The root causes of terrorism

[Saigon]

What do you think drives people to commit acts of terror?

Is it a sign of genuine commitment to a political cause or devotion to a religion?

Or is it more of an unfocsed attack driven by poverty and hopelessness? Or a reaction against genuine oppression?

I don't think there is any one answer to this, and in most cases I think racist historical indoctrination, religious bias, political disenfranchisement and poverty are all key elements. To end terror, we would have to address all of those factors.

Wat we do know is that terror occurs around the world, apparently regardless of skin colour, religion or nationality. There have been terror movements everywhere from Macedonia to South Africa, from Peru to Congo, from Mozambique to Pakistan.

But what most of these countries do have in common is poverty.

While there have been terror cells born out of middle class ennui (Germany, Japan), by far the overhelming majority of terror movements are born out of the slums. They are driven by rage, and a sense of bitterness that others have it better.

Having spent a bit of time in the worst parts of cities like Jakarta, Soweto, Beirut and Kigali, I can understand this.

It can not be easy to grow up amongst the rocks and desert of Southern Lebanon and look south across the well-watered fields and beautiful homes of Northern Israel. And while better educated people might look to themselves to do better, I can understand that many young people just feel anger.

I'm not a big believer in aid projects and even less in just handing out money, but I do think the ultiate solution to poverty lies in improving living standards in places like Gaza, Uganda and the Sudan.

Do you agree?

btw. I put this into thr ME sectio, but consider it a global topic.

 

[Unkotare]

Weakness. Moral, intellectual, and military weakness.

 

[Saigon]

Weakness. Moral, intellectual, and military weakness.

Is weakness related to poverty?

Not moraly, but certainly lower levels of education and less educational opportunities instill an element of weakness, no?

 

[tjvh]

The root cause of Terrorism depends on which Terrorist you are (specifically what drives your hatred), and who you interpret your enemies to be.

 

[Saigon]

The root cause of Terrorism depends on which Terrorist you are (specifically what drives your hatred), and who you interpret your enemies to be.

Fair enough - but you don't think those specific causes generally fall into typical patterns?

I'd say people feel hatred because they are poor, have no jobs, and People X, do have jobs.

I'd say people feel hatred because People X invaded their country, and they want payback. (Despite the fact the invasion was actually payback for a previous invasion in the other direction).

I'd say people feel hatred because they feel they are being held down or threatened inside their own country, often by some minority.

 

[rhodescholar]

What do you think drives people to commit acts of terror?

Islam.

But what most of these countries do have in common is poverty.

False. Most of the terrorists in al qaeda and similar groups have been middle class or better.

While there have been terror cells born out of middle class ennui (Germany, Japan), by far the overhelming majority of terror movements are born out of the slums. They are driven by rage, and a sense of bitterness that others have it better.

Not true, they are angry that the West is successful despite it not being under islamic control.

It is all about power and domination, just like the way they treat their women. If you want a determinant of the quality of a society, examine how their women are treated. Muslims societies fail miserably when considering this, all over the world.

They are also violent, hate-filled societies, which are at conflict with their neighbors at almost all points where they touch non-muslim ones.

Having spent a bit of time in the worst parts of cities like Jakarta, Soweto, Beirut and Kigali, I can understand this.

Spend more time in the middle east, it is even more obvious there.

It can not be easy to grow up amongst the rocks and desert of Southern Lebanon and look south across the well-watered fields and beautiful homes of Northern Israel.

You're fucking kidding, right?

That you introduce tiny israel as an example of anything here is a sign of an anti-jew bias. I'm out.

 

[Saigon]

What do you think drives people to commit acts of terror?

Islam.

It can not be easy to grow up amongst the rocks and desert of Southern Lebanon and look south across the well-watered fields and beautiful homes of Northern Israel.

You're fucking kidding, right?

That you introduce tiny israel as an example of anything here is a sign of an anti-jew bias. I'm out.

Islam is the root cause of terror in South America or Asia? Generally not, I think.

And no I'm not fucking kidding. Try and focus and read what was posted. Give it some thought, an by all means come back with a sane response.

 

[HUGGY]

What do you think drives people to commit acts of terror?

Is it a sign of genuine commitment to a political cause or devotion to a religion?

Or is it more of an unfocsed attack driven by poverty and hopelessness? Or a reaction against genuine oppression?

I don't think there is any one answer to this, and in most cases I think racist historical indoctrination, religious bias, political disenfranchisement and poverty are all key elements. To end terror, we would have to address all of those factors.

Wat we do know is that terror occurs around the world, apparently regardless of skin colour, religion or nationality. There have been terror movements everywhere from Macedonia to South Africa, from Peru to Congo, from Mozambique to Pakistan.

But what most of these countries do have in common is poverty.

While there have been terror cells born out of middle class ennui (Germany, Japan), by far the overhelming majority of terror movements are born out of the slums. They are driven by rage, and a sense of bitterness that others have it better.

Having spent a bit of time in the worst parts of cities like Jakarta, Soweto, Beirut and Kigali, I can understand this.

It can not be easy to grow up amongst the rocks and desert of Southern Lebanon and look south across the well-watered fields and beautiful homes of Northern Israel. And while better educated people might look to themselves to do better, I can understand that many young people just feel anger.

I'm not a big believer in aid projects and even less in just handing out money, but I do think the ultiate solution to poverty lies in improving living standards in places like Gaza, Uganda and the Sudan.

Do you agree?

btw. I put this into thr ME sectio, but consider it a global topic.

OK...I'll be your huckleberry...

Do you mean the absolute ground zero root cause of what we now call "Islamic Terrorism" as opposed to the adage that one mans terrorist has always been anothers freedom fighter?

Oil. America's arrogance, indifference and short sighted missmanagement of it's natural carbon and hydrocarbon resources.

We never had a plan, as a country, to manage our own oil resources wisely and thereby not impose our wastefulness on the rest of the worlds resources.

World War One and Two created an environment that made it clear that U S A safety from the standpoint of an attack from large rouge countries bent on world domination demanded our hands on approach to access to whatever oil deposits that could be controled should be controlled.

This led us to reasonably not trust people that basically rode camels and donkeys not to be able to secure such vital military advantage.

Exascerbating this whole dilemma about who should control the safety of Mideast oil reserves was the nuclear arms proliferation and the ensuing cold war.

What it came down to was that the feelings of Islamic fundimentalists rightfully had to take a back seat to the bigger fish we were frying in world affairs.

So... We did what we had to do...supporting kingdoms..toppling kingdoms..on and on until we had just about pissed off every possible arab citizen in the Mideast that we could.

We meddled out of neccessity. We dissrespected local religion out of carelessness.

Then we elected leaders that were ideologues like Carter, Reagan and Bush that ignored our responsibility to maintain vigil over the mess we created and continued to create in Arab/Muslim countries.

We created the perfect environment to foster hatred towards us then ignored our responsibility to watch for signs that there would be blowback to our policies.

Voila! Islamic terrorism is born!

 

[Saigon]

So... We did what we had to do...supporting kingdoms..toppling kingdoms..on and on until we had just about pissed off every possible arab citizen in the Mideast that we could.

We meddled out of neccessity. We dissrespected local religion out of carelessness.

Then we elected leaders that were ideologues like Carter, Reagan and Bush that ignored our responsibility to maintain vigil over the mess we created and continued to create in Arab/Muslim countries.

We created the perfect environment to foster hatred towards us then ignored our responsibility to watch for signs that there would be blowback to our policies.

Voila! Islamic terrorism is born!

This is an interesting take on things - although it is suggesting quite a lot that the average Palestinian street kid would know enough of that to be pissed off about it.

I do think back, though, to the time Carter toasted his old friend the Shah with bubbly, and the screening of the event in Iran drove a wave of anger against the booze-swilling Shah that eventually saw him thrown out on his ass - Carter had accidentally sealed his demise.

I do agree with the 'meddling out of necessity' and 'disrespecting out of carelessness' part - I think that is very true. So often the US has pissed people off without meaning too and without any benefit - purely out of ignorance, as with the Carter incident. That's a shame, and something I think Obama has been much better at than men who have gone before him.

 

[California Girl]

Root cause? Fear. For Islamic leaders, the fear of freedom.... they see how we live in the west and realize that their own people might want a bit of that too. So, they create a atmosphere of fear and encourage their uneducated to sacrifice themselves for some fantasy that we're out to destroy their religion.

Of course, the left will blame us for our 'meddling', but it seems that even the left can't avoid 'meddling' - like supporting the overthrow of the Libyan government.... call it 'humanitarianism' and pretend that makes it ok.

We did not start this shit.... Islamic religious leaders did.

 

[Saigon]

Of course, the left will blame us for our 'meddling', but it seems that even the left can't avoid 'meddling' - like supporting the overthrow of the Libyan government.... call it 'humanitarianism' and pretend that makes it ok.

We did not start this shit.... Islamic religious leaders did.

From this I can't tell whether you support the role the US played in tossing out Ghadaffi or not....

I think it was a good move myself - it seemed to represent the will of the Libyan people, and didn't cost a single US life.

 

[mudwhistle]

The root cause of terrorism is bigotry.....and they use sexual repression as a tool.

At Mecca they walk around an object called the "Hadschar al Aswad" 7 times pausing at the Southeast corner to "Kiss the hand of God".

This object is a bethyl, or meterorite that legend says was given Abraham by the archangel Gabriel. That stone also played an important role in the life of Mohammed who immured it into the wall at the southeast corner of the Kaaba.

Links

Meteorite.fr - Basics - Meteorites in History

 

[California Girl]

Of course, the left will blame us for our 'meddling', but it seems that even the left can't avoid 'meddling' - like supporting the overthrow of the Libyan government.... call it 'humanitarianism' and pretend that makes it ok.

We did not start this shit.... Islamic religious leaders did.

From this I can't tell whether you support the role the US played in tossing out Ghadaffi or not....

I think it was a good move myself - it seemed to represent the will of the Libyan people, and didn't cost a single US life.

I had no real strong opinion on whether we should step in on the Libyan thing... seems to me, we should have learned the lesson from Egypt. We were told that would lead to democracy... that's what the people wanted... how's that working out? Not overly well. Seems that the Muslim Brotherhood (hard line fundamentalists) will end up leading Egypt.... once they're in power... do you honestly think they'll hold free elections again?

However, your thread is about what causes terrorism, not the issues surrounding our 'footprint' in other countries.... Address what I said in response to your topic and stop derailing your own thread.

Fear. Fear of freedom is the root cause of Islamic terrorism.

 

[Sallow]

Of course, the left will blame us for our 'meddling', but it seems that even the left can't avoid 'meddling' - like supporting the overthrow of the Libyan government.... call it 'humanitarianism' and pretend that makes it ok.

We did not start this shit.... Islamic religious leaders did.

From this I can't tell whether you support the role the US played in tossing out Ghadaffi or not....

I think it was a good move myself - it seemed to represent the will of the Libyan people, and didn't cost a single US life.

The "meddling" start well before Gaddafi. It started once it was found that oil had value and that the middle east had plenty of oil.

When you start knocking over other people's government and taking their stuff..you shouldn't be surprised if they hit back.

 

[Sallow]

Of course, the left will blame us for our 'meddling', but it seems that even the left can't avoid 'meddling' - like supporting the overthrow of the Libyan government.... call it 'humanitarianism' and pretend that makes it ok.

We did not start this shit.... Islamic religious leaders did.

From this I can't tell whether you support the role the US played in tossing out Ghadaffi or not....

I think it was a good move myself - it seemed to represent the will of the Libyan people, and didn't cost a single US life.

Gaddaffi green lighted the bombing of a plane over lockerbie. He needed a dirt nap for that. Instead Bush accepted blood money and a promise not to develop nukes.

That..was unacceptable.

 

[mudwhistle]

Of course, the left will blame us for our 'meddling', but it seems that even the left can't avoid 'meddling' - like supporting the overthrow of the Libyan government.... call it 'humanitarianism' and pretend that makes it ok.

We did not start this shit.... Islamic religious leaders did.

From this I can't tell whether you support the role the US played in tossing out Ghadaffi or not....

I think it was a good move myself - it seemed to represent the will of the Libyan people, and didn't cost a single US life.

Gaddaffi green lighted the bombing of a plane over lockerbie. He needed a dirt nap for that. Instead Bush accepted blood money and a promise not to develop nukes.

That..was unacceptable.

The Lockerbie bombing happened in Dec. of 1988. What did Bush have to do with that?

Btw, folks like you whine about Bush jr going after Saddam and giving him the end of a rope, calling it illegal and all that rubbish....and you cheer Obama killing Gaddaffi indirectly, or killing Al Qaeda members and their friends and family.

 

[Saigon]

Btw, folks like you whine about Bush jr going after Saddam and giving him the end of a rope, calling it illegal and all that rubbish....and you cheer Obama killing Gaddaffi indirectly, or killing Al Qaeda members and their friends and family.

There is some hypocricy in that, but there is also a big difference in an operation which costs 0 US lives and one which costs 3,000 US lives - and with the bills to match.

 

[mudwhistle]

Btw, folks like you whine about Bush jr going after Saddam and giving him the end of a rope, calling it illegal and all that rubbish....and you cheer Obama killing Gaddaffi indirectly, or killing Al Qaeda members and their friends and family.

There is some hypocricy in that, but there is also a big difference in an operation which costs 0 US lives and one which costs 3,000 US lives - and with the bills to match.

So you're saying that Libya didn't cost us anything???

Afghanistan is Obama's war. The left's war. How many US lives has that cost? How much money is it costing us.

Yes, there is definitely some hypocrisy here.

 

[amir]

I like to offer my point on this subject Saigon, and hope no one with take it as an excuse for terrorists.
Terrorism derives from feeling of desperation. I compare it to an individual, say a man/father who has given up any hope of reconciliation/settlement/custody by the system and goes on to do something very stupid (resorting to kidnapping/arson/murder)
Again, I am trying to share my understanding and this is no way is meant to condone a cowardly and inhumane act, but just as those who "honor" kill the ones they're supposed to love, brainwashed to think that's the only way of preserving respect, terrorists are taught to believe what they are or will be doing is for the good of the family/tribe/society therefore the right thing to do.
Just my two cents.

 

[mudwhistle]

I like to offer my point on this subject Saigon, and hope no one with take it as an excuse for terrorists.
Terrorism derives from feeling of desperation. I compare it to an individual, say a man/father who has given up any hope of reconciliation/settlement/custody by the system and goes on to do something very stupid (resorting to kidnapping/arson/murder)
Again, I am trying to share my understanding and this is no way is meant to condone a cowardly and inhumane act, but just as those who "honor" kill the ones they're supposed to love, brainwashed to think that's the only way of preserving respect, terrorists are taught to believe what they are or will be doing is for the good of the family/tribe/society therefore the right thing to do.
Just my two cents.

The actual act is based in despair.

The cause of that despair is the bigotry of their Islamic leaders.

To Muslims, all relationships are of dominance/submission.
The natural order of things ordained by Allah is that Muslims must dominate infidels and extort protection money (jizya) under the system of dhimmitude. Any society where infidels are equal to Muslims, or even worse where they have authority over Muslims, is an insult and dishonor to both the Muslims and to Allah himself.

Consequently, Muslims are perpetually seeking to redress the balance by humiliating or defeating the infidels, often in the most repulsive ways, eg sexually assaulting non-Muslim children, and spitting at unaccompanied non-Muslim women. This combination of perceived superiority and sense of automatic unearned entitlement, contrasted with their actual cultural and intellectual inferiority is what makes some of them so arrogantly obnoxious. As the old joke says, a well balanced Muslim is one with a chip on both shoulders.

http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2010/01/everything-you-need-to-know-about-islam.html