Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi
Terror is defined as action or behaviour that seeks to use coercion including the use of force to cause physical harm, illegal use of weapons, use of traditional and modern torture techniques that violate basic human rights endorsed by religion and international conventions in managing human relations.
The term also includes misuse of cultural, social, economic and political differences by use of force and mass killing. The coercive force is generally used with the aim of forcing others into submission, by creating pressure to achieve exclusion or marginalising the targeted group of people. Some people who were not part of the conflict or were not targetted by the terror act can also be affected.
Such coercive non-peaceful human behaviour occurs among individuals, groups and even authorities in a society or between specific communities. Such violence is usually derived from the intersection of different issues that may be related to the same or different environments and this may encourage involvement of other groups.
Terrorism can at times be an action, at others a mere reaction, targeting a specific group or persons. It usually aims to put fear in the hearts of these people. Sometimes the people affected by terrorism are not its main targets, but are used as a means for affecting another party and make them involve in conflicts which are not part of it.
The first party targeted by terrorism is usually the weaker one and this is one of the reasons that makes it a target of terrorists. While the other party in the conflict and the real target for the terrorist act is usually stronger and this make the terrorists avoid direct conflict with it.
There is misunderstanding as far as the relationship between Islam and terrorism is concerned. This misunderstanding has become like a snowball, particularly when it comes to international media. This media was reformulated against the background of the complications created after the Arab Spring and the revolutions sparked in the main squares, streets of Arab countries with slogans of freedom, justice and democracy.
The stereotype image of Islam, which is a religion of equity, tolerance, mercy, diversity, dialogue, forgiveness, and peace without differentiating between Islam and hard-line religious groups. Extremist groups use the teachings of Islam, in many cases in a distorted way. This is against the religion itself.
This media did not focus on the role despotism and despotic regimes played in promoting and publicising extremism and terrorism against political justice and peoples’ demand to take part in their national issues and the right to determine their fate through democratic approaches.
Now, there are only two options in the region: Dictatorship like the case of Syria, on one hand, and Jihadist and extremist terrorist groups, such as the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Houthis and Al Qaeda.
The Arab world nowadays either faces state terrorism or terrorism by extremist groups and sometimes both together.
Terror is defined as action or behaviour that seeks to use coercion including the use of force to cause physical harm, illegal use of weapons, use of traditional and modern torture techniques that violate basic human rights endorsed by religion and international conventions in managing human relations.
The term also includes misuse of cultural, social, economic and political differences by use of force and mass killing. The coercive force is generally used with the aim of forcing others into submission, by creating pressure to achieve exclusion or marginalising the targeted group of people. Some people who were not part of the conflict or were not targetted by the terror act can also be affected.
Such coercive non-peaceful human behaviour occurs among individuals, groups and even authorities in a society or between specific communities. Such violence is usually derived from the intersection of different issues that may be related to the same or different environments and this may encourage involvement of other groups.
Terrorism can at times be an action, at others a mere reaction, targeting a specific group or persons. It usually aims to put fear in the hearts of these people. Sometimes the people affected by terrorism are not its main targets, but are used as a means for affecting another party and make them involve in conflicts which are not part of it.
The first party targeted by terrorism is usually the weaker one and this is one of the reasons that makes it a target of terrorists. While the other party in the conflict and the real target for the terrorist act is usually stronger and this make the terrorists avoid direct conflict with it.
There is misunderstanding as far as the relationship between Islam and terrorism is concerned. This misunderstanding has become like a snowball, particularly when it comes to international media. This media was reformulated against the background of the complications created after the Arab Spring and the revolutions sparked in the main squares, streets of Arab countries with slogans of freedom, justice and democracy.
The stereotype image of Islam, which is a religion of equity, tolerance, mercy, diversity, dialogue, forgiveness, and peace without differentiating between Islam and hard-line religious groups. Extremist groups use the teachings of Islam, in many cases in a distorted way. This is against the religion itself.
This media did not focus on the role despotism and despotic regimes played in promoting and publicising extremism and terrorism against political justice and peoples’ demand to take part in their national issues and the right to determine their fate through democratic approaches.
Now, there are only two options in the region: Dictatorship like the case of Syria, on one hand, and Jihadist and extremist terrorist groups, such as the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Houthis and Al Qaeda.
The Arab world nowadays either faces state terrorism or terrorism by extremist groups and sometimes both together.
