Causes+of+terrorism

Terrorism is a type of violence designed to achieve the attackers' goals by causing fear in the opponent. Terrorism is usually carried out by groups of people who cannot rely on the power of a national government to achieve their goal. They make up fro this by committing smaller, unexpected acts of violence against ordinary people creating the impression that terrorists might strike anywhere, giving them more power than they would otherwise have. Terrorism must be fought by combating the root causes. These causes are many and complex, but they include such injustices as widespread poverty, illiteracy, and human rights abuses. (Textbook)

Causes of terrorism include nationalism, or separatism, based on nationality, poverty, democracy, particularly lack thereof, dehumanization, disgruntled social reformers, and religion.

An aggrieved group resorts to violence in order to fight an external pressure. Thus far, only Ghandi and his followers has non-violently liberated themselves from foreign occupation.
 * Nationalism/Separatism:**

The inequality of distribution of goods is often a source of contention. When groups of people are relatively deprived, they often rebel.
 * Poverty:**

A democratic government is supposed to represent the people and provide a political means to voice grievances. In theory, then, there would be no aggrieved group. However, there are often minority groups whose rights and liberties are denied. Minority groups are also often attacked by other minority groups and not provided with adequate protection. Technically, then, they are not bound to obedience of the government because they have not been afforded its benefits. In nations that have more closely followed democracy in allowing minorities to voice their grievances, such as the Western nations, the bigger problem is that these greivances are not often translated into the desired legislation because there are not enough votes.
 * Democracy:**

Intellectuals are often ambitious idealists who attempt to socially and morally reform society. However, since manual labor in the lower class has very much shifted into the service sector, intellectuals hardly have a rebellious lower class to lead, and they do not receive much leadership from an upper class. This rigid social order makes social reformation difficult and leads to reformers rise in terrorist-like activity to reconnect with the masses.
 * Disgruntled Social Reformers:**

Dehumanization is disregarding the fact that the opponent, or terrorist, is human. This can be considered the opposite of the above cause because, supposedly, simpleminded people are easy to indoctrinate with ideals. For example, this kind of tactic is often used in wars by a nation's government. By instilling in the nation's citizens that their opponents are simply evil-causing objects, war violence is automatically not of as great an evil.
 * Dehumanization:**

Statistically, nations with different religions are more likely to fight. Also, lately, there has been a religious revival, with the US at the top of the charts. Because of the current war, Christianity and Islam are of particular interest. Islamic theology opposes capitalism and individualism. From the Islamic perspective, many scholars consider Western society, which is generally based on Christian theology, as the main cause of terrorism, particularly Darwinism and materialism. Ironically, notwithstanding the above information, all the vast majority of religions emphasize that one should treat others as they wish to be treated and should not kill another human being.
 * Religion:**

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