Running head : HOMEGROWN TERRORISM 1

Homegrown Terrorism and its Effects

Name

Institution
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Abstract

A number of terrorist groups or individuals are initiated in different countries across the world

with the aim of terrorizing the society they live in. this is referred to as homegrown terrorizing by

fact that any foreign terrorist organization does not have a hand in it. In United States, there exist

those individuals who plan and execute terrorist acts within the country. They are the citizens of

United States who are depraved by either their religious beliefs or the injustice that the society

has subjected them to. By examining the different types of homegrown terrorism, this research

paper seeks to unravel full comprehension of homegrown terrorism and its causes in the United

States.

The in-depth unraveling of how a member or members of the society can opt to willingly join a

terrorist gang with an aim of terrorizing their own society lacks sufficient implicit documentation

with indispensable proof. Actually, there exists scanty discourse in psychological and academic

cycles. Additionally, there is lack of explicit studies in regards to mitigating this heinous act of

terrorism as well as measures to prevent the individuals who are highly inclined to join terrorism.

However, a number of longitudinal studies have been conducted with the objective of purposely

elaborating the causes of terrorism. Unfortunately, no solid conclusion have can be extracted

from these numerous studies in justifying why an individual member of the society would join or

form what is considered a group of extremism and violence. The only progress that these studies

have made is a mere suggestion of the causes of homegrown terrorism.

Among the numerous theorized causes of homegrown terrorism is poverty in correlation with

radicalization(Freilich and Chermak et al, 2014). In this theory, the vagrants and those who are

living in the low mode of life in the society blame the society for their condition and in return
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device means of retaliating. in this case they are likely to get radicalized with ideas and

ultimately form the extremist group with the like-minded individuals with an aim of vengeance

to satisfy their anger; thus they form terrorist groups or extremist groups that turn against even

the innocent in the society in this cause. In many instances the homegrown terrorist do believe

that their suffering and failure is attributed to the government of the day hence any action they

take is aimed at making the government to suffer no matter how myopic and reckless it is.

Another overly underpinned theory concerning the cause of homegrown terrorism is group

influence. This theory negates the fact that poverty leads to radicalization by the poor individuals

in the society because in some cases even the well educated and individuals from wealthy

backgrounds join the terrorists and groups of extremism; hence it can not be conclusively

emphasized that the sole cause of extremism and terrorism is poor status of a subset of the

society who are poor. Conversely, under group influence, the already created groups for the

noble purposes of defense of the society for some reason or what they feel like double crossing

or unjust treatment by the society make them get radicalized : and this starts with just a few

members of the group and eventually permeate the whole group members with the remaining

few forced to join even against their will because of the power of the majority. The aim of such

radicalization is to protest against the leadership defy the unjust treatment imposed on them; for

instance, in Minnesota the year 2006, the recruitment of the Somali purposely for invasion

defence turned to be a menace when they got radicalized in their camps. Albeit the initiative of

providing defence against invasion was a noble one, it instigated terrorism as the members of the

defence got radicalized and strayed from the object reason of the formation of the group.

Unfortunately, they turned violent and terrorized homeland which they were to defend.
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In similar fashion, lacking education and economic deprivation inclines individuals towards

being complaisant to extreme views which results in terrorizing the society. This serves to verify

the connection between homegrown terrorism and education in that lack of education makes an

individual susceptible to getting radicalized and buying into extremism. Perceptibly, individuals

without education are vagrants and wretched and to some extent lead unhappy lives. Due to

desperation they easily get radicalized and terrorize ultimately being a menace to their fellow

citizens with the object motive of airing their grievances to the government: this is done without

the involvement of the foreign terrorist organizations.

In the same fashion, extremism in politics is another eminent cause of homegrown terrorism.

This is the case where there is enormous involvement of youths in malicious political activities

such as cruelty, propagating hatred and alienation(Ghatak and Prins, 2017). The political bigwigs

achieve this by inciting youths with the result being the engagement of youths in violent acts

against their rival political parties. The cultivation of hatred through incitement gives birth to the

development of hideous acts with the expectation of being rewarded. In the case that the

individuals are not rewarded as they were promised during the electioneering period, they feel

used and unjustly treated hence extemporize a mean of retaliation. Up to this point, their intent of

forming a malicious caste and subsequently committing evil acts against the society with the

motive of airing their grievances and retaliating shall have been wrongly justified by the what

transpired in the first place: that is being `used and dumped' by the politician. Thus this becomes

the ideal instance of terrorism caused by political extremism for the purpose of advancing

popularity and political mileage.

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In this view, the numerous terrorist acts that are overtly not inspired by the material gain are

verified; and in such case, the suicide terrorist volunteers goals are politically motivated with the

belief that their act of terror will make them achieve their goals. Terrorist acts which are

politically motivated have an intent being an anti-democracy but not the dictatorship as

witnessed in the United States dominant regions. Usually, the objective of such acts of terror is to

have an impact on the political outcome of their region of existence that they strive to achieve. In

fact, in more pronounced instances they are not from a poor background: they are individuals

that believe in a particular `noble' course and are obsessed about it and determined to achieve it

even if it means dying for it.

Even though there is no enough proof to link homegrown terrorism to racism, the facts available

makes it one of the causes of homegrown terrorism with the main factor being differences in

culture. The racist prejudice and bias led to racial friction that was instigated by the racist

campaign against African American together with the few whites who were viewed as their

sympathizers. Regrettably, this racial animus was not contained and erupted into violence by

1865. The opposing cultural groups led to the development of vices that were committed to

members: the results were government officials assassination, robbery, abduction, and death of

citizens en masse.

Attitude and beliefs is another root cause of homegrown terrorism; for instance, in the 1990s the

vicious opposing views towards the government generated negative mind-set advancing the

inspiration of terrorist activity in the United States. This was because people were against the

neglect of the responsibility by the government thus it faced hostile opposition from its citizens

that saw the rise of groups with extreme views. The violence that was witnessed thereafter was
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directly attributed to these extremist groups in the name of protesting against the government.

The perpetuated opposition against the government with violence largely involved to some

extent portrayed terrorist acts even if that was not the primary intention.

Additionally, mystic religious doctrines tend to foster homegrown terrorism. The religious

beliefs such as Islamic belief that brand people of other religion as pagans. This is a justification

for any act of terrorism against the non-muslim even if it is a misinterpretation of the Quran.

Religious extremism takes control of every inhuman act against humanity and the beliefs are

altered to support their terrorist acts and for this reason, they carry out their activities with an

objective of fulfilling the skewed interpretation of the Quran. This is evidenced by the number

of religious terrorist activities that are frequently associated with Muslims. This is one of the

reasons why the counterintelligence of America take Islamic potential terrorists as their focal

point.

In sum , there are other homegrown terrorism that have been brought about by the advent of

social media (Klausen, 2016). Such are the terrorist groups that are recruited through the internet

and also uses the internet to demonstrate their objectives and also radicalize and indoctrinate

their new members. The social media platform provides an easy means of reaching the members

and even discussing their plans and giving guidance to their members. Radicalization by social

media has become prevalent and to some degree, it needs to be contained as the youths are easily

radicalized by the terrorist groups over the internet. Perceptibly the technological advancement

has exacerbated the homegrown terrorism situation due to the fact that terrorists can give detailed

accounts of their activities to members through email, Facebook or YouTube.

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The major composite of the homegrown terrorists in the United States are: cults of religion, anti-

gay and anti-federal government groups. Though these are outlawed groups they have stipulated

objectives that are communicated to members and that is either to massacre an alarming number

of citizens as means of conveying the message. The sad reality is that they execute their actions

blatantly and they do not care about the aftermath.

Reference

Freilich, J. D., Chermak, S. M., & Belli, R. (2014). Homegrown terrorism in the United States.

Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice (pp. 2336-2345). Springer New York.

Ghatak, S., & Prins, B. C. (2017). The homegrown threat: State strength, grievance, and

domestic terrorism. International Interactions, 43(2), 217-247.

Klausen, J. (2016). The Role of Social Networks in the Evolution of Al Qaeda-inspired

Violence Extremism in the United States, 1990-2015. Brandeis University.