Some of the examples of terrorism are bombing of US Embassy, atom bomb attack on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, etc. The main goal of the terrorists is fulfillment of their demands by the
government of a specific country. They contact online social media or newspaper, magazine, etc
to spread their voices to the public and government. Sometimes, terrorists attack is done to fulfill
the religious and ideological goal.

Terrorism Essay 3 (200 words)

India is a developing country who has faced many challenges in the past and currently, terrorism
which a big national problem. It has faced challenges like hunger death, illiteracy, poverty,
inequality, population explosion and terrorism which have affected its growth and development to
a great extent. Terrorism is a big threat fighting with a government and common public for the
purpose of religion, motherland, and other unreasonable motives of the terrorists. Terrorists call
themselves brave soldiers however, they are not real soldiers. Real soldiers never hurt common
public and they fight only to save their country from the enemies. Real soldiers fight to fulfill the
purpose of a nation. Whereas terrorists fight to fulfill their own, individual and unfair purposes.
A national soldier is fully responsible for his all the responsibilities however a terrorist never do
that. Terrorists got their name from the word terror. Earlier, terrorism was limited to some specific
areas like state of Jammu and Kashmir however; now-a-days, it has spread to almost all the
areas especially regions of north eastern India. Recently, the terrorist attack in India was in Taj
Hotel and Nariman house in Mumbai. In that attack, India had lost lives of many people and
suffered financial loss.

Terrorism Essay 4 (250 words)

Terrorism is a big national issue which is using the human mind to get complete victory. Terrorism
is terrifying the mind of the human being to make them weak so that they can rule the nation
again. It needs to be solved on international level. We all should think about terrorism together to
finish it from the root. We should make a strong policy to completely destroy its kingdom as well
as removing the striking terror from the human minds. Terrorism uses violent ways to achieve the
purpose and get positive result.
Terrorism is the act of violence performed by the group of people called terrorist. They become
very common people and somehow they lost their control over the mind because of some unfair
natural disasters or unfair activities with them by others which make them unable to fulfil desires
in normal and accepted ways. Slowly they are taken under the confidence of some bad people in
the society where they are promised to get fulfilled all the desires. They get together and form a
group of terrorists to fight with their own nation, society and community. Terrorism has affected all
the youths of the country, their growth and development.
It has pulled the nation many years back from the proper development. Terrorism is ruling the
country just like Britishers, from which we again need to be free. However, it seems that terrorism

would always continue spreading its root to deep because some rich people from our nation are
still supporting them to fulfil their unfair purposes.

Terrorism Essay 5 (300 words)

India had faced lots of challenges such as poverty, population growth, hunger, illiteracy,
inequality, and many more however, terrorism is highly dangerous till now affecting the mankind
and humanity. It is more than dangerous and frightening disease which is affecting the people
mentally and intellectually. Whether it exists in the small (Ireland, Israel, etc) or big (USA, Russia,
etc) countries; it has challenged both to a same level. Terrorism is act of using international
violence by the group of frustrated people means terrorists to achieve some political, religious or
individual goals. The spread of terror by the terrorists is increasing day by day.
Terrorism has no any rule and laws, it only attacks on society or colony or crowd of the innocent
people living in order to spread terror as well as give pressure to government to complete their
demands. The demands of the terrorist become very specific to fulfil only what they want. It is a
greatest threat to mankind. They never compromise their friends, family, innocent kids, woman
and old people. They only want to explode atom bomb at the place of people crowd. They shoot
on crowd, hijack flight and other terror activities.
Terrorist target to spread terror in their preferred areas, region or country within minimum time.
Previously, it is supposed that terrorists activities were limited to the Kashmir only however, it
has spread its roots to all over the country. There are many terrorist groups exists in the nation
with their special name depending on their name. Two main types of terrorism are political
terrorism and criminal terrorism depends on their works. Terrorists are well-trained group of
people prepared to perform some specific purpose. More than one terrorist group are trained to
perform different purposes. It is like a disease which is spreading regularly and need some highly
effective medicine for permanent removal.

Terrorism Essay 6 (400 words)

Terrorism is the process unfair and violent activities performed by the group of trained people
called terrorists. There is only one boss who gives strict orders to the group to perform particular
activity in any ways. They want money, power and publicity for the fulfilment of their unfair ideas.
In such conditions, it is media which really helps to spread the news about terrorism in the
society of any nation. Group of terrorist also take support of the media by especially contacting
them to let them know about their plan, ideas and goals.

Various groups of the terrorists are named according to their aims and objectives. Acts of
terrorism affects the human mind to a great extent and makes people so fear that they fear to go
outside from their own home. They think that there is terror everywhere outside the home in the
crowd like railway station, temple, social event, national event and so many. Terrorists want to
spread terror within specific area of high population in order to publicize for their act as well as
rule on peoples mind. Some recent act of terrorism are 9/11 attacks on the U.S. and 26/11 attack
in India. It has affected the financial status and humanity to a great extent.
In order to reduce the terror and effect of terrorism from the nation, a tight security arrangement
is done on the order of government. All the places which are crowded because of any reasons
like social programmes, national events like Republic day, Independence Day, temple and etc.
Each and every person has to follow the rules of security arrangement and has to pass from the
automatic machine of full body scanner. Using such machines, security get help in detecting the
presence of terrorists. Even after arrangement of such tight security, we are still unable to make it
effective against the terrorism.
Our country is spending lots of money every year to fight against the terrorism as well as remove
the terrorist group. However, it is still growing like a disease as new terrorists are getting trained
on daily basis. They are very common people like us but they are trained to complete some
unfair act and forced to fight against their one society, family and country. They are so trained
that they never compromise their life, they are always ready to finish their life while fighting. As
an Indian citizen, we all are highly responsible to stop the terrorism and it can be stopped only
when we never come into the greedy talk of some bad and frustrated people.
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All the above essay on terrorism are written in such a simple way so that students of classes 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, etc can use very easily without any difficulty in understanding. Terrorism
is an important social issue which urgently needs to be solved and ended in order to maintain a
peaceful life all over the world. Terrorism essay written above may greatly help students to take
part in the essay writing competition or get good marks in the exam. You can also get other
related essays and related information such as:

Is Terrorism Getting Worse?

These days, terrorism seems not just more lethal and more common, but more widespread.
The death toll in recent weeks speaks for itself: 22 people dead in Bangladesh, 49 gone in the
United States, 44 gone in Turkey, 292 gone in Iraq, then another 37, another 12, yet another
12.
And by one oft-cited measurethe Institute for Economics and Peaces Global Terrorism
Indexthats true. As a rough representation of the global threat of terrorism nearly 15 years
after the 9/11 attacksnearly 15 years after George W. Bush declared that his war on terror
would not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and
defeatedthe findings are extremely disheartening. War, they suggest, has only brought
more terror.

Deaths From Terrorism, 2000 2014

Global Terrorism Database / Institute for Economics and Peace

In 2015, terrorist attacks occurred in almost 100 countriesup from 59 in 2013according

to the University of Marylands Global Terrorism Database, which the Institute for
Economics and Peace relies on for its analysis. ISIS, for its part, appears increasingly to
be training its sights on overseas targets as it loses territory in Iraq and Syria.
Fear has spread as well. In June, the Pew Research Center reported that ISIS was viewed as
the top threat in eight of 10 European countries that it surveyed, edging out other dangers like
climate change and global economic instability. Around the same time, CNN
polling revealed that Americans were more likely to expect terrorist attacks in the United
States in the near future than at any point since March 2003, shortly after the U.S. went to
war in Iraq.
But why is that? Why, 15 years after Bush vowed to defeat terrorism, does it seem like the
world is awash in it? According to Daniel Byman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown
University, one of the key explanations boils down to two words: civil war. Byman argues
that the severity of the terrorist threat depends on where you look.
Its worth noting that the graph above has its flaws. Collecting data on terrorist attacks
is difficult and subjective. (How, to begin with, do you define terrorism?) The chart is from
the most recent Global Terrorism Index, which does not include statistics from 2015 and
2016. More recent data indicates that the total number of deaths from terrorist attacks actually
decreased slightly between 2014 and 2015, with fewer fatalities in Iraq, Pakistan,
and Nigeria.
Nevertheless, terrorism is in fact significantly worse in the Middle East than it was several
years ago, before the rise of ISIS, Byman told me. Europe has a serious problem, though its
had serious problems in the past with terrorist attacks in Madrid and London, for example.

And the United States has a problem, but in context with past terrorist attemptsexcluding
9/11, which was off the chartsthis is in line with that. ... The attacks that have happened
[have been carried out by] lone wolves who are dangerous. But thats actually less dangerous
than trained infiltrators like we saw [during the 2015 attacks] in Paris. Between 2000 and
2014, less than 3 percent of deaths from terrorism occurred in Western countries, according to
the Institute for Economics and Peace.

What If the Terrorists Are Already Here?

Donald Trump asks why they hate uswhy jihadists have it out for Americans. But the data
shows that terrorism today is not about us, at least not primarily. Though they may profess
hatred of Westerners, terrorists are largely tormenting conflict zones like Iraq, Afghanistan,
and Syria.
Civil wars like the ones in these countries are particularly potent breeding grounds for
terrorist groups, Byman has arguedand this is one reason terrorism has gotten so bad in the
greater Middle East.
In explaining why this happens, Byman compared terrorism to robbery. You can think about
robbery in terms of grievances: Why do people steal? Because theyre poor and they want
something. Or you can think about it in terms of capability: Why do they do it? Because
they can. You and I might steal, if there was no penaltyif we could walk into a jewelry
store and take stuff and there were no cops.
Civil wars increase both grievances and capability, Byman said. They produce vicious cycles
of grievancesyou could be displaced from your home, your brother could be shot. And
they produce capability by gutting government authority. If 40 people tried to overthrow the
U.S. government, he said, they might kill some people, but theyd also be arrested. But if the
U.S. government isnt functioning because the countrys gripped by civil war, those same 40
people can overtake a town and swell their ranks. Wars in general create opportunities for
groups, and at the same time create grievances that groups feed on, Byman noted.
Which is why one of the signature features of the war on terrorthe invasion of Iraq
ended up unleashing more terrorism. When a stable government is destabilized and
collapses, thats very bad from a counterterrorism point of view, said Byman. This is true
with or without massive U.S. involvement, as Syrias civil war demonstrates.
Both civil wars offer muddled lessons for how a future President Trump or Clinton should
design U.S. counterterrorism policy, according to Byman. He suggested an approach not
unlike that which Barack Obama has pursued: I end up with: Bad things are going to
happen, and what we need is some degree of offensive [military] capability to keep the bad
guys off balance, we need aggressive global cooperation to go after the global web [of
terrorists], we need some homeland defenses, and we need domestic resilience because

some attacks will happen. I look at [the attack in] San Bernardino in particular and say, I
dont know what really could have been done [to prevent] that one, with all the benefit of
hindsight.
Trump asks why they hate us. But the data shows terrorism is not about us. Not
primarily.

Still, Byman noted, Americans may perceive terrorism as an acute threat because the 9/11
attacks primed them to view most security issues through the lens of terrorism, whether or not
it makes sense to do so. He pointed out that during the Vietnam War, the Viet Congs terrorist
tactics were generally interpreted as elements of revolutionary or guerrilla warfare, not
terrorism. And Europe and the United States experienced far more terrorist attacks in
the 1970s and 80s than they do now, though most of these were less deadly than todays
suicide bombings.
Once you discover something that seems new, all of a sudden its everywhere, Byman said.
On September 12, 2001, Americans looked at the world anew.
And yet focusing on terrorism blurs other parts of the picture. Yes, ISIS practices terrorism,
but it also governs territory, devoting much of its budget and personnel to maintaining an
army and police force, minting money, establishing law and order, offering some semblance
of social services, and so on. Saying ISIS is a terrorist organization is like saying the
Department of Defense is a health-care organization, Byman told me. It is. Its the largest
health-care bureaucracy in the U.S. government. But oh, by the way, they do something else.
The recent car bombing in Baghdad, for example, represented something in between terrorist
tactics used in conventional war (ISIS sending suicide bombers to kill enemy forces) and
clear-cut terrorism executed outside a war zone (the Paris attacks). The bombing was clearly
directed against civilians, its clearly terrorism, but part of the purpose is to advance the
Islamic State in a war, to demoralize the Iraqi military and police, Byman said.
In several countries in the Middle East, he said, people have good reason to feel gravely
threatened by terrorism. But elsewhere in the world, its more that people are paying greater
attention to the terrorist threat than they used to. Were labeling things terrorism, where
before it would have been seen in the context of civil wars, Byman argued. It screws up our
basic understanding of the most important question, which is: Are things getting worse?

Terrorism means the destructive activities taken recourse to by a group of people to

coerce a government to yield to their demands. Terrorists engage themselves to
violent activities. They use deadly arms and ammunition.
Terrorism is mostly used as a lever to achieve a political aim. It is the biggest
menace faced by the inter-national community today.

There was a terrorist attack on the Parliament of India on 13th December, 2001. Our
security forces fought bravely and killed all the terrorists. Since then, there were
several terrorist bomb attacks at Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Pune and other major
towns of India. There was another series of bomb attacks at Pune on 1st August,
2012. All this clearly points out the immense strength of hard core terrorist groups
and their powerful networks.
Terrorism made its ugly appearance in the West Asian political dispute between
Palestine and Israel. The massacre of sportsmen in the Munich Olympic village
shook the whole world. Incidents of indiscriminate killing took place in Ireland,
Afghanistan, Burma. In the Indian subcontinent, terrorism in the worst form was
witnessed in Sri Lanka causing loss of innumerable lives and properties.
In India evil forces with abetment from outside indulge in acts of violent terrorism in
Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Assam. The aim is to create a chaos in the country
with ulterior political motives. Our late Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajib
Gandhi and army general Baidya fell a prey to the extreme acts of
terrorism. Hijacking of planes, blowing up of railways and bridges and bus full of
passengers all are instances of terrorist activities that killed hundreds of innocent
lives. The memories of the explosion of the Air India aircraft Kanishka in the mid air
still haunt us. The Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked on 24th December, 1999
while flying from Kathmandu. One passenger was killed. Other passengers were
released after long negotiation.
Kidnapping, hijacking of planes, cross-border terrorism, cyber-terrorism are growing
day-by-day. The terrorists use terror as a weapon to fulfill their demands. The effect
of terrorism in all cases is killing of innocent people or a large scale massacre of
property.
Such unwanted killings and destruction cause irreparable damage to the country.
Terrorism should be dealt with ruthlessly with undaunted courage and determination.
A group of senseless people cannot be allowed hold the country to ransom.
Adherence to strictness only will bring back a stable political and economic
environment.

How the Taliban groom child suicide bombers

By Dawood AzamiBBC World Service
On a cold winter's day, a stream of relatives, neighbours and well-wishers come to see
10-year-old Naqibullah at his uncle's mud house in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
They are happy to see him alive.

Naqibullah had mysteriously disappeared from the madrassa in Balochistan where he had
been studying.
There were five months of silence until one day a neighbour watching an Afghan TV station
recognised Naqibullah in a police "line-up" of insurgents captured in the southern Afghan
town of Kandahar.
"I ran and told Naqibullah's uncle that I just saw him on TV and that he had been arrested for
trying to carry out a suicide attack in Kandahar," neighbour Abdul Ahad said.
Naqibullah's story is an unsettling insight into how the Taliban and other militants groom
child suicide bombers.
Identify the vulnerable
Afghans have a proud warrior tradition, but suicide attacks were never a part of it. They
emerged as a regular deadly reality of Afghan life in 2005 - a tactic adopted from Iraq's
theatre or war.
And children have suffered disproportionately in the Afghan conflict, where government and
international forces have been fighting the Taliban since it was toppled in 2001.
up
Children have long been deployed for insurgent activities such as blowing up IEDs
(Improvised Explosive Devices), surveillance and information about the whereabouts and
location of Afghan and Nato security forces and government officials.
Teenagers have been found dragging away wounded Taliban, collecting dropped weapons and
even fighting. Afghan authorities say they have arrested up to 250 children over the past 10
years for such activities.
The disturbing regional twist is the increasing number of child suicide bombers. Children are
recruited simply for being children.
The capacity of Afghan security forces has increased and adult suicide bombers find it
increasingly difficult to hit their target. Children are seen as more "recruitable" - easily
influenced to carry out an attack and rarely suspected by security forces.
Madrassas as recruiting grounds
Just like hundreds of thousands of other boys, Naqibullah's uncle - who cared for him since
the death of his father - enrolled him into a religious school. Poor families in Pakistan and
Afghanistan send their sons to such madrassas for free education and lodging.
have suffered disproportionately in Afghanistan's conflict
Such madrassas are prime recruiting ground for Taliban groomers. Interviews with detained
children reveal they are picked up from the streets as well and from low-income
neighbourhoods.
In many cases, parents and guardians say they are totally unaware.

Girl recruits
There are extremely rare cases of girls being recruited.
-old Spozhmai got international media attention earlier this year after she was detained at a
checkpoint
One 10-year-old girl, Spozhmai, got international media attention when she was detained on
6 January 2014 in southern Helmand province. She said her brother tried to make her blow
herself up at a police checkpoint.
In 2011, an eight-year-old girl was killed in central Uruzgan province when she carried
remotely controlled explosives to a police checkpoint in a cloth bag.
Pakistan the training ground
More than 90% of juvenile would-be suicide bombers who have been arrested are "trained,
lied to, and brainwashed or coerced in Pakistan", Afghan officials say.
But there is also evidence of training in Taliban-controlled parts of Afghanistan.
Last year, a father in Afghanistan's northern city of Kunduz handed over his teenage son to
police.
"I did so because I feared [he] might have been radicalised when he disappeared for a few
months," said the 50-year old man. His family had returned from Pakistan a year earlier.
Some have successfully carried out suicide attacks in Pakistan. One 12-year-old boy wearing
a school uniform blew himself up killing around 30 in the town of Mardan in February 2011.
Promise of brighter future
Naqibullah says his handlers told him he would go to heaven and all his problems will end.
Officials say children are offered a path out the boredom and drudgery of poverty by
preachers with promises.
"They offer them visions of paradise, where rivers of milk and honey flowed, in exchange for
giving up his life by becoming a suicide bomber," one official said.
Although confessions obtained from juveniles can sometimes be unreliable, they provide
chilling accounts of how they were persuaded.

They are told that Afghan girls and women are raped by "invading foreign forces" and
that the Koran is being burned by Americans

The children are told that it is their religious duty to resist the "infidel" coalition
forces and that they and their parents will go to paradise

They are told that the Afghans they intend to kill "deserve to die" because "they are
not true Muslims", or are "American collaborators"

Nevertheless, children are rarely told who their specific target is and why they deserve
to die.

In some cases, they are simply lied to. Some were given an amulet containing Koranic verses
and told it would help them survive. Some handlers gave children keys to hang round their
necks and were told the gates of paradise will open for them
Taliban denials
There are of course international laws against the use of children in conflict.
According to the Article 1 of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, everyone
under 18 is a child. Afghan law also forbids the recruitment of minors into armed forces or
the police.
Taliban spokesmen usually deny using children, especially girls. Indeed all the three Laihas
[Codes of Conduct and Regulations] issued after the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001
prohibit youths with no beard to join their ranks.
But one Taliban official acknowledged that there may be violations by local commanders
acting alone. For many the exact age is not important. Anyone beyond puberty and mentally
sound is considered fit for fighting.
Rehabilitating children
According to Afghan security officials, more than 30 children accused of having links with
the insurgency are still held at detention facilities.
Rehabilitation is complicated with scant resources. While some children go through
rehabilitation steadily enough, according to one insider, a few even regret failing to carry out
suicide missions.
Naqibullah describes what happened to him: "They kept me in the other madrassa for a few
months. Then other men came and took me to Kandahar.
"One day they took me in a car, gave me a heavy vest to wear and pointed to [some] soldiers.
But the police stopped him before he exploded his vest and his handlers who were looking on
from a distance left in the car.
To secure his release his uncle contacted local tribal elders, religious scholars and lobbied
Afghan officials. Back at his home the boy tells every well-wisher how happy he is to have
returned.
Terrorism in the name of religion

IT has not taken much time for the tenuous unity that emerged after the
Peshawar school carnage to crumble. Once again, there is an attempt by
members of the religious right to turn the narrative to protect their militant

enterprise. No sooner had public outrage over the tragedy begun to subside
than they were back to their old tricks. Islam under threat is a convenient
mantra to shield radical clerics and their seminaries closely linked with
banned militant outfits.
It did not come as a surprise when both the JUI-F and Jamaat-i-Islami reneged on
their endorsement of the 20-point national counterterrorism action plan and
abstained from voting on the constitutional amendment empowering military
courts to try hardened militants. They now smell a conspiracy to secularise the
country. What changed their minds is not difficult to comprehend.
These two largest Islamic parties are the original faces of jihadi politics in the
country. Many of those fighting the Pakistani state with militant groups have
originated from their ranks. So, their worries over a potential crackdown on radical
seminaries and militant groups are not a total surprise.
One of the objections of the religious parties is the clause in the amendment related
to the use of religion or sect for acts of terrorism tried under the military courts.
They described the wording as discriminatory against religious groups and
seminaries. Nothing can be more absurd than this argument of the selective
targeting of Islamic groups. The lady doth protest too much.
It is a fact that most terrorist attacks and sectarian killings in Pakistan are
religiously motivated. The Taliban and other militant groups justify their terrorist
actions in the name of Sharia and Islam. The latest example of this was the
statement by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan spokesman claiming responsibility for
the school carnage. A hadith was cited in support of the heinous crime.

Militancy and extremism cannot be dealt with without eradicating their

ideological sources.

Had not radical clerics such as Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid issued fatwas
justifying insurgent attacks on Pakistani security forces? Didnt the Taliban led by
Mullah Fazlullah kill hundreds of people in Swat in the name of the Islamic
Sharia? Whether it is the massacre of Hazara Shias or attacks on mosques, shrines
and churches all have been carried out in the name of religion.
Suicide bombers are brainwashed and motivated by the false interpretation of
religion. Poverty, unemployment, romantic notions of jihad and the growing

influence of radical Islamist groups have been the main reasons driving a young
man to become a suicide bomber. The pulpit of the mosque is used by clerics to
spread sectarian hatred and incite violence. The trail of international terror has
often led to madressahs and mosques in Pakistan.
Even scholars of Islam and moderate clerics have not been spared for speaking out
against terrorism. The scourge of terrorism and violent extremism cannot be
effectively dealt with without eradicating their ideological sources. Surely it will
not be easy. The proposal for madressah reform faces the greatest resistance not
only from the mainstream Islamic parties, but also other vested interests.
It is true that madressahs are not the sole source of militancy and religious
extremism in the country, but they certainly are the main source. It is estimated that
only 10-15pc of madressahs are involved in radical activities. That too is a very
large proportion, given the mushroom growth of unregistered and unregulated
madressahs.
The proliferation of jihadist and sectarian organisations in Pakistan had been the
result of a militant culture espoused by radical madressahs long patronised by the
Pakistani state and funded by foreign money. They have turned into hubs of
religious extremism having had a spill-over effect, and now present a serious threat
to Pakistans internal security.
Saudi Arabian patronage, especially of more radical seminaries, has played a major
role in the spread of sectarian hatred. Successive governments ignored their
activities out of political expediency and also because most of the foreigners
supporting them were brotherly Muslim countries.
Religious sectarianism, the principal source of terrorist activity in Pakistan,
presents the most serious threat to the countrys internal security. Sectarian
militancy has been deeply intertwined with the radicalisation of the madressah, as
minority sects feel increasingly threatened.
Divided along sectarian and political lines, religious seminaries are largely
controlled by the two main branches of Sunni Islam the Deobandi and the
Barelvi. Ahle Hadith or Wahabi Muslims have their own schools, as do the Shias.
Most of the madressahs are in time zones centuries away from the outside world.
Teaching is rudimentary and students are taught religion within a highly rigorous
and traditional perspective, giving them a deeply retrograde worldview. The most
dangerous consequence of the content and style of teaching in religious schools is
that the people emerging from them can do nothing other than guide the faithful in

rituals that, in fact, demand no experts. The education imparted by traditional

madressahs often spawns factional, religious and cultural conflict. It creates
barriers to modern knowledge, stifles creativity and breeds bigotry, thus laying the
foundation on which fundamentalism militant or otherwise is based.
Divided by sectarian identities, these institutions are, by their very nature, driven
by their zeal to outnumber and dominate rival sects. Promoting a particular sect
inevitably implies the rejection of other sects, sowing the seeds of extremism in the
minds of the pupils. The literature produced by their parent religious organisations
is aimed at proving the rival sects infidels and apostates. The efforts by successive
governments to modernise madressah curricula and introduce secular subjects have
failed because of the stiff resistance put up by religious organisations controlling
the religious schools.
It is now a test of the governments resolve whether or not it submits to the
blackmailing of these religious parties. Any modification in the action plan to
appease the religious right will defeat the entire counterterrorism effort. The
exploitation of religion has to be stopped if we are really serious about rooting out
the extremism and militancy present in our society.

Ideology and terrorism

WHAT causes a person to drive a truck through local citizens and tourists
celebrating a national holiday? What compels someone to open fire on
unsuspecting patrons at a nightclub?
Closer to home in Pakistan, weve grappled with far too many of these questions
on far too regular a basis. How can you kill children? How can you kill oppressed
minorities? How can you kill innocent worshippers?
Finding root causes for militancy or terrorism is a difficult task. Part of this is
because very few individuals actually resort to violence, and partly because
researchers dont have access to a large enough number of militants. In the few
cases where some are caught, theyre kept locked away and subjected to the
secretive grind of the anti-terrorism judicial system. As a result, we are often left
with sparsely detailed life stories and lots of hypotheses some moderately
tested, some plausible, and others still mere conjecture.

Within existing contemporary research, two particular analytical strands stand out
most clearly. The first is what is commonly called the materialist or structuralist
perspective. This is best represented in the view that militant activity represents
reaction or rebellion of particular groups against perceived marginalisation and
oppression. The French social scientist, Giles Kepel, sees economic, social, and
spatial ghettoisation of immigrant populations and anti-Muslim racism as a prime
cultivator of resentment and, consequently, militancy.

The role of ideology adds further complexity to the alleged relationship between
religion and terrorism.

Another prime example is explaining Middle Eastern insurgencies as a product of

state oppression of particular communities. Similarly in Pakistan, militancy in the
northwest is frequently seen as a result of long-standing deprivations, American
foreign policy interventions, and the oppressive, colonial-era governing
arrangements installed in the tribal areas.
The other major camp is best represented through the views of another French
scholar, Olivier Roy. He argues that individual-specific factors are key to
understanding particular types of violent activity. The starting point is that those
resorting to violence are often a very small number of individuals from a larger
groups population. Therefore, psychosocial traits, personal experiences, and
individual value frameworks are more crucial given that mass revolt isnt taking
place. Roy labels this the Islamisation of radicalism, and sees its encapsulation in
the often criminal and unstable backgrounds of individuals like the Orlando bar
shooter, Omar Mateen.
Structuralist and individual-centric explanations are not mutually exclusive. In fact,
given the general indeterminacy around terrorism research, it is impossible to
confidently assert one set of analysis over the other. At most, we can say they are
mutually constitutive in so far as communal experience of deprivation and racism
combine with individual psychological traits.
There is, however, one factor that appears central to all schools of thought that are
studying acts of militancy and the larger spectre of religious radicalisation: the role
of particular beliefs and ideology.

Ideology allows human beings to make sense of the world around them. It arms
them with values, moral frameworks, and the ability to understand and add
meanings in relations.
The history of the 20th century tells us that marginalised populations dont just
mobilise spontaneously. Back then, it was left-wing ideology that played a central
role in first creating a sense of community (as workers or peasants) and then
imbuing that community with a sense of political purpose.
In other cases, workers simply didnt rise up, or rose up in defence of arrangements
that were thought to be against their interests (such as fascism).
History tells us ideology can interact with individual-level factors in different ways
and can produce varied results. In the past two decades, particular interpretations of
religious texts have given birth to ideologies that provide a sense of meaning to
individuals and glorify acts of violence as logical actions. In many cases, these
ideologies are consumed without being acted upon in any major way. Sometimes
they manifest themselves through vocal support and propagation. In a few cases,
they compel individuals to undertake acts of violence on their own or to build or
join organisations that would allow them to do so.
The role of ideology adds further complexity to the alleged relationship between
religion and terrorism. Many in the Muslim community are quick to distance Islam
from ideological variants that preach violence. The most common refrain now
heard is that terrorism has no religion.
This reaction is somewhat understandable as most believers would not want
themselves or their belief system to be associated with heinous acts.
Religion, however, is as much a social phenomenon as it is a divine one. It is
practised by human beings and is very much a part of all their moral failings and
successes. Given its widespread nature, and the legitimacy endowed to it by human
society, religion is a central component of many constructed ideologies, both
peaceful and violent. When someone buys into the ideology of jihadism, his or her
sense of self, community, and the world at large is derived from an extreme
interpretation of religion and its associated practices.
Well-intentioned prescriptions from existing research suggest focusing on
marginalised communities and removing the source of deprivation and
marginalisation. Some also talk about the need to provide individual-level support
to ensure disaffected individuals dont resort to violence. Beyond these, the fight

against militancy cannot ignore the role of ideology, and the part played by violent
interpretations of religion.
When this last factor is considered, the role of religious communities becomes
paramount. One important contribution that communities can make is to locate and
isolate ideologues preaching hatred and violence. Another would be to ensure
adequate efforts are exerted to institutionalise non-violent and pro-social
interpretations and norms.
Whatever efforts are made, it is increasingly clear that a variety of interventions are
required. Only by addressing structural, individual-level, and ideological roots of
terrorism do states stand any chance of eradicating this menace.