The Changing Faces of TerrorismBy Professor Adam Roberts
The oft-repeated statement 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter' reflects genuine doubts about what constitutes 'terrorism'. Sir Adam Roberts surveys the ever-changing definition of terrorist activity, including mass murder of civilians exemplified by the events of September 11...
The attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11 confirmed that terrorism had acquired a new face. Terrorists were now engaged in a campaign of suicide and mass murder on a huge scale. Previously it had been possible to believe that there were limits beyond which even terrorists would not go. After the thousands of deaths on September 11, it was evident that at least one group would stop at nothing.
Terrorism was not always like this. Its history is as much European as Middle Eastern, and as much secular as religious. Far from being wilfully indiscriminate, it was often pointedly discriminate. Yet there are some common threads that can be traced through the history of terrorism. What happened on September 11 was a sinister new twist in an old story of fascination with political violence.
Terror during the French Revolution © The word 'terrorism' entered into European languages in the wake of the French revolution of 1789. In the early revolutionary years, it was largely by violence that governments in Paris tried to impose their radical new order on a reluctant citizenry. As a result, the first meaning of the word 'terrorism', as recorded by the Académie Française in 1798, was 'system or rule of terror'. This serves as a healthy reminder that terror is often at its bloodiest when used by dictatorial governments against their own citizens.
Terror during the French Revolution © The word 'terrorism' entered into European languages in the wake of the French revolution of 1789. In the early revolutionary years, it was largely by violence that governments in Paris tried to impose their radical new order on a reluctant citizenry. As a result, the first meaning of the word 'terrorism', as recorded by the Académie Française in 1798, was 'system or rule of terror'. This serves as a healthy reminder that terror is often at its bloodiest when used by dictatorial governments against their own citizens.
My View
After reading this article, I realised how much terrorism had changed in the course of time. It's roots can be traced all the way back to the late 1700s, first recorded by Académie Française. Initially, terrorism meant a system or rule of terror and often at its worst when used by dictorial governments against their own citizens and one example was the terror during the French Revolution when violence was used in order to implement a new order which the citizens were not happy about. Now in the present, terrorism is no longer the same as the past. The scale of violence is not determined by dictorial governments using violence on their own citizens but instead, brought to a whole new dimension where terrorism is no longer determined by governments but in groups or large organisation wher acts of violence with the intention to cause fear are committed against civilians for their own political or other ideological goals. Instead of using violence to implement new orders, it has now become an unconventional warfare where these acts of terrorism is used or attempted in order to force political change by convincing a government or population to agree to demands, thus also destabilizing the existing government.
Terrorism has long been outlawed by all countries therefore governments are out of the picture when it comes to modern times terrorism. quoting from the article 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter', it is indeed difficult to fully understand what constitutes terrorism. After all, people who we label as terrorists may not think of themselves as terrosrists and that their acts are according to the wills of their gods. But come to think of it, when people who label themselves as freedom fighters commit acts of terror of extreme large scale violence such as the September 911 incident or the bali bombings, they totally disregard the safety of the non-combatant civilians. They have forgotten that their goals are to force political change and by killing unarmed, innocent civilians, they show the world that their acts of terrorism are merely cowardly acts used in the hope of convincing or forcing the government to give them what they want. However from past incidents, these acts of terrorism not only did it not destabilize the government but instead gel the government closer to the people, all working together to fight terrorism. Terrorists these days do not seem to be aware that their demands will not be granted and never will. So instead of giving it up altogether, they have resorted to taking hostages from other countries and threatened contries with the lives of the civilians. I must admit that i applaud the courage of the hostages' family and the government for handling the situation so well in the recent korean hostage saga.
In order to fight terrorism, many measures are taken to prevent them from happening. Tighter security in airports, more police patrol around vulnerable places but most importantly , i feel is constant vigilant and cooperation of citizens. We as citizens need to always be alert for suspicious activity and cooperate with the government, as they are the ones we must trust for our security. In this modern day, terrorism is no longer at its bloodiest when used by dictatorial governments against their own citizens but bloodiest when one society is unstable and do not trust their governments. It is not easy to fight terrorism but I believe that together as the people of our countries, we can fight it.
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