The world is a very interesting place to live in. Depending on where a person goes or lives in can dramatically change their values, beliefs, and their attributes. This place that we all live on called earth is very large and within it contains countries that do not always get along. The reasons behind this may vary depending on the issues at hand. One of the most crucial and impactful issues that dramatically effect today’s world is terrorism.
Terrorism is a global issue that has occurred throughout time. Thousands of people have died from previous terrorist attacks that have occurred all around the world and that number will most likely continue to go up. These terrorists all have a reason to why they perpetrate these attacks. Some of these reasons will be discussed below. Another thing to consider is that there has been a large amount of research conducted on several terrorist groups but the big question that still remains is what makes people become radicalized terrorists?
Is the answer already known or are other factors involved? “Some researchers believe that radicalization can’t always be explained through political or economic factors. They suggest that radicalization happens at an individual level, stressing psychological pitfalls and mental disorders in perpetrators of attacks” (Gebelhoff, 2016). The answer itself is not clear but at least it is a start.
Other people speculate that terrorists perpetrate their attacks due to other reasons. All terrorists to a certain degree are radicalized and believe that what they are doing is for “a good cause for the greater good” (The Daily Beast, 2013).The terrorists who perpetrate these attacks, usually do so based on religious beliefs.
This so-called greater good and these beliefs may be driven to support a specific terrorist group or organization. Not all of these groups have the same beliefs but many of the largest terrorist groups do not like “Western Culture” and wish nothing but its demise. This is probably why so many of the terrorist attacks that have occurred throughout history have occurred in the U.S. and in other countries that the U.S. is allies with. “In order to be able to fulfill these attacks, terrorist groups are known to recruit members in various ways” (The Daily Beast, 2013). The people who are recruited become radicalized and will do anything to support their terrorist group or organization.
People in society go to work, school, and perform other tasks not knowing when the next terrorist attack will be. These unfortunate events that occur throughout history can happen at any moment and seem to do so when people least expect it. These attacks on different groups of people are not random and the end goal is usually to cause as much harm and as many human casualties as possible.
There have been both failed and successful terrorist attacks where a specific terrorist group usually takes credit for the attack. It seems that even though there are several terrorist groups, not all are motivated by the same principles or may be radicalized under the same circumstances. This of course will be discussed below.
There have been several terrorist attacks on American soil perpetrated by American citizens. “45 Americans have been killed by home-grown terrorists since the Sept. 11 attacks, making home-grown terrorism a “persistent, low-level threat” (Artsdesk and Robinson, 2016).The question here is do these terrorists become radicalized in the same way as non-western terrorist groups do? In the past, some of these home-grown terrorists have pledged allegiance to specific terrorist groups even if they are not even a part of the organization. This did not occur in the past and the number of attacks is increasing.
Some of these terrorist attacks perpetrated by American citizens were done by what most non-radicalized people would consider to be ordinary citizens. When a person says the word terrorist, the first thing that does not come to mind is an American citizen as a terrorist. There are people who believe that all Muslims are terrorists but in reality only a small portion of Muslims ever become radicalized terrorists. Even though these radicalized terrorists are only a small portion of the entire Muslim religion, it is very evident that it does not take many terrorists to plot an attack where many people die due to their actions.
References
Gebelhoff, R. (20, June, 2016). How do domestic terrorists become radicalized? The Washington Post
Artsdesk and Robinson, P. (2, March, 2016). What causes some Muslim-Americans to become radicalized? PBS Newshour
Hoffman, B. (27, April, 2013). Answers to Why People Become Terrorists. The Daily Beast
Terrorism in the 21st Century 
I am so glad that you took on a perception that covered domestic terrorism. There is a definite misconception of “radicalized terrorism” only coming from the non-western or non-democracy part of the world, which is simply not true. It is proven time and time again that there is just as much, if not more, terrorist acts committed by groups within the United States.
I am unsure how American culture started dubbing Muslims as the only terrorists. That’s like saying all white people hold the same values as the KKK or all Christians hold the same values as the Westboro Baptist Church – which is simply not the case.
I think terrorism is very hard to quantify in that individuals commit acts of terrorism for a lot of different reasons – some being their hatred of a culture or society, sometimes due to mental illness, or sometimes due to the inequalities that the face becoming too overwhelming. This is definitely something we need to continue to research.
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Hi George. Look at the other blogs on the site to get an idea of how to block some of those quotes and use other WordPress tools. They will help some of those points stand out.
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