Terrorists have used religion, the media and some democratic processes to advance their aims.

Terrorists have waged war against a superior force like the United States through asymmetric warfare, by small mobile cells committing terrorism and “prevent themselves from being defeated and winning by not losing” (Kissinger, cited Mack 1975: p 178) to force a change in their foreign policies. This essay will demonstrate how Islamic terrorist have effectively manipulated religion, the media and some democratic processes to advance their aims of US military withdrawal from Islamic lands.

Terrorism must be defined so that an evaluation of its success in advancing terrorist agendas can be measured in waging an asymmetrical war. According to Schmid (1983), “the many definitions are exceedingly complex or have far too many elements”.

James Lutz and Brenda Lutz in the publication “Global Terrorism” defines terrorism as,

“Terrorism involves political aims and motives. It is violent or threatens violence. It is designed to generate fear in a target audience that extends beyond the immediate victims of the violence. This violence is conducted by an identifiable organisation. The violence involves non-state actor or actors as either the perpetrator, the victim of the violence or both. Finally the acts of violence are designed to create power in situations in which power previously had been lacking (i.e. the violence attempts to enhance the power base of the organisation undertaking the actions).” (Lutz & Lutz 2008: 9)

Religion has been used by various groups in the 1990s. This is the most widely used factor because it allows for recruitment of new terrorists and justification of the violence they commit. The most dominant groups that are hostile towards the US are militant groups that operate under the banner of Islam. They follow a radical mutation of Islamic Wahhabism with rigid and deeply intolerant tenets that fall short of advocating terrorism to one that advocates it “unlike Wahhabis, these Islamists believed that the time for jihad against infidels and the neocolonialist West was now. Returning home, the Saudi fighters advanced the idea, and soon there were two types of Wahhabism.” (Van Biema 2003, par 8).

It is this radical mutation of Islam that has fuelled religious intolerance from “Muslim clerics who.. argue that holy war against non-Muslims is an essential tenet of the practice of Islam” (Bouchat, cited Lutz & Lutz 2008: p7). Invoking the concept of jihad to justify its use of indiscriminate attacks against “soft” targets that are characterised by asymmetric tactics (Martin 2006: p 212)

Fuelling this intolerance are terror groups like Al Qaeda and its inspired groups that follow an extreme fundamental interpretation of the Quran. Walid Shoebat put it succinctly in the documentary film “Islam, What the West Needs to Know” in 2006. When he recited a verse used by militant clerics “Do not think that those who died in the cause of Allah in Jihad are dead, but are living”, this justifies their actions as beyond human law and answerable only to Allah. This is important as it attracts a radicalised people willing to commit terrorism and is not morally perplexed of their acts of terror.

Intolerance preached by radical Islamic spiritual leaders  and Islamic schools found in the some parts of the Middle East encourage children to recite Jihadist poems to teach and cultivate a new generation that grow up as radicalised Muslims (Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, 2005). Although not all of the terrorist have committed violence are ignorant, they do breed a society that look at the US and its allies as the enemy. As Monaghan (1997) states, “Once individuals accept that there is moral duty to break the law in pursuit of a higher principle, violence becomes more likely” and will allow terrorist groups to drive fear into their target audience to advance its asymmetric war against the US by weakening political will of its citizens.

It is interesting to note that not all of the terrorists are from Islamic schools located in third world countries, some are from moderate Muslim families living in  western countries itself  who have been influenced by charismatic spiritual leaders. They are taught that Islam is a victim of the US and its allies, that western societies and their cultures have besieged their Islamic values and fellow Muslims.

We know that “justifying their actions as a holy war against the non-Muslim world to bring it under the rule of Islam” (Islam, What the west needs to know, 2007) Muslims that are radicalised. Take up Jihad and their “adversaries will be sorely challenged to defeat them” (Martin 2006: p 212) which further increases the groups’ success of winning by not losing and advance their goals of forcing US foreign policy.

The most defining question that needs to be examined is, are moderate Muslims voicing a desire to stop religious intolerance? “From the point of view of the Muslim moderates, the Iraq war is polarising the world between a Muslim ‘‘us’’ and a Western ‘‘them’’. It is no longer easy for Muslim modernists to praise the West’s moral purpose when US leaders emphasise their power at the cost of their ideals.” (Haqqani 2003: par 16) It's clear that for the moderate Muslim who does not follow radical Islam to voice their desire to stop religious intolerance the west must ensure its western liberal values are intact.

To spread the message of radical Islam and Jihadist mentality to the masses, militant extremists use the media in reaching their target audience to influence them politically.

We must define what is meant by the term “the media” because it is broad, besides news agencies using television as a means of mass communication there are ways like printed materials, audio broadcasts, the Internet (Martin 2006: p 394). It is important to distinguish “the media” in this essay as the entities that provide the masses with breaking news and state controlled television that provide public broadcasts by prominent leaders.

“Islamic radicals use of the media through public announcements broadcast in national television in middle eastern countries to spread their teaching of intolerance and advocating terrorism” (Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, 2007) allows them to reach the majority of Muslims and influence how they view the US as their enemy.  Because of this the media is used effectively to deliver radical teaching to the masses who are its target audience thereby advancing their aims of changing foreign policies of the US through the propagation of hostility towards the US.

A flow on effect of this is US citizens are feeling that their security of ensuring themselves and their way of life is not threatened by radical Muslims. Because of this moderate Muslims living in the US are being segregated by non Muslims from having to have any dealing with them. This type of effect occurred when “Three imams including a US-born Muslim bound for a conference on Islamophobia were kicked off US domestic flights out of security fears” (Muslim clerics kicked off US flights, 2011). From this it is evident that because of media coverage relating to radical Muslims voicing hostility to the US, the terrorists have also created an environment for Muslims radical or moderate to feel segregation and could lead them to dissatisfaction that is vulnerable for terrorist recruitment in the future.

Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and others have exploited the media by way of hostage crisis being televised either directly requested by them or the insatiable thirst of the media to stick their noses into affairs that at times help portray the group in the light they want to be portrayed to pursue their goals. An example of this was when the Munich Olympic incident occurred, although the terrorist known as Black September did not request media attention, they understood that their message will be televised since it involved Olympians competing in the 1972 Olympics and the worlds attention was focused on this one event, they exploited the media by taking Jewish hostages. The terrorist goals succeeded in showing the Palestinian plight especially when the botched rescue attempts were caught and televised to millions of viewers around the world the media was indirectly exploited by the terrorists. As Gayle Rivers states “The success of any terrorist outrage depends so much on the kind and amount of publicity it receives” (Rivers, 1987, p 133)

The attention that terrorists get from their actions being documented and shown through out the world by the media whether they are done by journalist seeking a story, to terrorists showing propaganda by way of the internet has greatly helped them in their goals, with  ever increasing ease of access to the net being exploited by terror groups has helped their pursuit in mobilizing members, providing morale boosts and recruitment of new members to replace killed operatives as outlined by Bruce Hoffman when he stated “Enabling the rapid (often in real-time), pervasive and, most important, inexpensive exchange of information worldwide.” (Hoffman 2006, p 3) Hoffman provides a clear picture of the dangers posed with this since the coverage the terrorist are looking for can be manipulated to what ever they want their intended audience to see, circumventing state censorship and allowing them to portray what ever they choose to portray of themselves or situations.

The exploitation of democratic processes allows terrorist to continue to spread their way of thinking in advancing their aims because they are “adapting the way they do things in the guise of democratic free speech and application of liberal rights to suit them” (Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, 2005) where the US and its western allies are protecting civil liberties can be an area that is exploited by terrorists in a democratic state because it is “the Achilles Heel of democratic states; where differences in perspective of defence and law enforcement and civil liberties collide” (Morgan 2004, p 13) This allows terrorist to be invulnerable even in an enemy state because of the perceived violation of civil liberties by the authorities in exercising their civil rights.

The exploitation of democratic processes by terrorists in the past and today have not always been clearly shown except when one really looks at the actions and subsequent punishments to those terrorist that have committed murder and destruction of property to force changes in political and social environs they want to change, it is a hard statement to say that terrorists do exploit democratic processes since the basic concept of the democracy is the protection of lives. With this in mind if terrorist committed atrocities should they be deprived of basic human rights making those that punish them also with the level of the terrorist mindset (Andreu-Guzman 2003, p 15 -16)

The US as a democratic country has had mixed results when it has attempted to create laws to prevent further terrorist use of airplanes by enacting laws that require full body scans to board a plane. This has had a backlash by people that feel their privacy is being breached and the subsequent negative publicity provided by the media. “The introduction of full-body scanning machines last year at American airports created controversy and attracted criticism” (US to double number of airport body scanners, 2011). Where civil liberties are perceived to be abused when airport security enforce legislated laws passed, by the very government that has tried to prevent further attacks within its borders. Indirectly terrorist are benefitting from the public outcry of laws passed by western countries because they contradict basic civil liberties of its citizens, indicating a shift in political will.

So in conclusion terrorist have exploited religion, the media and democratic processes to advance their aims in changing US foreign policies by adapting an asymmetric war. They have used the three mediums effectively by sowing fear into US citizens to weaken their will in fighting the terrorist demands. It has also made it possible for radical Islam to be delivered unhindered within the borders of America and its western allies, allowing for recruiting Muslims that are citizens. This is made possible by the direct and indirect manipulation of the media to paint them as either a victim or their acts as a necessary action to uphold their way of life exploiting democratic processes to favor them. Making them invulnerable, this is a prerequisite in waging an asymmetrical war. As it has happened in the 1990s so it shall still be in the present and the future that terrorist will always exploit these mediums for its proven way to get help pursue terrorist goals.

Reference List

Andreu-Guzman F "Terrorism and Human Rights, No.2, Occasional Papers No. 3, International Commission of Jurists, March 2003.

Monaghan, R 2000 “Terrorism in the Name of Animal Rights” in M Taylor and J Horgan (eds) The future of Terrorism, London: Frank Cass, 159 – 169

Morgan, M J 2004 “The garrison state revisited”, Contemporary Politics Vol. 10 Issue 1, page 5

Rivers G, 1987 "The war against the terrorists. How to win it.” Charter edition New York: Berkeley Publishing Group.

Haqqani H 2003 “How Bush Silenced the Moderate Muslim Voice” Carnegie Middle East Center, viewed 09/05/2011 <http://www.carnegie-mec.org/publications/?fa=1228>

Hoffman B, 2006 "The Use of the Internet by Islamic Extremists." Testimony presented to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, The Rand Corporation <http://www.rand.org/>

Mack J, 1975, World Politics “Why big nations lose small wars: The politics of asymmetric conflict” Cambridge University Press, viewed 27 March 2011, <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2009880>

Van Biema D, 2007 "Wahhabism: Toxic Waste? - The debate persists as to whether the state religion of Suadi Arabia breeds  intolerance or just misunderstood" Time Online, viewed 09/05/2011 <http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030915/wwahhabism.html>   

Muslim clerics kicked off US flights 2011, Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 09/05/2011 < http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/muslim-clerics-kicked-off-us-flights-20110509-1eevw.html>

O’Sullivan, K, 2011 US to double number of airport body scanners, The Age, viewed 09/05/2011 <http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/us-to-double-number-of-airport-body-scanners-20110225-1b7tj.html>

Islam, What the west needs to know 2007 [DVD] Quixotic Media, United States

Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West 2005 [DVD] Clarion Fund, United States