WHY HAS TERRORISM

BECOME GLOBAL?

Humanities 10Sinarmas World Academy

Veny Adilia Puspasari

WHAT IS TERRORISM?Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation in the

pursuit of religious, political or, ideological goal. Some

definitions now include acts of unlawful violence and war.

Terrorists have struck every country of the world. Sometimes

terrorist group organize attacks on more than one target at

the time like the September 11 attack where the terrorist

group called Al-Qaeda hijacked American to destroy the

World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in

Washington, D.C., and at least one more target in the United

States that is unidentified because one plane was delayed and

the terrorist failed to hit the target.

There are a lot of reasons of why terrorism has become global

so quickly only in the past few years. Social media,

indoctrination and their socio-economics status play a huge

role of why terrorism has become global. There are a lot of

terrorist groups around the world and they don’t work

individually. Sometimes different terrorist organizations work

together when carrying out their acts of terror. Different

organization, different location. A few years ago, they would

have to fly across the world and meet face-to-face, but with

the technology that we have now, it is easier for them to

communicate with each other. All they have to do is sign up in

one of the social networks (e.g: skype, yahoo messenger,

google talk), decide what time they’ll meet, and start planning.

Since all the social media are free and really hard to be

tracked, social media is a perfect tool for them to stay

connected.

A lot of suicide bombers are from the lower economy class

society. They are the easiest targets for terrorist to be

indoctrinated. Their socio-economic status make the terrorist

job even easier because they are not educated and usually the

terrorist persuade them with money. So, if they are willing to

do what the terrorist wants them to do, the terrorist will take

care of their family and feed them. Since they had no

education, they will believe in what the terrorist told them

about Jihad. Those people are vulnerable; they had no job, no

money, in other word, they are desperate. The only thing they

need to do is to put a vest with bomb attached around their

body, click the button and they will go to heaven and their

family will be happy because now the terrorist will take care of

them.

Terrorists would consider themselves as a freedom fighter.

The difference is a freedom fighter is someone who can justify

their violent actions for the sole purpose of achieving freedom

and peace. Their actions are typically commended and

respected by the general public. While a terrorist is the

mastermind or member of an extremist group or organization

who plans and/or performs acts of terror to generate fear in a

community, particularly targeting civilians for either a

religious, political or personal purpose.

3 TERRORIST ATTACKS AFTER 9/11

The biggest terrorist attack is the September 11 attack in New York City. That attack

killed more than 3000 people. After that huge attack, on 2002 Jemaah Islamiah attack

popular nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia.

The 2002 Bali bombings happened on 12 October 2002 in Kuta, Bali. The attack killed

202 people (including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesian, 27 Britons, 7 Americans and 5

Swedish citizens) and 240 people were injured.

Various members of Jemaah Islamiyah, were found guilty in relation to the bombings,

including three members who were sentenced to death. The attack involved the

explosion of three bombs: a backpack-mounted device carried by a suicide bomber; a

large car bomb, both of which were exploded near popular nightclubs in Kuta; and a

third much smaller device detonated outside the United States consulate in Denpasar,

causing only small damage. An audiocassette purposely carrying a recorded voice

message from Osama bin Laden stated that the Bali bombings were indirect retaliation

for support of the United States' war on terror and Australia's role in the liberation of

East Timor.

According to the Council of Foreign Relations, Jemaah Islamiyah does have some links

to Al Qaeda, although to what extent is up for debate as there are some U.S. officials

and terrorism experts who refer to JI as "al-Qaeda’s Southeast Asian wing". One of

Jamaah Islamiah’s leaders, Hambali, is supposedly the person “most closely linked to

al-Qaeda,” within the organization. The CIA referred to Hambali as the “Osama bin

Laden of South East Asia”. He was thought to have been the “major brains” behind the

Bali bombings.

During the peak of Madrid rush hour on the morning of Thursday, 11 March 2004, ten explosions occurred on four commuter trains (cercanías). The four trains were traveling on the same line and in the same direction between Alcalá de Henares and the Atocha station in Madrid. It was later reported that 13 improvised explosive devices had been placed on the trains. The following timeline of events comes from the judicial investigation.

All four trains had departed the Alcalá de Henares station between 07:01 and 07:14. The explosions took place between 07:37 and 07:40, as described below:

1. Atocha Station (train number 21431) – Three bombs exploded. Based on the video recording from the station security system, the first bomb exploded at 07:37, and two others exploded at 07:38.

2. El Pozo del Tío Raimundo Station (train number 21435) – At around 07:38, just as the train was starting to leave the station, two bombs exploded in different carriages.

3. Santa Eugenia Station (train number 21713) – One bomb exploded at around 07:38.4. Calle Téllez (train number 17305), about 800 meters from Atocha Station – four bombs exploded in different carriages of the train at approximately 07:39. This attack killed 191 people (142 Spanish, 16 Romanians, 6 Ecuadorians, 4 Poles, 4 Bulgarians, 3 Peruvians, 2 Dominicans, 2 Colombians, 2 Moroccans, 2 Ukrainians, 2 Hondurans, 1 Senegalese, 1 Cuban, 1 Chilean, 1 Brazilian, 1 French, and 1 Filipino.) and 1,800 people were injured. The official investigation by the Spanish Judiciary found that the attacks was not directed by Al-Qaeda but it was directed by an Al-Qaeda inspired terrorist group, although no direct al-Qaeda participation has been established. Though they had no role in the planning or implementation, the Spanish miners who sold the explosives to the terrorists were also arrested.

The total number of victims was higher than in any other terrorist attack in Spain, far surpassing the 21 killed and 40 wounded from a 1987 bombing at a Hipercor chain supermarket in Barcelona.

On the morning of Thursday, 7 July 2005, four Islamist home-grown terrorists

detonated four bombs, three in quick succession aboard London Underground trains across the city and, later, a fourth on a double-decker bus in Tavistock

Square. Fifty-two civilians and the four bombers were killed in the attacks, and over

700 more were injured. The target in this attack was the civilian that was using the

public transportation. Homemade organic peroxide–based devices packed into

rucksacks caused the explosions.

At 8:50 am, three bombs were exploded on board London Underground trains

within the bounds of fifty seconds from each other:

1. The first exploded on a 6-car London Underground C69 and C77 StockCircle

line sub-surface train (number 204) traveling toward the ast between

Liverpool Street and Aldgate. The train had left King’s Cross-St. Pancras about eight minutes before. At the time of the explosion, the third car of the train

was approximately 90 m along the tunnel from Liverpool Street.

2. The second device exploded in the second car of another 6-car London

Underground C69 and C77 Stock Circle line sub-surface train (number 216)

which had just left platform 4 at Edgware Road and was traveling toward the west to Paddington. The train had also left King's Cross-St. Pancras about

eight minutes before. There were a few other trains nearby at the time of the

explosion; an eastbound Circle line train was passing next to the bombed train

and the train was damaged, along with a wall that collapsed.

3. A third bomb was exploded on a 6-car London Underground 1973 Stock Piccadilly line deep-level Underground train (number 311) traveling towards

the south from King's Cross-St. Pancras and Russell Square. The bomb

exploded about one minute after the train departed King's Cross (it has

travelled about 450 m). The explosion took place at the rear of the first car of

the train (number 166), which caused serious damage to the rear of that car as well as the front of the second one.

ROUTES OF THE BOMBERS

TERRORISM FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

On the video that Osama bin Laden posted on the internet after

the 9/11 attack, he stated,

“The events of September 11 are just a reaction to the

continuous injustice and oppression being practiced against

our sons in Palestine, Iraq, Somalia, Southern Sudan and other

places like Kashmir and Assam.”

From what he said, we can clearly see that he did the attack

based on his anger towards America because they supports the

Jews. The September 11 attack is one of his ways of terrorizing

America of what they did in Palestine. Even though his

perspective is bias because he is an extremist and his

perspective is highly subjective, his perspective is really

valuable. From that, we can get a better understanding of how

he, as a terrorist thinks. By seeing terrorism from his

perspective also can make us see the hatred that he has towards

America. He really thinks that he is doing service and he

believes that he will be rewarded in heaven. Again this is absurd.

His point of view is highly subjective since he is an extremist. He

is the leader of the most famous and well-known terrorist

organization, Al-Qaeda. By him being the leader and fund Al-

Qaeda, this really shows how much he cares about the

organization that he is leading because he fund the organization.

If he doesn’t believe that what he was doing was right, he will

not spend that much of money on that. He also hates America

because he thinks that most Americans are infidels and

according to him, are the enemy of Islam and they need to be

killed. From to his believe, if we die killing unbelievers, we will

go straight to heaven.

I interviewed an eyewitness from the Australian embassy bombing on September 9, 2004 in

Kuningan, Jakarta.

“I had a meeting in the Plaza 89 building (on the second floor) on that day. Suddenly, the

ceiling broke and it hit the table. We thought it was an earthquake. One of my friends instantly

went under the table, but then my other friend told us to go out. When we were heading to the

stairs, the glasses around it already broken. When we were finally on the first floor, people

started to yell ‘There was a bomb! There was a bomb!’ that was how I know that the Australian

embassy was bombed. I went out of the building and I saw a lot of injured victims on the street.

I was afraid that there will be another bomb, left my car in the building. I ran as fast as I could

and at the end of the street I found an “ojek”. And that was how I got away from that area.”

Beside being one of the eye-witness of a terrorist attack in Jakarta, she is also a muslim. So I

asked what’s her opinion about terrorism in general and here is her answer:

“Terrorism must be eradicated because terrorists are the enemy of us all. They don’t have the

same ideology with the ideology that we (Muslims) profess. Even though Noordin M Top and

Osama bin Laden are dead, it doesn’t mean that we are safe from terrorist attacks because we

don’t know when the next attack will be. Their aim is to kill the infidels but they ended up killing

muslims too. ”

In her opinion, terrorism is not just America’s enemy, but they are the enemy of they world.

Terrorists killed thousands of innocent people because of their personal reason but they use

God’s name instead. They misinterpret the word Jihad and what they believe is wrong and it can

make people misinterpret the religion of Islam.

Her opinion is bias and subjective because she almost lost her life in the hands of terrorists and

she was innocent. From the perspective of a muslim, she also think that terrorism is an urgent

problem because what the terrorists are doing is not what Islam taught us and what the terrorist

is doing right now is introducing Islam in a really bad way.

Even though she is bias, her perspective is still valuable because she was there, witnessing the

actual attack. Her perspective also represents a citizen who almost lost her life because of the act

of terror.

“I would be very comfortable knowing that these men have to

spend the rest of their lives locked up and controlled for the rest

of their lives by the country they tried to destroy.

I don’t think there would be any better hell for them than to be

under our rule. Death is too good.” Said Loreen Sellitto who lost her son, Matthew who was a 23-year-old rising

star at the finance firm in Tower One of the World Trade Center. From those

three sentences we can see her emotions towards terrorism especially the

attack that took her son away from her. She went to Guantanamo Bay in

Cuba for the final hearing of the September 11 commission in Washington.

Loosing her son at the terrorists’ hands must be really hard.

She is emotionally bias and also subjective because she lost her son in that

particular attack. She must be really angry because her son was innocent

and was not hostile to the Muslim in general. She must feel devastated.

Her perspective as the mother of one of the victims is really valuable

because her feeling will not be too different from the other family of the

victims. All of them must feel sad and angry that their family died in vain and

they were not guilty of anything.

In conclusion, terrorism has become global now because of various reasons such as the technology (social media), indoctrination and also their socio-economic

status. History also play a huge role in why terrorism has become global.

There are a lot of terrorist groups around the world and they often work together to organize one attack. The problem is, different organization, different

location. Years ago, they don’t have all the technology that is available now. By using social media such as Skype or Yahoo Messenger, they can easily

communicate with each other whenever and wherever they want. The technology nowadays is so advanced that the government find it hard to track the

social media which is the perfect for them since it’s free, it is available everywhere and it’s almost impossible to track.

A lot of suicide bombers are from the middle to lower class. They are the easy targets for terrorist to be indoctrinated. Their socio-economic status make

the terrorist job even easier because they are not educated so they trust the terrorist really easily. Usually the terrorist persuade them with money so, if

they are willing to do what the terrorist wants them to do, the terrorist will take care of their family. Because they don’t have good education and they

don’t have sustainable job. They don’t have enough money to give their families a good life. When the terrorist told them that they will take care of their

families, without thinking twice, they will definitely accept that offer. From their point of view, they would do it because it will be a win-win situation for both

him/herself and also their family. After completing his “job”, he will go straight to heaven and his family will be happier than ever.

Terrorism has struck about every country in the world. The main character in the terrorism world is Osama bin Laden. He is the key figure of why terrorism has

become global. In an interview with al-Jazeera Arab television in 1998, he said, “Every Muslim the minute he can start differentiating, carries hate towards

Americans, Jews and Christians, this is part of our ideology. Ever since I can recall, I felt at war with the Americans and had feelings of animosity and hate towards

them.” That same year, in an interview with TIME magazine he said, “Our work targets world infidels. Our enemy is the crusader alliance led by America, Britain

and Israel. It is a crusader-Jewish alliance.” This shows a lot of his hatred towards America. It is all started after the Nazi era is over. The ones that survived the

concentration camp, they had no place to go to. So, they looked at their holy book and it said, their home is in the Palestine. They went all the way to Palestine as

a group and when they arrived in their “home”, Palestine has been occupied by the middle-eastern for hundreds of years. It has been their home since then. It

was a quite a debate of which home it is and the Americans, they support the Jewish and because of that is the event that triggers Osama bin Laden and Al-

Qaeda’s reaction which was the 9/11 attack.

I think the solution to terrorism is to educate all people from all different social level about the right ideology of Islam and the true meaning of Jihad. When

everyone is educated, they will not be easy to be indoctrinated. Terrorist organization will need new “volunteer” and if they can’t find new volunteers, eventually

they will have to do it themselves and as time goes by, the organization will not have anyone to continue it anymore.

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