Transcript The Advent of Religious Terrorism Chapter Four:

Chapter Four:
The Advent of Religious
Terrorism
Analysis of Religious
Terrorism
Analysis of Religious Terrorism

Religious fanaticism and technology
 Terrorists behave differently from
regular criminals, religious terrorists
behave differently from political
terrorists
 Religious terrorists are not constrained
by the same factors that inhibit other
types of terrorists
Analysis of Religious Terrorism

Holy Terror vs. Secular Terror
 Secular terrorists operate within a dominant
political and cultural framework
 Secular terrorists would rather make allies
than indiscriminately kill their enemies
 Holy terrorists see the world as a battlefield
between the forces of light and darkness
 Holy terrorists see killing as a sacramental act.
Examples can be found in:
 The Koran
 Christian Old Testament
 Hebrew Bible
Analysis of Religious Terrorism

True believers
 Religious terrorists dismiss the religious
views of others
 When a person becomes a true believer
and a religious doctrine sanctions the
use of violence, deified terrorism
results, that is, the act of terrorism
itself is made sacred and holy
Analysis of Religious Terrorism

Other dangerous trends in holy terror
 Religious terrorists are not utilitarian;
that is, they are not a person seeking
the greatest amount of good for the
greatest number of people. Religious
terrorist seek the greatest good for
themselves
 Religious terrorists demonize their
enemies; that is, they equate their
enemies with the ultimate source of evil
The Social Characteristics
of Terrorists:
Juergensmeyer’s Terror in
God’s Mind
The Social Characteristics of Terrorists:
Juergensmeyer’s Terror in God’s Mind

Holy warriors
 The call to violence is a call to purify
the world from the nonbeliever and the
incorrect interpreters of tradition in a
holy war
 Those who do not stand with the holy
warrior are evil
 If the holy warrior falls, the warrior
becomes a martyr for hope; if the holy
warrior is successful, it is a victory for
the deity
The Social Characteristics of Terrorists:
Juergensmeyer’s Terror in God’s Mind

Commonalities of holy warriors from
different faith traditions
 Al Qaeda, the Covenant, the Sword, the
Arm of the Lord
 Manuals begin with theological
passages
 Manuals quote U.S. Army manuals
Religions That Kill: Stern’s
Terror in God’s Mind
Religions That Kill: Stern’s Terror in
God’s Mind

Myths
 A myth is a sacred story that conveys
deep-seated truths; it explains the basis
of belief
 Terrorists use myths as a story to
explain a religious struggle
Religions That Kill: Stern’s Terror in
God’s Mind

The return to the sacred story
 People around the world are returning
to their religious roots as a means to
escape the complexity of modern life
 Old truths in one society may collide
with the truths of another society.
When mythological truths compete,
violence often results
Religions That Kill: Stern’s Terror in
God’s Mind

Changes in the structure of terrorist
organizations
 Stories change the nature of terrorist
organizations, and they help to produce a
number of different group organizations and
styles
 Some center of rigid structures
 Some grow when a number of insecure
people gather around a strong personality
 Some groups are informal, and everybody
has a leadership function
 Some loners loosely affiliate with a group
but tend to act on their own
Religions That Kill: Stern’s Terror in
God’s Mind


Professional terrorists in religious organizations
 Leaders originally join a group because they
believe in the myth, but after a time the
lifestyle produces the need for “professional
behavior”
 The power of the myth becomes less
important, and the day-to-day job of terrorism
grows
The impact of religion on the “lone wolf avenger”
 Lone wolf avengers have a special, narcissistic
relationship with their deities. In essence, they
create a god in their own image
The Logic of Religious
Terrorism
The Logic of Religious Terrorism

Killing and nonkilling religions
 Killing religions were based on the premise
that a deity would help the community in a
time of crisis. In the killing religions, gods
slaughtered enemies
 The nonkilling religions embraced enemies
and developed elaborate ideologies to justify
violence as a last resort
 Nonkilling transcendence is often transformed
into a militant ideology designed to protect a
state or some other social group by this
rationalizing of the use of violence as a last
resort
The Logic of Religious Terrorism

Ordinary and extraordinary worlds
 We use language and logical concepts
to describe the ordinary or everyday
world
 We use symbols and myths to talk
about the extraordinary or spiritual
world
 It is difficult to put extraordinary events
into words, so we are forced to use
everyday language
The Logic of Religious Terrorism

Paul Tillich
 Because we put spiritual experiences in
common language, we “literalize
symbols”- the symbol no longer
represents the sacred experience
because it becomes the experience
 The symbol becomes the object of
worship, and has taken the place of the
sacred
The Logic of Religious Terrorism

The Promised Land
 In the sacred story of the Israelites,
God promises the Hebrews a land
flowing with milk and honey
 The everyday language of the story
makes it look as though God promises
the Israelites a geographical location
 The story is misinterpreted as “God
promised Abraham the state of Israel”
The Logic of Religious Terrorism

The Balkan Peninsula
 The Balkan Peninsula has been
devastated, and the fundamental
reason for the conflict is based on three
interpretations of religion: Islam,
Christian Roman Catholic, and Eastern
Christian Orthodox Church
The Logic of Religious Terrorism

The Turner Diaries

A fictional work by white supremacist William Pierce in
which the main protagonist has a religious experience

The main character, Earl Turner, joins The Order. The
Order gives Turner “The Book”, a “holy” book describing
God’s plan to create a racially pure world in the face of
Jews and people of color

Turner admits to having a transcendent experience, but
he cannot express his thoughts in ordinary language.
He comes to realize that he can only experience the
extraordinary by doing something spectacular, so he
goes on a killing spree

Terrorism and religion are fictionally united, and the
Turner Diaries inadvertently illustrates the “logic” of
religious violence.
Huntington’s Clash of
Civilizations and Esposito’s
Response
Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations
and Esposito’s Response

Huntington’s historical epochs
 Medieval Europe from the Reformation (1517)
to the Thirty Years’ War (1618\-1648)—
Characterized by religious wars
 After the Peace of Westphalia (1648), dynastic
rights and territorial needs dominated
international conflict
 Nationalistic wars after the French Revolution
(1789\-1799)
 In 1918, ideological conflict moved to the
forefront
 Capitalism vs. Communism (until 1991 with
the collapse of the Soviet Union)
 Clash of civilization—post\-Cold War era
Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations
and Esposito’s Response

Eight primary cultural paradigms or civilizations
dominating the modern world
 Western
 Confucian
 Japanese
 Islamic
 Hindu
 Slavic-Orthodox
 Latin America
 African
Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations
and Esposito’s Response


Huntington’s Thesis
 International peace will be threatened in “torn
countries”. These are regions where more
than one civilization exists within an area
John Esposito
 Disagrees with Huntington on Two Levels:
 Culture or civilization is defined by more
than religion
 There is no Islamic civilization
Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations
and Esposito’s Response


Daniel Pipes
 When looking at Islam, the major clash is not
between civilizations, but rather within Islamic
civilization
Thomas Barnett
 Divides the world between a functioning
economic core and an excluded,
nonintegrating gap that is not included in the
global economy. Terrorism comes from the
nonintegrating gap
 Believes Huntington’s clash comes between
economic rather than cultural civilizations
Role of Eschatology
Role of Eschatology

Eschatology
 Derived from the Greek word eschatos,
a concept dealing with the end of all
material and purpose in time and space
 In the Greek Hebrew Bible, it is
interpreted as a final judgment and the
realization of God’s purpose for creation
Role of Eschatology

John Domonic Crossan’s four commonly
held eschatological frameworks
 Ascetic: Self denial
 Apocalyptic: God’s destruction of the
existing order
 Ethical: Calls for followers to embrace
radically moral behavior in recognition
of God’s imminent reign
 Political: Combines expectations of
religious judgment with political action
Role of Eschatology

Political Eschatology
 Daniel Pipes says that traditional Islam is
concerned with political morality
 If one is expecting apocalyptic or ascetic
eschatology, there is no need to worry,
because God will make the final judgment. On
the other hand, some forms of ethical and
almost all forms of political eschatology rely
on the actions of human beings
 Gunter Lewy argues that linking political
beliefs with an end-of-time theology is a
prescription for violence
Two Views of Islam
and Terrorism
Two Views of Islam and Terrorism

Reuvan Paz
 Islamic fundamentalism is related to
political violence
 There is an Islamic terrorism
 Islam sees itself in a global war with
the West
Two Views of Islam and Terrorism

David Kibble
 Islamic fundamentalism seems to be a
threat at face value
 The pockets of Islamic extremism in the
that sustain terrorism Middle East are
isolated and divided
Two Views of Islam and Terrorism


Clarence Bouchat
 American fears and misunderstandings
of Islam make it appear as if
fundamentalists were united and
threatening to gather the Middle East in
a war against the West
Daniel Pipes
 American political leaders have had bad
political advice from academic experts
who told the West not to worry about
militant Islam
Two Views of Islam and Terrorism

John Esposito
 There are a variety of Islamic political
groups, and most of them see violence
as counterproductive
 It is not possible to rely on stereotypes
or classify Islam as a violent religion