What Is Terrorism?
We often hear the word “terrorism”, “terrorist” or “suicide bombing”, but do we know what these nuanced terms actually mean? ‘Terrorism’ was the most searched word in the year 2018, as per dictionary.com which shows the eagerness among the people to know about it. Terrorism is a strategic weapon which is used to create fear, violence and terror among the masses of people by adversaries who are weaker & smaller to compel a much larger force to do their bidding.
Cases of suicide bombing occur in a wide range all over the world. In the recent case of a suicide bombing at Sri Lanka where nine suicide bombers from a well-off family targeted the masses of people & Churches on Easter. All these nine suicide bombers were well settled in their lives and practised the professions of lawyer, aerospace engineer, NTJ member and three of them were sons and daughters-in-law of famous businessman Y.M.Ibrahim, Chairman of a decade-old Spice Export Company – Ishana Export. On February 14, 2019, a convoy of vehicles carrying 40 Central Reserved Police Force Personnel was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber in the Pulwama District of Jammu & Kashmir, India.
On May 13, 2018, three churches and Police Headquarters were attacked by suicide bombers in Surabaya, Indonesia. In this attack, attackers intentionally used their own children between the ages of 9 to 18 years. The Israeli INSS think tank states that the year 2016 was the deadliest in the history of suicide bombing as 469 suicide bombings carried out by 800 perpetrators in 28 countries, led to the death of about 5650 people. On September 11, 2001, four planes were hijacked by Osama Bin Laden and killed 233 Passengers, 33 Crew Members & 3000 people on the ground with the objective of mass homicide by means of self-destruction. This is not the end, there are a lot of cases of suicide bombing all over the world which were rooted from the desire of mass homicide.
After all these incidents, attacks & blasts, many questions come up in the mind. Who are these suicide bombers? Why would they put their lives on stake? Is creating violence the only motive or is there something deeper? Why would a fit and healthy person choose death, instead of a beautiful life, family, love, and career? Are they attempting to sacrifice their lives for an ideological cause, or do they actually want to die?
Suicide Bombing is of two types:
- First when the motive is achieved with the death of a terrorist.
- Second, when the mission of the terrorist doesn’t depend upon the death of a terrorist. They carry out their mission realistically neither do they expect to survive nor do they have an escape plan, but sometimes they survive.In both cases, they have the same objective, to kill the masses and spread terror and violence.
Why Would Anyone Commit Suicide Attacks?
I researched this topic and found that the terrorists carefully select the applicants by rejecting those who may be depressed or emotionally unstable as a security risk or those who might be financially unstable. Terrorists teach them the techniques of using bombs and other deadly weapons, provide them with intense physical & psychological training. Terrorists show the glorification of those terrorist or suicide bombers who attempted suicide attacks by showing their photographs and videos. In the documentary, ‘Children of Taliban’, it shows that terrorists tell children that those who commit suicide attacks will go to heaven where virgin fairies, luxury items, and a luxurious life are waiting for them. Terrorists either use the term Martyrs or Jihad instead of suicide bombers or attackers. The motivation factor of terrorist organisations is “Revenge, Renown & Reaction”. Saddam Hussain reportedly paid $25K to the families of Palestinian Suicide Bombers.
According to the statistics compiled by the Terrorism and Low-Intensity Conflict Research Program at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), “Islamic State was the leading perpetrator being, directly and indirectly, responsible for approximately 70% of the attacks by suicide bombers worldwide.”
What Does Jihad Really Mean?
True Jihad means trustworthiness, belief, honesty, compassion, respect, strengthening the life of that quality which God loves. Refuse dogmatic profanity, let go of anger, hatred, and violence. Create beautiful things that outlive us and approach the world with love.